When In Manila or anywhere in the world and wanting to market your business online, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is one of the key things you need to learn. And with Google constantly updating their search algorithms, what better way to learn SEO then through these top experts from Manila.
Top SEO Experts You Have to Meet in Manila
A few days ago, I was given the privilege to attend the first ever SEO Summit organized by the SEO hacker himself, Sean Si. Besides its goal of teaching SEO specialists and online marketers, the seminar was also organized for the benefit of the 4,264 underprivileged students of Timothy Paez Elementary School. Three of the top SEO experts were there to share their secrets on SEO.
Jacon Acidre: Author of KasiertheSage and expert in link-building
Jason Acidre or better know as Kaiser The Sage is one of the top SEO personalities both here and abroad. He has been featured in multiple SEO blogs including MOZ, Search Engine Journal, Kissmetrics, etc.
Back in his college days, Jason became fond of playing online games. He loved playing so much that he considered himself a “pro-gamer” for 8 years. However, what may seem like a waste of time for most led the way to Jason’s creativity and prepared him in someway for his future in SEO. Jason began SEO in 2010 and he hasn’t stop learning about it since. According to Jason, SEO is an ever-evolving field, it may sometimes be challenging to keep up with the changes but it is definitely not impossible.
During his talk, Jason shared a few concepts about SEO to help online marketers and other SEO specialists get started. The first rule of marketing as he shares is none other than branding. This step is pretty obvious and yet we often are unable to maximize its full potential. Through branding, it is important for us to maximize the most important keywords as well as associate our brands with other entities that may help increase our relevance and authority.
Benj Ariola: A Web Developer’s Journey from Black Hat to White Hat
Benj Ariola started out as a web developer before he slowly entered the world of SEO. He started SEO in 2004 and has since won multiple international SEO contests.
Black hat SEO is one way people make their search rankings go up. It’s a one stop shop. So why doesn’t everyone just do this? Well, simply because it’s unethical and puts your name and website at greater risks. Moreover, using black hat SEO means having to break search engine rules and regulation and possibly result to poor user experience. Now, who would want that right? White hat SEO on the other hand refers to the usage of various techniques and strategies that focus more on the reader and allow online marketers to come up with organic results.
“Benj Arriola’s presentation was based on many of the learning experiences the international conference speaker has experienced in the past, why they worked before and why they no longer work today. He was not advocating blackhat SEO practices and was actually doing the opposite in closing out how good whitehat SEO practices should be done to rank well in search engines. The diverse audience was not disappointed listening to the multi-awarded SEO as the presentation had advanced elements that would please the seasoned SEO professional but also included a brief introduction that helped the novice SEO follow along.”
Sean Si: No SEO background? No problem!
Sean started his website seo-hacker.com in April of 2010. Back then, he had no SEO background yet and was even unsure if what he was doing really worked. Yet, he kept studying and learning. He applied most of his learning on his other site God and You. Sean’s talk was one of my favorites that day. 
“Sean Si’s presentation was more of how he started out as an SEO specialist and how you could too. The main focus of the topic was content marketing and how he used it to build a bootstrap business that generates over $17,000 in gross monthly revenue.”
Several bloggers and online marketers think that content marketing is important because this is what will make us rank higher on Google. Though this may play a part in it, it is not exactly a direct strategy. Content marketing deals with consistency, quality, emotions, etc. Through content marketing, you are able to reach your readers on a more personal and deeper level of engagement. “We do not use content marketing for SEO, we use SEO for content marketing” – Sean Si
SEO Summit 2014
Find out more about the top SEO experts and follow them on their respective sites
Sean Si
Benj Ariola
Jason Acidre
