All Links Matter
The halo effect is a cognitive bias that occurs when a person's positive
or negative traits seem to "spill over" from one area of their
personality to another in others' perceptions of them. (as defined by
Wikipedia)
So, how does this apply in the world of Search Engine Marketing?
It's no secret that it takes more time to get a top ranking in Google
than in MSN and Yahoo. Yahoo and MSN tend to allow newer sites top
rankings within weeks, while Google will make a new site wait - this is
done to prevent spammers from hogging up the top rankings through
massive link campaigns.
So, the SEO halo effect takes place when your site gets it's first top
ranking. It seems that when your site achieves the much sought after #1
ranking for a popular keyword or phrase, to get the next ones are
easier.
Case and point:
For my site, SEO for Google, that was the exact phrase I was optimizing
for when the site was first launched in January 2005. I spent four
months submitting to directories, writing and posting articles every two
weeks, and I made sure I posted to my blog at least 5 times a week.
I knew I had to do all of this to overcome the "sandbox" that Google
would place the site into. And in April of 2005, the site finally came
"out of the box" and the phrase "SEO for Google" had the site somewhere
around the 30's. It took another month's worth of focused effort to get
phrase to the top spot.
Finally! after five months of continual effort, about 1,200 directory
submissions, and article postings, all based on the key phrase "SEO for
Google", the efforts paid off.
But, now the challenge was to expand on other phrases that people would
enter to find out information on search engine optimization for Google.
So, after using Wordtracker, I found nine more phrases to pursue:
- Google SEO
- Google Search Engine Optimization
- Search Engine Optimization for Google
- Google Search Marketing
- SEO Techniques
- SEO and Google
- Google Search Optimization
- Google Search Engine Marketing
- Google SEO Optimization
Now, to put things in perspective, the competition for the phrase "SEO
for Google" was not very much when I started - about 5 million results.
The new phrases, averaged around 30 million results to compete against.
So, would my effort to get these new phrases need to be even more?
No - thanks to the SEO Halo Effect.
Since Google and the other search engines had already recognized the
site as being the most relevant to the phrase "SEO for Google", other
similar phrases could take advantage of the relationship to the original
phrase. In effect, I could leverage the top ranking for the original
phrase to pull the new phrases up through the rankings without having to
exhort the same amount of effort.
Today, those nine phrases are within the top 15 in Google and climbing.
I continue to get directory submissions for the new phrases, while every
tenth listing I will still use the original phrase.
So, take advantage of the trust you have created with the search engines
for your top phrases, and be sure to always look for similar keyphrases
that can help get you ranked.
-To your online success!
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