An SEO review is not complete without a look at links.
Yesterday I tackled on-page SEO factors: what AJ can do on her lens to make it most likely the search engines know what it’s about, and which serps (seach engine result pages) it should show up in.
However, in a competitive field like weight loss on-page SEO is not likely to be enough. AJ already has a few things going for her in her personal link profile which are a big help though.
- She’s got two links to lenses of hers on the LOTD blog. That’s two of the best possible links to have in the squidoo universe.
- She’s been featured on my Thanking lensmasters blog
- She’s also been interviewed on Mimi’s growwear blog
- Her new employer is linking to her lens about her employer.
I also found her online at mixx, minty and of course twitter.
All that’s a good start. She’s more likely to be successful if she also builds specific links to this new lens. I would recommend the following:
- Finding a weight loss forum and becoming a regular there (and put the link in the signature, and mentioning it whenever it’s appropriate).
- Doing a blogsearch and start commenting on blogs talking about weightloss in general and wheat free weight loss in particular. I find this becomes easier by having a blog search module on your lens.
- NOT forgetting to leave a link to her lens or lensography when commenting on blogs. I’ve noticed that when AJ comments on my blog she does leave her handle, but not her URL – which means her name doesn’t turn into a link in the comments. Since links on squidtop comments are followed (that is: they count for google) this is a wasted link opportunity.
- Ideally she should get a link from a high profile blog or website on the topic of weight loss. [Just saying that would be ideal, not that I'd be able to get one if I were in her shoes]
- Getting links from squidoo directories doesn’t hurt
- Getting links from weight loss or health directories would be good
- Finding related lenses with plexo’s and adding her lens there. (That is: plexo’s for health, weight loss and allergy lenses)
Anyone of those would be good – the more of that she is able to do, the more it starts to build.
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More really useful information.
If AJ can do all of this, it will be very interesting to see how successful the lens is, not just as far as traffic and ranking, but also earnings.
Very helpful post! Indeed, knowing AJ, she will be able to take this information and make that lens a huge success.
More great information. I’ve used the blog search module and it has been very helpful. I find blogs represented there and post comments and always get traffic back. However, I haven’t done that lately. Ack! Great reminder. Thanks again for the very helpful advice!
WOW AGAIN!
What have I done to deserve all this fantastic help? I cannot wait to get going on this. Thank you again Katinka for all the help you are giving me with my Weight Loss lens.
Note: I have taken on board your suggestion about leaving a link in any comments I make (relevant ones of course!)
)
You’re welcome AJ. That link somehow didn’t work. Here’s the working link: lose weight
The trick: always copy past URL’s
Don’t try to type them. Don’t delete the http:// part just copy paste.
Oops!
Katinka – thanks for putting up the correct link. Now I must go and do some other work!
Excellent advice again. When I first started at Squidoo I really didn’t realize that in order to succeed I needed to promote my lenses just as I would my website or blog and get backlinks going! I realized it once I saw all the backlinks I generated when posting in the Squid forum…consistently those where my top ranking lenses. Geez, 250 back links versus 0, wonder why? I then started taking time away from lens development to start doing lens “promotion”. I’m no queen of backlinks but I’m working on it all of the time.
Mulberry: You’ve had lenses rank mainly by posting them in the squidoo forums? Really? That’s certainly not a pattern I’ve seen – but then I’ve been mainly seeing another pattern: blog (and twitter about your blog) and you will see lenses rank better.
But then, my blog has been getting backlinks as well – and I’m not even talking about the backlinks this blog has gotten (not bad either, but not as good as my spiritual blog).
Very helpful information!
Reading your SEO Lenses was the first time I really started understanding how to optimize my Lenses for search engine traffic.
I’m sure I’ll get even better results as I go back over them using your tips to improve, and promote them.
Cleanerlife: Glad to hear it
And the great thing is: once you get the hang of it, it starts to build on each other. Because one project (lens, blog, whatever) you’re into is trusted by google, the next one has a better headstart as well. And once you’ve got search engine traffic, you’re also more likely to get links from blogs and websites you hadn’t even thought about.
On Squidoo it even works (to some extent) like a reinforcing cycle: traffic means higher lensrank means more links within squidoo, means more traffic.