Koozai > Blog > How to Best use Squidoo for SEO

How to Best use Squidoo for SEO

| 2 minutes to read

Squidoo, for those who don’t know, is a user-generated hub of information covering a diverse range of subjects. Content is created and uploaded by the general public to create a highly adaptable, multimedia ‘lens’. The subject of the pages can vary from how-to articles to informational pages on niche topics. Once a page grows in popularity, it can provide a strong link to any target site as well as helping to deliver decent levels of targeted traffic.

The personalisation of each lens and the ability to attract significant volumes of traffic makes it a rich source for external links for SEO purposes. A lens can be self promotional or it can be a source of information, the choice of angle is largely yours. Creating a lens which provides invaluable information to searchers is a good way of increasing the authority of the page, it may even rank well in the search engines. A keyword focused hyperlink can be added to the lens page pointing to a page on your own website.

Squidoo

To create a Squidoo lens, you first need to sign up to the site (it’s free!). You can then select the option to create your own lens. Here are some tips to get you started:

  • Add an informative bio about yourself
  • Include links on your bio to anything you’d like to promote
  • Do a bit of research to see what lenses currently exist for chosen subject
  • Think of a catchy and unique title for the lens (subject related)
  • Submit lens in relevant category and sub categories

Unique lenses are far more likely to gain recognition and popularity; people may even link to the lens if they feel the information would be useful to someone else.  A good lens can quickly rank for keywords relating to the lens subject, this in turn will make your links pass value and send relevant traffic to your site.

Here are some good pointers to get the most SEO value out of your Squidoo lens:

  • Create an individual and catchy lens title
  • Customise lens URL to include main keywords
  • Make the lens useful and informational rather than self-promotional
  • Regularly include main keywords in the lens without keyword stuffing
  • Bold keywords in the text
  • Include a few anchor links (2-3 max) back to your site
  • Add images to break up text
  • Add appropriate Alt text to the images (keyword focused)
  • Images can also link through to your site
  • Follow other people and comment on their lenses, they will hopefully do the same
  • Post your lens on the <a href= https://www.squidu.com/ >Squidu forum</a>
  • Add links to your other lenses in the lens
  • Create a lensography (a lens that lists all the pages you’ve made)
  • Add other lenses to your ‘lensroll’ (a list of related lenses)
  • Watch the SquidU forum for any competitions (such as Squidoo Jenga) as these can raise awareness of your lens

To summarise, Squidoo is a good way of gaining valuable keyword targeted links for a website. It seems to have fared a lot better than other sites in the recent Google update [see: Google Algorithm update: Quality Content is King], and has a thriving community of writers and those who are looking for good content. Creating unique lenses of valuable content is the best way to build the reputation of a lens and in return offer a great link.

Any comments on Squidoo are more than welcome below and you can also follow me on Twitter @Koozai_Tom

Responses

  1. Dr. Nancy avatar

    Hi Tom,
    I just stumbled upon your article through Google. Great article, you explained everything. I was creating pages for my new medical project. Thanks I’m going to follow your steps.

    Regards
    Nancy

  2. Andy avatar

    I really ejoyed the articoe and will definetly use some of the tips in my next squidoo lens. One problem I was having, was being able to link to the page I was promoting in the bio section. How do you do this? Is this the best place to promote your page?

  3. P Shah avatar

    Thanks for this useful information, I have not used Squidoo before but after reading this post I will give it a go and see how it can help with my SEO.

  4. Danielle avatar

    Thanks for the post Tom. I have been doing SEO for a little while now and know how to do simple link buidling but am getting lost when it comes to Squidoo, Hubpages etc, the problem I have is I am not great at writing content, what do you suggest?

  5. John Fambrini avatar

    Are Squidoo lenses still useful after recent Google updates. My site https://toyota-hilux-vigo.com was rising in rank on its relevant keywords but then suddenly last week this march forward stopped and I have dropped on some keywords. I’m seeing that more content I add the less it rises in rank. Is content no longer king?

    1. Tom Howlett avatar

      I believe Squidoo can still be valuable, but it is more important to make sure you are creating a really valuable and useful resource on Squidoo – as opposed to creating something just for a link.

      The same goes for any website – try to create valuable information which is useful to your visitors and is also unique and not a duplication from somewhere else on the web.

  6. Tom Howlett avatar

    I think it is better to create fewer good quality Squidoo Lens. If people can use it as a resource, it might acquire a few links along the way.

    If your Lens’ are related you could even interlink them.

    I wouldn’t say you have to constantly update them, just focus on creating a good resource and if that means you will need to add more information, then that’s fine.

    1. james avatar
      james

      Thanks for the tips. I have recently published a new lens with keywords linking back to my site, however, when you click these keywords it doesnt actually take you to my site – it takes you to a page on the Squidoo site. Do you know why?

  7. Meribel Airport Transfers avatar
    Meribel Airport Transfers

    Just started using squidoo as a SEO tool. Good few tips here for making the most of it and not just creating a lens and forgetting about it – is it important to constantly update your lens? Are you better concentrating on building a few good lens than having lots of them.

  8. Simon avatar
    Simon

    Great information thanks, i am relatively new to Squidoo and was not aware that you can add higher SEO value to your lens. I will definitely take action and use these tips thanks.

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