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Web Design | Graphic Design | Video Editing | Webmaster Experience
Webmaster Experience
 The Project
In 2006, Emanuel Calso and I created RealtyManila.com as a pet project. Its sole purpose is to market condominium properties of Robinsons Land Corporation. It was designed to feature a limited number of properties which makes it a lot easier to manage than brokerage sites. I worked strictly on the graphics and page layout while Emanuel worked with the coding and the CMS. Since I've worked with Emanuel at Rimat Multimedia since 2002, it was easy for us to coordinate on the project.
Emanuel’s CMS allowed the creation of slideshows for each property. Images and text files were simply uploaded to their appropriate folders through basic FTP. The CMS would then automatically create a slideshow from these uploaded files, complete with image descriptions and the ability to send the slideshow by email. The same CMS also controls a pricelist page which automatically displays uploaded excel files of price ranges.
By 2007, Emanuel became less active with the website due to work constraints. Though I had full time work as well, I somehow managed to have time on RealtyManila.com. Forced by pressure to revise the website and added by minimal contact with Emanuel, I was forced to study on how to work with codes.
Studying Codes
Through thorough evaluation of Emanuel’s codes and with the help of Google, I studied how to use HTML, CSS, Java scripts, PHP and Perl. Working on the codes by myself allowed me to add more features on the website and modify it greatly. The following changes where made by me:
 - For SEO reasons, I removed the slideshow and revise the pricelist page by modifying the CMS. Instead of slideshows, we featured properties on individual page, using anchors for easier navigation.
- CSS was heavily modified to change the initial font design and other visual elements
- Lightbox feature was added for easier viewing of images
- Iframes and pop up windows were implemented to provide multimedia content from other sites.
- “Addthis” was included for social bookmarking and SEO purposes
- The inquiry page was modified to use Form Mailer by Dagon Script, replacing the old and outdated inquiry form. Users now get a confirmation email whenever they send an inquiry.
- Title tags, meta-tags, sitemap and other SEO elements were heavily modified for better search engine results
The Result
By 2009, Link Exchange partnerships were implemented for SEO purposes. At this point, we have at least 130 link exchanges with various websites. Before this, RealtyManila.com’s Page Rank was at “n/a”, and traffic heavily depended on 3rd party advertisement websites. After implementing our SEO campaign, our Page Rank rose to “2”, with other inside pages going up to “3.” Most of the traffic now comes directly from Google and Yahoo Search, with at least 50-70 unique visitors per day (as shown by Google Analytics). WebsiteOutlook.com currently prices RealtyManila.com at $3,900 and with Daily Pageviews of 1316.
Our successful SEO campaign on RealtyManila.com now puts us on Google’s first page whenever the word “Robinsons Land Corporation” is searched, second only to Robinsons’ main company page. This is in contrast to over 70 other real estate agent sites from Robinson. The same can be said when searching for Robinson’s individual properties.
 With the knowledge I've gathered with RealtyManila.com, I created 2 websites on my own. The first is Luxurymanila.com, a brokerage website, which was launched early 2009. The second one is VistaManila.com, a condomnium oriented website for Vista Residences Vertical, which was launched first week of December 2009. Both websites uses a modified CMS which orginated from RealtyManila.com but has a more modern design. All front and backend design was done by me with some consultations with Emanuel. I believe that my new sites are an evolution of the design technique that I believe in: Classic, timeless, and clean. No flashy and ineffective flair, only elegant and functional elements.
Web Design | Graphic Design | Video Editing | Webmaster Experience
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