Thursday, February 01, 2007 Toral: Building a credible website By Janette Toral Digital Filipino
RECENTLY, I found myself spending more and more time blogging. With lots of information available, I believe it would be a waste not to share these to as many people as possible.
This is where blogging can be a powerful tool. When one has built substantial content over a period of time, there will be more site visitors who have discovered you when using search engine websites like Yahoo, Google or MSN.
Last week, I discovered the relevance of content development through Google PageRank — a tool that measures the importance of a website based on its Content and linkbank, among other parameters.
I have two very new blog sites that just reached Google PageRank 4. One was created last Oct. 29 while the other last Dec. 16. The first one is my entry to the Ituloy AngSulong contest. This one is packed with content and I’ve exerted effort in generating relevant links through other blogs and websites. Getting a PageRank 4 is certainly a reward I believe I earned.
The other one though caught me by surprise. This is for the DigitalFilipino. comWeb Awards blog (http://digitalfilipinowebawards. blogspot.com). There were 37 posts in it, reflecting the various mechanics and requirements. But the traffic I got for it was not substantial and I was disappointed. That is why I was overjoyed when I realized that it hit a Google PageRank 4 as well.
If you are new in this thing, you might wonder why this PageRank stuff is important. There are several reasons for it to be so. As I see it, a high PageRank shows how valuable your website is in terms of traffic and content.
Advertisers use that as a barometer in assessing the value of your website for advertisement placement.
For DigitalFilipino.com Web Awards blog, I remember planning each and every post by ensuring that the labels used have high search query volume using keyword suggestion tools.
Here are some lessons I’ve picked up:
* First, plan your keywords carefully. Make sure that the keywords you use are actually reflective of the Web page or blog post that you are creating. Don’t just put in any keyword. Make sure to research to ensure that they are indeed one of the most popular keywords that can increase your hits.
* Second, build credible links from other sites. However, make sure that those who link to you have similarities in terms of content. This is where you can join advertising networks to plan your blog and website ads. These are usually text-based that reflect the keywords or phrases with which you want to be known for.
* Third, build good content. Have new content on a weekly basis as that is important. Fresh content can also help in spreading the word about what is happening in your company.
When writing press releases, do so with your customers, and not only the journalists in mind.
Sometimes, what matters to our customers may not matter to journalists. So keep on writing. In the end, the information that you release is meant to achieve a particular objective — making your organization known in the way you want to be perceived.
