Squidoo Tips: How to Get Your Lens Found

1. Choose your keywords. Keywords are words or phrases that people type into Google or other search engines to find things on web. In Part III: Squidoo SEO, I'll teach you how to select the best keywords. But for your first lenses, don't stress over keywords; just pick a word or phrase that YOU might search when looking up your topic.

Use your keywords for the URL of your lens, which you pick when you first create a lens. Also include keywords in the lens title, the filename of your lens photo, a module header, and a link or two.

Keywords Tip: For image filenames and your lens URL, separate multiple words in a phrase with hyphens. For example, "golden-retriever-puppies"

Use keywords in these "key" places on a webpage to tell search engines, "Hey, this is what my page is about... send me visitors searching for it!" Search engines are getting better at recognizing synonyms and related phrases, so use them to avoid being too repetitive.

If you've already created a lens, don't worry about the URL; choose a keyword phrase and use it in the other "key" parts of the page. This CAN work: my old Easy Kitemaking lens is on page 1 of Google even though I didn't know about keywords when I chose the URL.

2. Give your Squidoo lens an appealing and informative title that will attract visitors to click on that link rather than on all other links on a page. The title needs to:

• tell HUMAN visitors exactly what your webpage is about
• use vivid, concise language that draws their attention
• tell SEARCH ENGINES what your lens is about using your keyword(s).

For example, "Yes, I Love My Hybrid Car!" uses the keyword "hybrid car," but is more vivid for human readers than, "About my hybrid car."

When possible, use a Call to Action like "Take the Easy Greek Mythology Quiz!"

3. Write a brief introduction, telling visitors what the lens is about and what they'll get out of reading the rest of the page.

To help you figure out what your lens is about, write a "lens mission statement" on a post-it note, telling what questions your lens should answer or what visitors should get out of your lens. Adapt this mission statement for your introduction!

The introduction is like a teaser. You've got to "hook" your audience; don't waste time on anything that doesn't achieve that goal! At the same time, use text that contains keywords/search terms for Google. For example, I packed several keywords into the first sentence of my introduction module:

So, you want to learn how to build appealing Squidoo lenses (or any kind of webpage), attract web traffic, and get your Squidoo lens found by Google! This three-part tutorial covers...

4. Research your content. If you don't know what you're talking about, how will your visitors know? And why would they stick around?

Pick a subject you know, and share your enthusiasm and knowledge! Keep in mind the "questions to answer" or "mission statement" you chose in step 3. Do the necessary research to answer those questions or satisfy that goal. As you write, keep checking: did what you just write answer one of those questions, or contribute to the mission of your lens?

Tip: Be brief, but make sure you cover the most important things to know about your topic. Remember the famous "And Then a Miracle Occurs" cartoon. Your readers don't know what you've left out!

5. Add links to related content, videos and images. This includes webpages you consulted for your research! Clickthroughs boost lensrank. And links to "relevant" pages help your lens rank better in search engines for the words and phrases you use as the link.

For example, if you're writing about potatoes, say "For more info, check out this website on Potatoes and Tubers" not "Click here for a website about potatoes and tubers."

6. Proofread. Grammar and spelling still matter, even if people don't consciously realize why some pages seem sloppy. Obama won the last election largely because he sounded smart and polished -- use the same trick to "put the best face" on your lenses. At least run your text through a spellchecker.

7. Make pretty graphics. See my Where to Get Graphics (Legally!) tutorial to get great graphics without violating copyright!

8. Vary your content. Huge blocks of text lose your reader's attention; so do masses of ads, icons or images. Unless you're extremely good at holding people's attention, you should shape your lens more like a variety show than a four-hour documentary.

9. Be interactive. Guestbooks and polls invite people to participate and come back. Clicks help boost your lensrank.

10. Tag your lens (see "Tags" in the sidebar), classifying your lens with general topics like "cooking" and "cake recipes" rather than "chocolate fudge cake with strawberry glaze," and turn on the Discovery Tool in the Introduction Module. It will feature your lens on other lenses with the same tags, in exchange for featuring those lenses on YOUR lens. Cross-linking to lenses on the same topic can boost search engine rankings and provide more doors for visitors to find your lens.