I created an squidoo lens with the same title as my blog, I never promoted it just like how I promote my blog but when I search yahoo with the title of my squidoo lens and blog as keyword, and well my squidoo lens is on the first page while my blog is nowhere to be found.
This is because sqidoo is counted as an authority web site in the eyes of the search engines. So it is good for seo and backlinks. Also, since squidoo has high PR, it passes on the pagerank back to your website.
squidoo used to be a big thing couple of years back and the lenses used to be ranked very high on google. due to this special ranking advantage, spammers and scammers started to over exploit the system and squidoo became spammer's paradise in no time. squidoo changed their policy and now not allowing online pharmacy or casino content anymore so lot of spam are cut down and due to lot of complaints from different interest groups, google had to change their algo for squidoo not giving it any special ranking privilege anymore. however, they are still a powerful web 2.0 site and still works great for backlinks and internal squidoo traffic.
Ever since I don't like squidoo as part of my link building campaign. The links there doesn't index quickly by Google.
Couple of years back it was a good place to put something there but now Google is not paying much attention in that as it is now a best choice for spammers.
so am i right in thinking that Squidoo is really just a article site? but rather then them sying 'write a article' they say 'create a lens' ???
Yes a lens is an article- your spot light on a specific topic. I have had a beneficial relationship with Squidoo, its worth the bit of time to create a lens.
You are partially correct when thinking of Squidoo as an "article site." While you do create a lens that is essentially an article but you can add much more useful content in your lens. Squidoo has modules for Youtube videos, Flickr photos and even Amazon products where you can make money if someone buys a product from your lens. Squidoo is much more robust than just an "article site."
Squidoo is a very good source of authority website. I have used it myself and i was shocked that squidoo with my keyword was indexed at first page in Google.
cool ..... can you add a rss feed into your squidoo lens? also ... any tips on how to optermize your lens for seo? tips and tricks?
Squidoo maybe be a good source for authority backlinks, but I personally find they take forever to show up
I am still using Squidoo as part of my backlink work. Squidoo serves good for me but as what other people said, it is not longer the same as before after spammers are being caught on spamming on this website.