Build High Ranking Squidoo Lenses - The Complete Guide

We all want to build high quality Squidoo lenses that not only rank high in the SERP's but also rank high in Squidoo categories right? Because after all, these hubpages are valuable sales tools that are pointing back to your affiliate money site right?

Well, openmindz has just the recipe you're looking for.

Ingredients:

1 Part Keyword Rich Squidoo URL: This part is simple, select a squidoo url that fits your primary keyword such as www.squid00.com/your-primary-keyword.html

Hint: Popular Topics always do best.

3 Parts Keyword Research: You're going to have to find a Squidoo lens with a similar topic that ranks well on Squidoo, and then you're going to Click View>Source at the top of your browser page.

Now manually enter all of these keywords into the Tags module of your lens. You should be entering somewhere to the tune of 20-30 or more. Your lens how now been synced for success!

1 Part Title Content: Squidoo wants you to, especially with the Lens Intro Title, keep your titles and sub-titles relevant to the page content. This can be tricky as Squidoo's review system finicky in this department so you have to experiment until you find one that satisfies their filters.

2 Parts Modular Content: Squidoo wants 8 modules or more which can be a ratio of approx. 4/8 text modules, 1/8 video modules, 1/8 feedback modules, and the rest can be those amazon recommendation modules.

Alternatively you can turn video modules into text modules just by adding contextual to it as well. The whole purpose is to get people to give your lens the coveted 5 star rating.

Make each module keyword-rich and NON-SPAMMY. IMPORTANT: Add value with the content, don't sound like you're selling anything (I know that goes against everything we represent, but you have to play by the rules on their platform). Your lens should come across as informing or recommending.

1 Part Outward-Bound Links: Now some people do this differently, so you can experiment and see what works best. You can link to your money site either of three(3) ways with each having a trade-off:

1. Aggressively - right at the beginning of the lens (to insure they will see your link). Example: For more information on blah-blah-blah see "hyperlinked text back to your site".

Pro:Guarantee they will see your link
Con:Squidoo's reviewers don't always like this

2. Non-aggressively - you can place your link at the very end of your module. Since Squidoo lenses are human reviewed, I'm sure they appreciate this method much more than the above..however there is a chance that the reader may not read all the way down to your link. It's your call.

Pro: Squidoo's reviewers appreciate this more subtle approach.
Con: Your reader may never reach your outward-bound link.

3. Passively - you can do this by linking to a youtube video in your video module that contains your site link in the youtube description.

Pro: You go completely under the radar this way.
Con: The reader has a very small chance of ever finding your link unless they clickthrough to the video. Therefore if you choose this method, do all that is possible to highlight the video in your lens and make the video sensational.


2 Parts Images: Squidoo encourages the use of images. Not only that the image should be tagged. So the image should be named after your primary keyword such as acai-berry-image1.jpg. Also I go the extra step and right-click on my jpegs then add tags to the image file itself.

There are two ways to add images. Upload them within the module and use html to display images hosted on a web-server, photobucket or flickr account. Do both. You will be rewarded.

Make sure the images are incorporated very well into the text. The lens should look aesthetically pleasing. When is the last time you read through an ugly lens?

2 Parts Follow-Up Work: What did the mountain climber say to the Billy Goat at the top? Nothing, he didn't get there yet.

You're not done yet. You need to send your lens out to everyone you know and have them give it an honest rating. Don't participate in any ratings exchanges, Squidoo is super-smart and on to these types of schemes. They'll lock the lens in a milli-second and then all that hard work goes down the drain.

Now while that's happening you've got to track your lens ranking on Squidoo which will appear in the upper left-hand corner as something like Ranked #825 in People, #15,724 overall. This should continue to improve. If it's not then lets run a Health-Check from your Dashboard. Squidoo is going to let you know how well your lens was developed in every category I mentioned. Make the necessary changes, and then rinse-wash-and repeat the process.

Remember, Squidoo also wants you to build backlinks to your lens. My previous post explained that pretty well, but also you should be pointing your articles to your Squidoo lens.

1 Parts Updates: Here's the thing. Just as it does with a blog, Squidoo is a form of micro-blogging and daily updates keep the content fresh. Well, I would say you can do as little as removing and adding a period to satisfy the "freshness filter", but in-between you should make real updates to your modules and even add fresh new modules.

Place these ingredients in a large pot and cook on medium-heat until smoothly blended. Allow contents to simmer then taste. Add spice as needed.

With this approach you're going to have a lower-quantity of higher-quality lenses that will actually perform the way you intended.

 

Great post... thanks a lot.

 

thank you indeed for this. Great information for new comer

 

This is a nice post. Thank you

 

Here's some additional information about Squidoo's rules and requirements:
- Featured Lenses - must have 3 or more modules
- SquidDon't Topics - these are not allowed on Squidoo
- Outbound Link Limit - 9 per domain
- The Answer Deck - full of useful guides and tips

The majority of lenses do not need to be reviewed by a human staff member.

 

Thanks you've just alerted me to all the mistakes i've been making on sqidoo. I'll be implementing the changes and wathching the results. Cheers.

 

"as little as removing and adding a period to satisfy the freshness filter", does it work?

 

Nice post, thank for sharing

 

wow! i really appreciate your efforts in posting about it here... i was looking for this info on Squidoo

 

Thanks for this! Will apply and get back to you for sure.

 

brilliant...thanks for share
just realized that

 

Wow, that was really a complete guide. Although I've got accounts on squidoo, and I have read it's rules still I didn't got their points there, but as what you have posted there, it seems like I was cleared and about squidoo. Now I know what to consider when creating my lenses. although I haven't got any problems about it. Thank again for that complete guide.

 

Very good read. But i want ask one question
Regarding Outbound Link Limit - 9 per domain in lens
Is it on a single lens we cant have more then 9 links to the same domain OR total of 9 links from all lens we create ?
I hope you understand my question.

 

Thanks Mr Gill (and others),

I'm glad you asked that question and frankly anyone who places 9 links to a single domain from a single lens is broadcasting their lens as spam, so here are excerpts of their policy straight from the horse's mouth. Fyi - Giant Squids have no limits on outbound links.

Directly from Squidoo:

#4 A new limit on "overly promotional lenses"
A new outbound links limit on lenses

If you have more than 9 links to the same domain on a single lens, your lens could get locked for review.

Let me explain a little more. That doesn't mean you're limited to just 9 outbound links total on your whole lens... just 9 to the same exact domain. Any links generated by Squidoo modules (like the Amazon module or the Wikipedia module or the eBay module) don't have a limit, nor do feed modules (like the RSS module or the Zazzle module) or modules that your readers post in (like Guestbook and Plexo and Duel modules).

There will be a growing list of Whitelisted domains. For example, sites like Amazon, Twitter, Wikipedia, YouTube, Vimeo, Animoto, eBay, Zazzle, Etsy, Lulu, CafePress, Wordpress, Typepad, StumbleUpon and Facebook and lots more. You can have as many outbound links to those domains as you want. But still, less is more, so go with good taste.

On the flip side, there will also be Blacklisted domains, and that list will be growing as well (but not published publicly). Even 1 link to a blacklisted domain will get your lens locked from view. Sites that consistently show up on lenses that are consistently spam and overt junk and take advantage of readers, domains and programs that have earned a bad reputation because of spammers... we're putting them on a no-no list. This means: Blackhat SEO sites. Reverse phone lookup sites. Paid people finder sites. Lots of dating websites. Many affiliate websites that have proven to be a community of spammers. Like that. Even 1 link on your lens to those domains, and your lens will get locked.

 

a single lens can have 9 links! If you have 50 lenses i dont think you can share the 9 links between them . Keep it below 9 for each lens and it should be ok

 

Yes on a single lens

 

Watch out for the recent "squidoo slaps"

I would personally use some other web 2.0 sites...

 

Forgive my ignorance but what is a "squidoo slap" where they pull you lens?

 

There is a site dedicated to that now : squidooslap.com/

hope it helps cheers

 

I want to know since Squidoo likes links from our sites to theirs what do we get out of is and is there a way to link to somewhere that the visitor form my site can see all of my lens without having to create a link from my site to Squidoo for each links How can we read the first post about this that was refered to.