Yeah, yeah, yeah it’s on the forums, it’s on mailing list, I hear it from my co-workers at the Search Marketing Group, all talking about I got PR this, I got PR that. PR updates were happening since January 2. The problem though with that update was a lot of sites were actually losing PR, like PR7 and PR6 sites were getting PR0, and also missing in the SERPs. But the funny thing about it, it was happening on the homepages of sites and not on the inside pages. It took about a week for these sites to get fixed. Right now we are now on the 3rd week of the PR updates and this is when I noticed a lot of people talking. Co-workers, other bloggers, forum posters, it’s like the majority just noticed updates 2 days ago. But this was actually ongoing since January 2 as reported on other sites. As for my sites, I have a lot of PR0′s turning into PR4′s which I am not surprised with the work I have put into them. But the my PR6 site became PR5. My lucky PR7 was just lucky last October was just really a lucky PR7, it is now back to PR0. Generally, still all good.

Popularity: 2% [?]

After my site has been high on Google and nowhere on Yahoo and MSN, I decided to make changes and use my other domain to try to make they go up in Yahoo and MSN by actually doing the following:

1. Decreasing keyword density – in this SEO contest, I have seen the higher sites in Yahoo and MSN actually has lesser keyword density than the top sites in Google. I decided to decrease the keywords. And tried talking about a wide variety of SEO topics and not just Ituloy AngSulong.
2. Varying link text in link building – Links that are all the same may penalize you for artificial link building. I started varying link text.
3. Add more links from different class C IP – Maybe not really a super big factor, but with link exchanges, directory submissions, and other link deals on various servers may help me a bit more than coming from all of my own stuff.
4. Adding more links to inside pages – Making topics interesting enough to pass on instant messengers and hopefully people will get hooked on the bait where some actually did. Having links all to the homepage is too spammy. I tried hard to come up with a natural audience and fan base.

After doing this, rankings did increase in Yahoo and MSN. But for some reason, looks like Google is starting to drop me again at a slow but steady rate. It is moving slow but I see a down trend. To increase my ranking in Google, I believe I need to work on my link building again. Probably a download and tool bait again, just 1 more within the last 30 days of the SEO contest. Just enough to give another Google boost. I believe internal linking with a higher density will help me in Google but I’m afraid my Yahoo and MSN will put me down again.

After Jason Torres has tagged me to share my SEO contest techniques, I will give it a few more weeks to test what I am up to and will share the techniques I used before the contest ends. But so far, what I have been observing is, Yahoo and MSN seem to be putting my rankings down for keyword density being too high, too much inbound links to the homepage, and all with the same link text. Google seems to be more forgiving lately with a bunch of links all of the same kind and keyword spamming seem to still help Google to some extent. But that is just my observation. And this website may be an isolated case.

Google, Yahoo and MSN are trademarks of their respective owners.

Popularity: 23% [?]

When you got to take a crap, you just got to go. Go when you got to go. It is something that happens to everyone. Everyone has to take a crap once in a while where everyone has different frequencies in going. And sometimes it is just a time waster. So why not still be slightly more productive by learning more SEO? Like printing ebooks and leaving them in the bathroom. So at least time is not just wasted but you learn more. So this is what I read when in the restroom. And if you read the same magazine already, and got the free subscription for 1 year, don’t forget to renew.

Popularity: 3% [?]