Havana Journal Inc produces this Cuba Select ranking report to identify and quantify the top Cuba related websites in the world. We like to recognize Players in the Cuba arena for their hard work and this review allows us to compare our presence in relation to these other sites. We also produce this report in order to provide advertisers with a top level view of advertising placement opportunities in the Cuba arena.
Our first Cuba Select review of Cuba websites was done way back in June 2007. Here is the 2009 Cuba Select Ranking Report published by Havana Journal Inc. dated January 1, 2009.
Here’s how we put the report together:
1. Obtaining the initial list of candidates: I have a tool that will give me the top 40 search results for Google, Yahoo and MSN’s Live search results. I searched for the keywords Cuba, Havana and Habana. We also searched Google.ca and Google.co.uk. The initial list was pared down by eliminating duplicates, newspaper links, university websites, government websites, and other websites that are not privately owned. We then further eliminated websites where Cuba content was only a small portion of the website like general travel forums, travel guides and the like. We also eliminated Cuba related restaurant websites, cigar sites and lodging sites… none would make it to the top of the list anyway.
We were left with a list of several dozen Cuba related websites that were worthy of running our analysis on. The final report contains 24 websites. Those lower than 24 did not provided reliable enough statistics because the traffic was too low or the size of the site was too small. We did not start out with any set number. We just cut the list at the most appropriate number. However, if anyone reading this report thinks that we missed a website and would like to submit one for review, we are happy to do so and will gladly add it to the list if it ranks high enough to be at least #25.
2. Running the numbers: As you can see, many hours of work went into assembling this Cuba Select Ranking Report with information such as:
Alexa Rank
Alexa Rank order
Compete Rank
Compete Rank order
Quantcast Rank
Quantcast Rank order
Alexa + Compete + Quantcast average
Alexa + Compete + Quantcast order
Compete Monthly Visitors
Compete Monthly Visitors order
Quantcast US Visitors per Month
Quantcast US Visitors per Month order
Back Links
Back Links order
Number of Pages
Number of Pages order
Google Page Rank
Default Language
Accepts Advertising
DMOZ Listings
Wikipedia Mentions
For some reason Quantcast numbers were not available for some sites so N/A is noted where applicable. We welcome questions and suggestions regarding ranking criteria, methodology and the like.
3. Congratulations and New Cuba Select Sites: I would like to congratulate the other 23 websites for making the Cuba Select cut. It takes a vast amount and variety of resources to build and maintain large websites.
The following websites were added to the list that were not on our June 2007 report:
AfroCubaWeb.com
CubaGenWeb.com
TheRealCuba.com
We congratulate them for jumping into the top 24 Cuba Select rankings.
Several websites did not make it back for a couple reasons, first we tightened up the criteria in order to get more reliable results and second we shortened the list from 32 Cuba Select websites to 24. All sites from the June 2007 report were re-evaluated but did not rank higher than those in the top 24 results.
4. HavanaJournal.com Placement among 24 Cuba Select honorees:
Alexa Rank - 342,407
Alexa Rank order - #7
CubaWeb.cu**
Cubanet.org*
BabaluBlog.com
DTCuba.com**
Cuba-Junky.com
AfroCubaWeb.com
HavanaJournal.com
**run by the Cuban government
*receives USAID and NED funding
Compete Rank - 107,860
Compete Rank order - #5
TasteOfCuba.com
BabaluBlog.com
CubaWeb.cu**
Cubanet.org*
HavanaJournal.com
Quantcast Rank - 62,895
Quantcast Rank order - #4
Cubanet.org*
TasteOfCuba.com
CubaWeb.cu**
HavanaJournal.com
Alexa + Compete + Quantcast average - 171,054
Alexa + Compete + Quantcast order - #4
CubaWeb.cu**
Cubanet.org*
TasteOfCuba.com
HavanaJournal.com
Compete Monthly Visitors - 14305
Compete Monthly Visitors order - #7
CubaWeb.cu**
BabaluBlog.com
TasteOfCuba.com
Cubanet.org*
TheRealCuba.com
AfroCubaWeb.com
HavanaJournal.com
Quantcast US Visitors per Month - 20,800
Quantcast US Visitors per Month order - #5
BabaluBlog.com
Cubanet.org*
TasteOfCuba.com
CubaWeb.cu**
HavanaJournal.com
Back Links - 569
Back Links order - #5
BabaluBlog.com
Cubanet.org*
TheRealCuba.com
NetForCuba.org
HavanaJournal.com
Number of Pages - 10,100
Number of Pages order - #5
Cubanet.org*
BabaluBlog.com
CubaMania.com
DTCuba.com**
HavanaJournal.com
Google Page Rank - 6
Default Language - English
Accepts Advertising - Yes
DMOZ Listings - 10
Wikipedia Mentions - 31
...and the top 24 Cuba Select sites as of January 1, 2009 in alphabetical order are:
AfroCubaWeb.com
BabaluBlog.com
Cuba.com
Cuba.TC
CubaGenWeb.org
Cuba-Junky.com
CubaMania.com
Cubanet.org*
CubanFoodMarket.com
Cuba-Pictures.com
CubaWeb.cu**
DTCuba.com**
GoCuba.ca***
HavanaJournal.com
LaHabana.com
MyCubanStore.com
NetForCuba.org
Netssa.com
SuperCubaTravel.com
TasteOfCuba.com
TheRealCuba.com
USACubaTravel.com
VacacionarTravel.com**
WebHavana.com
* USAID and NED funded
** Run by the Cuban government
*** Run by Canadian government
Congratulations to all honorees for your hard work, vision and passion.
You can view all the raw numbers and order by various criteria at our 2009 Cuba Select Ranking Report published by Havana Journal Inc. dated January 1, 2009.
