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Everything you wanted to know about the SEO Halo effect

The halo effect is a cognitive bias that occurs when an individual’s positive or negative traits seem to “spill over” from one area of ​​their personality to another in others’ perceptions of them. Now you must be wondering how this applies to the world of search engine marketing. It’s no secret that it takes more time to rank higher on Google compared to ranking higher on Yahoo and MSN. Yahoo and MSN tend to allow newer websites to rise to the top in a matter of weeks; while Google, on the other hand, will keep you waiting for a new website; this is done to prevent spammers from hogging the top ranks through huge link campaigns.

Therefore, the SEO halo effect takes place when your website gets its first top ranking. It seems that when your website achieves the longed for number one ranking for a popular keyword; to get the following are easier. For example; for my website; SEO for Google; that was the exact phrase I was optimizing for when the website was first launched in January 2005. I spent four months serving directories; write and publish articles every two weeks; and I made sure to post on my blog at least 5 times a week.

I knew I had to run from one pillar to another to get past the “sandbox” Google would put the website in. And in April 2005; my website finally came out “out of the box” and the phrase “SEO for Google” had the website in around the 30’s. I worked hard for another month to get the phrase to the top spot. Finally; after five months of incessant effort; around 1,200 submissions to directories and article publications; all based on the key phrase “SEO for Google”; my efforts paid off.

Aim; now the challenge was to expand other phrases that people would enter to find information about search engine optimization for Google. So; after using wordtracker; I found nine more sentences to follow which are; Google SEO, Google search engine optimization, search engine optimization for Google, technical SEO, Google search marketing, SEO and Google, Google search optimization, Google search engine marketing and Google SEO optimization.

Now; put things in perspective; The competition for the phrase “SEO for Google” wasn’t much when I started; It was around 5 million results. The novel sentences; averaged around 30 million results to compete against. So; My effort to get these new phrases has to be even greater. No; all thanks to the SEO halo effect. Today; all nine sentences mentioned above are in the top 15 on Google and rising. I keep getting directory submissions for new phrases; while every tenth list I will continue to use the original phrase.

I’m sure after reading this information you know all the ins and outs of the SEO halo effect. Go ahead, build on the trust you’ve built with search engines for your top phrases and always look for similar key phrases that can help you rank.

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