Note: Thanks for keeping an eye at the updates at the end. I'll keep editing/adding the hub every now and then.

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It’s now been about a month since the first mention of Sulumits Retsambew, and the SEO contest is fast becoming one of the hotter topics on the Internet. It’s been gaining quite a bit of popularity lately, and has given more than a few web masters the unique chance of testing (and maybe even debunking) some dearly held SEO techniques. Here’s a rundown of what’s been happening with the contest so far.

Massive Response

Perhaps it was a sign of things to come when, within a week of the announcement of the contest, there were already a couple of thousand search results for the keyword phrase. At the time of writing, there are already over 300,000 hits for the magical phrase – and all those sprang up in less than a month’s time! It’s turning into a very fierce battle indeed.

Sites and pages of all form and function have jumped into the SEO contest waters. There are, of course, the usual pages like blogs and news websites. There have also been a couple of unexpected entries that are doing quite swimmingly, but more on that later. Although the race is still anyone’s game at this point, one can’t help but notice that there are a handful of pages leading the rest of the pack.

The Sulumits Scoreboard

Holding on to its position at the very top is sulumitsretsambew.org, a page maintained by a Bosnian computer store employee. He registered his keyword-friendly domain name on the day that the contest was announced, and was one of the first to post the rules for the competition.

Another two keyword-friendly domains in the Top 10 are sulumitsretsambew.biz from Croatia and sulumitsretsambewno.com (That's me), India. Both feature some news items about the ongoing contest as well as miscellaneous SEO tips. Much of the content on both sides contains keywords, so there’s little surprise as to their current position.

Two of the search result leaders are blogs, both based in the Philippines and both discussing topics other than the contest. Another two are websites with some other business: one India-based SEO service provider and one Indonesia-based news website. This Asian-dominated roster of 8 makes up most of the current leader board for the contest so far.

Not the Usual Contest Entries

A couple of rather surprising candidates have also made it into the much coveted first page of search results. One is a Twitter page, which is notable because it used a social networking site, and because it’s the only one for the first few pages. Pages on social networks are often used just for link building, so it’s rather unusual that a page like that would make it to a level like this.

The other atypical entry is SlideShare page with a short presentation on the rules of the contest. Like social networks and YouTube, this kind of page is usually reserved for just link building. Now, this particular SlideShare page promotes one of the other pages in the Top 10. The ironic part of the situation is that the sulumits retsambew slideshow presentation, which was meant to attract links to the main page, has so far garnered a higher rank than the page it was meant to promote.

What’s Been Working So Far?

If one were to look at all the top-ranking pages to date and consider their similarities, a few patterns would come out. For example, inbound links seem to be a major factor in the rankings of many Top 10 sites. Many of them actually request readers and visitors to link back to them, a common practice even in SEO contests of the past.

At the same time, it also seems that content plays a big part in the current state of rankings. Many of the Top 10 sites offer one kind of information or another that would interest readers. In fact, the first two results at the time of writing covered the rules and mechanics of the contest. Two offer SEO and miscellaneous news, while another five regularly post general news updates.

The rules and mechanics of the contest have proven to be very potent little bits of information for attracting links back to a site. A good number of other people actually first heard of the contest from one of the Top 10 pages. Using it right now, however, might not be as good an idea; the competition is already overexposed as it is, and another page covering the exact same rules again isn’t likely to get a lot of links.

It’s been said in the past, and it seems to be proving itself once again for sulumits retsambew: content is king. The common denominator among the top ranking sites – and probably the secret of success for #1 – is content. It’s likely what attracted visitors in the first place, and then pushed those readers to link back to a certain page. As one can clearly see, the stratagem has worked out quite well for those who used it.

What hasn’t worked so well, however, is using keywords in the domain name. There are quite a number of hits for the keyword phrase that have ‘sulumits retsambew’ somewhere in the domain name. And while Google does recognize the keyword nestled in the domain name, it doesn’t seem to be helping; there are still quite a number of keyword-friendly domain names that haven’t done so well yet – including the coveted sulumitsretsambew.com.

Clear Winners

The August 2009 deadline is still four whole months off, so it’s really too early to tell which domains would make it to the first three spots on the SERP. It’s still entirely possible for other pages to topple the current leaders: the current #1 page was dislodged briefly in late March. That’ll take a lot of catching up, though. Many of those pages have been steadily building links and adding content for the past month, and have a whole stockpile of SEO material.

What’s likely to happen, though, is that the winners will have a significant amount of content between them. There’s a historical trend in SEO contests that gives sites with interesting and useful content an advantage over all the rest. The history books are saying that if there’s a weapon to win Sulumits Retsambew, that Excalibur will most probably be content.

Feel free to have latest updates about contest at my contest entry --> http://www.sulumitsretsambewno.com

just to add, I've entered into contest with one more sulumits retsambew - http://www.sunitabiddu.com

Another edit about current leader board.

Hellas is still holding the #1 position.

I, unfortunately, lost my #2 position and .biz entry has replaced me after a sudden drop.

My another entry was able to reach #10 but now dropped to page 5. It is temporary though and prompted to to take some serious steps on contest.

Long lasting reddit entry has also lost its position. Page 1 is shared my most of serious contestants now (except sulumitsretsambew.com, one of the most weird and empty entry without any content but still on #4 :o)

Thanks for keeping an eye at updates. I'll be back soon.

Cheers!