As promised, here now is our list of the 100 Most Popular Philippine Blog Sites of 2010, a complement to our previous post on the 50 Top-Ranked Blogs in the Philippines.
Our original 50 Top-Ranked Blogs post used Alexa traffic rank. For this new list, we measured website popularity using two key factors: Traffic and Engagement. We explain these two below
Website Traffic
Measuring website traffic is no doubt important. Of course, more traffic means more users which leads to higher website engagement and ultimately profits to website owners. However, most bloggers make the mistake of using traffic as sole criteria in judging the popularity of sites.
To see why traffic alone shouldn’t be used as the only criteria, imagine two shopping malls A and B.
Mall A is visited by thousands of people everyday. A big chunk of visitors, however, merely pass by and do not stay long, only using the mall as shortcut to their ultimate destination. Foot traffic in this mall is obviously high, but whether this translates to sales for shops inside the mall is another issue.
On the other hand, Mall B only has half the number of Mall A’s visitors everyday. But compared to Mall A, people in Mall B stay for a longer duration and spend time to visit various shops inside.
Which one, then, is the “better” shopping center: Mall A with thousands of foot traffic but less visitor interaction or Mall B with fewer visitors but higher visitor engagement?
The answer may not be obvious at first glance but this question emphasizes the notion that traffic measurement should be accompanied by an analysis of the quality of visitors.
User Engagement
This is why we complement website traffic, as measured by the number of website visitors, with Engagement metrics such as Pageviews per User, Time on Site, and Bounce Rate, among others. Analyzing these factors gives a website owner insightful information about the relative significance of the site.
How is this useful? Going back to the Mall A and B example, analyzing the quality of traffic gives a potential advertiser an idea in which mall an ad campaign would generate the most buzz. Similarly, a business owner can use traffic and visitor engagement information in determining which mall is better in terms of putting up a new store.
Website Popularity = Traffic + Engagement
We, therefore, utilized the same concept in our analysis of the most popular blogs in the Philippines.
Traffic is equivalent to the estimated number of average Unique Visitors per month in 2010, with data provided by Compete.com.
Engagement is a factor of three metrics taken from the Alexa data:
(1) Pageviews per User – the average number of website pages viewed by a site visitor. Higher Pageviews per User means a site visitor is browsing through several pages on the site, a sign that the blog is useful to the visitor.
(2) Time on Site – how long, in minutes, the average visitor stays on the site. Longer Time on Site means longer interaction period between the site and the user, which could lead to ad conversion or user loyalty.
(3) Bounce Rate – the percentage of visits that consists of only a single pageview. Lower Bounce Rate suggests that the landing page (entry page) was effective and was not a disappointment to the user.
In summary, our measurement model identifies the “Most Popular Blogs” as those websites with the most number of unique visitors with high pageviews per user, long user times on site, and low bounce percentage.
Without further ado, here are the country’s most popular blogs.
Top 100 Most Popular Blogs in the Philippines (2010)
[TABLE=78]
Top 10 Blogs with Most Unique Visitors
- Rickey.org – 128,708 unique monthly visitors
- DailyContributor.com – 93,348
- ChuvaChienes.com – 53,691
- BatangasToday.com – 50,489
- JunAuza.com – 44,651
- JaypeeOnline.net – 44,263
- TheDailyInquirer.net – 39,652
- Jehzlau-Concepts.com – 37,534
- PMPToday.com – 33,949
- Arkhilario.com – 33,123
Top 10 Blogs with Highest Pageviews per User
- Istorya.net – 13.40 pages per user
- Timog.com – 12.90
- MotorcyclePhilippines.com – 7.00
- Sesantos.com.ph – 6.80
- GenSantos.com – 6.60
- ForeclosurePhilippines.com – 6.50
- PinoyMoneyTalk.com – 5.90
- Nierva.com – 5.60
- MelvinBlog.com – 4.80
- FinanceManila.net – 4.50
Top 10 Blogs with Longest User Time on Site
- Istorya.net – 14.93 minutes per user
- ForeclosurePhilippines.com – 14.78
- Sesantos.com.ph – 12.58
- GenSantos.com – 12.26
- Timog.com – 10.95
- MotorcyclePhilippines.com – 10.76
- Nierva.com – 7.37
- MelvinBlog.com – 6.82
- PhilBoxing.com – 5.82
- Bloggista.com – 5.78
Top 10 Blogs with Lowest Bounce Rate
- Lynxjuan.com – 24.7% of visits consisting of only one pageview
- Istorya.net – 25.1%
- Timog.com – 35.0%
- MelvinBlog.com – 35.6%
- ForeclosurePhilippines.com – 36.3%
- GenSantos.com – 36.8%
- AvalonStar.com/blog – 37.2%
- Starmometer.com – 42.3%
- MotorcyclePhilippines.com – 42.5%
- FinanceManila.net – 42.6%
Disclaimer: The figures above are estimates provided by web analytics companies Compete.com and Alexa.com. Actual website data may vary.
If you own or know a blog that you feel should be included in the list, please contact us. Our next update is the 50 Top-Ranked Blogs in the Philippines to be posted in July 2011.
Update: Top 100 Popular Blogs in the Philippines (June 2011 update)
