How to Escape the Rat Race of Love, Courtship and Relationships

Broken hearts, empty promises, nostalgic feelings, and the longing to be love and be loved again. These are some of the now common phases of life that we go through. It seems normal to go through courtship, to have an 'In a Relationship' or 'It's Complicated' status in Facebook. Sadly, it also seems normal to have your heart broken and charge it to experience. Don't get trapped in the rat race of love, courtship and relationships.

Landing Page Optimization

Eight seconds. That is all the time you have to capture a person’s attention, according to The Associated Press. Busy schedules and non-stop media barrage are quickly taking up your potential customers’ attention. You have just eight seconds to make a solid impression and get them to your next step. In the digital world, this super, most important first impression is called your landing page.

Bound by Chains: How to Break free from Sin and Hell

I admit, this is not a popular topic. Not in this day and age. No matter how you pepper it with soft, comfortable words, hell is a place that will always signal horror, regret, damnation and eternal suffering to each of us. There are things that we don't see - but oh how we feel it. And its effects extend to our physical, financial, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual life.

Keyword Research, Targeting and Placement

Content Marketing and SEO are becoming tighter and tighter buddies. Special thanks to Google. And hey, it's not so bad when you're the end-user. There's more relevant, high-quality content because of all the content marketing that's happening. If you think you have great content that people should read and it's not happening, this post is what you are missing.

Confessions of a Christian Computer Games Addict

There are tons of people like me. You may not know it but your son or daughter, your brother or your sister, your neighbor, your cousin - we are all somehow in the same boat, rowing on the same strange ocean, against the same tide. I was once a computer game addict. This is my confession.

Entrusting Responsibility to New Leaders

I'm in that time of my life when there is a need to raise up leaders in the team. I'm finally finding out that it is not an easy task. In fact, it is quite difficult. It demands a lot from us. For this post, I will discuss the first crucial requirement that we have to give our up-coming leaders.

The Five-Step Process of Training People

I think it's high-time to start a new category in God and You - one about leadership. I’ve written a handful before but this time God is taking me to new levels about leadership – especially now that our team over at SEO Hacker has grown to about 15 people.

Sean & Apple - Our Story and Engagement

Apple and I got engaged last February 9. Just to explain, in Chinese tradition, there is something we call 'Ting-hun' which is how we celebrate a betrothal between a man and woman. It is a grand ceremony involving a reception, jewelries, exchanging of food, goods, and other respects between families. This is my story behind all that God has done leading up to our engagement ceremony. I basically grew up in a family that is in the middle-class. I praise God for my dad who is a great provider. We never lacked any necessary thing - food, shelter, clothes, you name it. I praise God for my mom who is a great supporter and wife to my dad. The deal was for me to be 'on my own' after I graduate. Since I didn't do too well at school because of my addiction to computer games, 'on my own' came in a little too early in my life. I remember there was a point in my life when I ate Skyflakes (a brand of crackers) for lunch and dinner while I was working in Ortigas area (I live in Las Pinas area by the way). It wasn't because I enjoyed eating Skyflakes so much. It's because I had no money and a bunch of Skyflakes would cost me only 18 pesos. I commuted from Las Pinas to Ortigas every day. I would walk outside our village, rode 1 trycicle, then a jeepney, then a bus, then the MRT, then I would walk around a good 20 minutes to work. Going home was not much different - I would walk to the MRT, ride it, ride a bus, ride a jeepney then the trycicle then walk back home. My shoes were with me for 3 long years - the soles grew thin to the point of my feet being able to feel pain if I stepped on a rock. I couldn't afford buying new ones. I was paid a salary of 6,000 pesos a month for working sometimes from 6am-12am. I told myself that if I were to get married to a girl, I would look for a girl whose family had less money than we had - so that I wouldn't have to provide for a Ting-hun and a huge wedding. I told myself that I wouldn't be able to marry by my dream age of 25 but I'll still try to work hard so I could. I met Apple in a Singles retreat in our local church. Big 5 retreat. There were 1,130 attendees during that retreat. I was in that retreat for one purpose alone. I accompanied my friend - a baby Christian - to attend Module 1. I usually facilitate a Module 2 group, but that time I attended Module 1 with my friend. I wanted to give that time and money (I paid for my friend's retreat fee) to God - to help my friend know more about who God is. Apple was about to go back to her room on the last night of the retreat. I was getting to know people - introducing them to this blog (yes, I was already blogging in God and You during that time). Our eyes met, and as I did with everyone else, I also approached her and introduced this blog to her. We talked about philosophy, we talked about ourselves, we talked about God. It was a good night. I started courting her but in the middle of it all, I just wasn't her type of guy. And God decided it wasn't the right time. I got busted. I'm not going to hide it from you. It was awfully painful. And I couldn't understand it then - but God had a wonderful plan going on. During that time I was working in HP (based in Ortigas - again), and it was at that time that God led me to start an SEO business (which I practiced here in God and You blog). It was at this time that I completely enjoyed being single - helping out in ministry, going on adventures scuba diving (for free since I had a scuba diving company for a client), and being able to buy real meals and new shoes! God is so good! God brought me and Apple back in touch when I served in an event of our local church at Shang-rila hotel in front of the HP building where I worked at. I met her dad there as I ushered people in the event. We talked about their company website and SEO - and he asked me to talk with Apple about it. I was heavy-hearted because honestly I didn't want to do their website anymore but my friend (the baby-Christian whom I accompanied in the retreat) encouraged me that I should. He told me to keep my word. So I did. I met up with Apple and I asked if we could talk. God opened the doors for us again. And the rest as they say.... Will be blogged for another time. What I want to point out is, I never imagined these things would come to pass. Only by God's grace. Looking back, everything that happened in my life with Apple - our love story - is written by the hand of the Lord. There were a lot of close-calls, a lot of impossibilities and miracles. You see, before our Ting-hun happened, I had a client who has failed to pay up for more than 10 months. That was a considerable amount. Apple and I prayed that if God really wanted our Ting-hun to push through, the client would pay up. God told us that it was time. At the exact moment, the client paid up - and I was able to use that money to provide for all the expenses of our Ting-hun. Before, I never imagined that I would have my own Ting-hun. Today, that event has passed. Looking back, everything I have lifted up to God - whether it's money, time, effort, goals, dreams, etc. God has blessed me back - in grand ways that I could not even begin to imagine. It is such a joy to share this story to you. A story that is impossible without God. A story that is truly God's work. And as astounding as it seems - a story that Apple and I can call our own. All glory, honor, praise and recognition be to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. I am excited for what is to come! via h3sean.com

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The New SEO Era: 5 New Grounds to Avoid Extinction

SEO is an ever-changing industry. We all know it. Not long ago, SEO used to simply be about keywords, then it became about links, then it became about all that plus social signals, plus site speed, plus less ads above the fold, plus, plus, plus. So what do we really need to consider in this new era of SEO?

How to Overcome Jealousy

Jealousy. For many of us who have finished school and are now at work, we think jealousy is so High School. For some men, being jealous is a girl thing. Still for others, it's for immature people. As for me, I look at jealousy so much differently after attending one Bible Study 3 years ago. Have you ever been annoyed by someone who has done nothing wrong to you? Have you ever had that feeling of not wanting to associate yourself with someone but there is no apparent reason as to WHY? That my friend, is jealousy. Sadly, it's not just for women and does not die after high school. This article is for men and women out there who have avoided a number of people because of "not knowing why". It is also for brothers and sisters in Christ to remember that God is never pleased when jealousy creeps in your relationships. And more so, this article speaks to remind WHAT WE SHOULD DO when we are humble enough to ADMIT that we are jealous. Jealousy as wikipedia defines is: "an emotion that refers to negative feelings towards someone". It pertains to feelings such as insecurity, fear and anxiety. And because we are humans, we normally wouldn't want to feel inferior or less able compared to others. This is of course, thanks to our logical, most of the time selfish and sometimes unreasonable, hard to please ego or pride. So, we avoid people who tend to bring about these 'feelings' and say, "I just don't like her.", "There's something about him that pisses me off." Creates a Gap Needless to elaborate, this negative emotion separates potential best friends to become strangers to each other. It feeds on our pride that we are better off without that person. And tells us it's because there's something wrong with him or her. Jealousy makes sure that no relationship will grow out of both parties, thus, NO IMPACT, NO GROWTH. Where did it all start? "Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" - Genesis 3:1 "The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” - Genesis 3:12-13 The serpent used Eve's emotions (a delight, good for food) and crawled its way to feeding on her curiosity (your eyes will be opened) and pride (you will be like God). And then when God confronted them, they passed the bucket to one another and started pointing fingers. Result: GAP between man and woman, GAP between man and his work. And ultimately, GAP between God and His masterpiece - you and me. How then can God be pleased when there's a gap? What to do? 1. Be Masters of Your Emotions Writing from experience, I once avoided a girl who was close to Sean (my fiancee) before we met. I avoided her because I know (women's intuition) that this girl likes Sean. She's committed to the Lord, pretty, spontaneous, etc. I never admitted it to myself but because God asked me to write about jealousy, I have to admit this to you that I was, in fact, jealous. (covers face! @Sean.. sshhh) But God being Sovereign, Perfect and delightfully, a Gentleman, orchestrated an event for us (me and this girl) to sing together. In this event, I got to know her better, enjoyed her company and there, became friends. :) I have been impacted by her servant heart, blessed by her devotions and more. 2. Be Proactive Know and remember that the people in your life are there for a purpose. And if you don't know it, then focus on this one thing - IT'S ALL ABOUT GOD. Not your feelings, not your thoughts. GOD. So glorify Him and please Him even by just being kind. Start a conversation. Offer her your seat at the lunch table. Let him cue first before you. You will be surprised how God will bless your obedience. 3. Remember who you are You are a child, friend, ambassador of the King of Kings! Step up to who you truly are supposed to be. Jealousy kills opportunities to be a friend and to please God. Don't let it happen. via h3sean.com

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Google Analytics Tutorial for Beginners

Google Analytics is one of the best tools you can freely use to measure and improve your website. It deals with your visitors, user activity, dwell time metrics, incoming search terms, and what have you. Thus far, we have compiled a series of tutorials for you to jump-start your use of Google Analytics:

How God Understands Your Loss

Have you ever lost something? Before you did, did you look for it with all your heart, strength and mind? Frustrating, isn't it? I remember when I was still studying and I couldn't find an assignment I did days ago for our Chemistry subject. Back then, this professor was not only my class adviser, she was also our batch adviser and need be to mention, the most TERROR teacher I've met. No kidding, even my mom was afraid of her! So going back, I couldn't find my assignment.

How you can use Social Media to Impact the World

February is a busy month. I just finished my talk in UST's PRISM event while I was preparing for a talk to the new Henry Sy Sr. hall in DLSU. It was the Economics Leaders Congress and I had the great privilege to be one of the speakers there. I talked about How you can Use Social Media to Impact the World. The event started with a talk from mr. Francis Kong Then the seminar broke out into groups and the youth leaders went to their respective interests. It was an intimate crowd for me. Intimate but jolly and cooperative. I talked about who I am and what my skills, passions and profession is - which led me to my influence (God and You blog). I explained that this is my impact to the world. We are unique - there is no other person exactly like yourself. We all have unique imprints in our world today. Afterwards, I explained the logical outworkings of the social networks to the crowd. I started with Facebook's EdgeRank, moving forward to Twitter's TunkRank and lastly, Google+'s impact to the Search Engine Results Page. If you're interested to book me for a talk, seminar or event, check out my speaking portfolio here or send me an email through this contact form and let's see what we can do: [contact-form-7 id="6129" title="Book Sean Si for a Talk"] Sincerely, Sean Patrick Si SEO Hacker Consultant via seo-hacker.com

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Building Romance from a Different Blueprint

Every love story has a unique blueprint - a fingerprint, if you would. Some build it from an encounter, some from a character, some from a belief. But there is the question of on what blueprint do you build a life-long romance?

How to Track your Engaging Posts in Google Analytics

I'm pretty sure that you're getting a good number of users pouring in to your website. The real question is, how many people really do read your stuff? How many of your users actually go through your webpages and take time to understand what you're talking about? How do you track that with Google Analytics?

Leave No Room for Discouragement | God and You

You must be saying, "But we cannot avoid discouragements!" True, in fact, as much as we cannot predict what will happen in a year, a month or a week, we cannot assume we will not experience anything discouraging in a DAY. But how do we react when we are discouraged? Usually, how long do you stay feeling the way you do after the particular incident "caused" you to be discouraged?

How to Control your Desires

1 Corinthians 10:31 says, "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." I've read this passage a number of times but it was only last night that it made sense to me.

How to Track Outbound Links using Google Analytics

For sure you have some outbound links in your website going to other websites for various reasons. We sometimes cite other websites as sources of fun, information, or attribution, etc. You can track which outbound links are clicked by your users by adding a short, simple code in your Google Analytics Tracking code.

How to Effectively Choke a Relationship

Lots of relationships start out well. A couple goes on a date or two, they like each other, they get engaged and eventually get married. It's the happiest day of their lives! Six months later, they end up miserable and want to get a divorce. What happened?

Events Tracking Tutorial in Google Analytics

Lots of things can happen in a website today. You can play a video, subscribe to a newsletter, even play flash games! Would you be able to track if your users are engaging in these activities in your website with Google Analytics? With the usual tracking code, you can't. So let's make some tweaks and make sure you're tracking these valuable interactions shall we?

How to Set-Up Goals and Funnels in Google Analytics

What’s your goal? Google Analytics Goals and Funnels Visualization are the perfect tools to identify how your goals are performing and how you can improve your website’s strategy. Websites have goals. It could be an online store or a subscription site, whatever it may be, it’s important to have good goals in a website. But knowing the progress in your goals is totally different.

The Reason Behind Break-ups and Divorce

So many break-ups and divorces are happening today. Some years ago, people would be ashamed to admit a break-up, much more a divorce. However, nowadays there are people who, without a second thought, would tell you that they've had 3 divorces or 5 previous break-ups. The sad part about it is that it's becoming the norm and society has accepted this openly. What are the reasons behind it?

Stop Smelling Like Spam: Effective SEO Outreach

For link builders and SEOs, nothing is more frustrating than sending out emails only to sit idly by and twiddle our thumbs while shooting off the odd follow up email every so often. We have no way of knowing if our fragile bytes of text found their way into a comforting inbox just waiting to be opened like a present in December, or if they are experiencing a baptism by fire and duking it out with free online gambling ads and prescription medication in the spam folder.

Guarding Your Heart

Our emotions are powerful decision makers. It is more often used to make a purchase and justify why we need it. It move us as a person. It is a powerful force that can even drive our actions. The Bible often pertains to our emotions as our 'heart'. The Bible also tells us to guard it. How do we do it?

Google Analytics Tutorial

So you're a marketer and you work well with data. Data verifies strategies. Real data tells you how your users react to you. Real data should be the one directing where your SEO campaign should go. The closest place you can find your real data is in Google Analytics. Here's where it gets interesting.

How Do You Know What Is Right or Wrong If It's not in the Bible?

There comes a point in our Christian walk when we get confused whether God is pleased with our actions or not. No, I'm not talking about that sin you find so hard to deal with. Nor am I referring to that struggle you're constantly battling with going 3 years now. I'm talking about issues that were not EXPLICITLY talked about in God's Word.

Developing your SEO Sense

Ever wonder how some SEO specialists do a conclusive analysis within a minute or two of whether a site is ranking well or not? I call it SEO sense - it's the ability to know each and every little detail about a website and use it to arrive at a certain conclusion of a site's SEO.