Thinking About Starting Your OWN Blog? If YOU'D like to learn how to make money blogging with affiliate marketing like I do, feel free to read my Free Blogging 101 E-Course here.Help For Bloggers | Get Daily Pinterest Tips
Get Free Training, TWO Free Blogs, and Free Tools
Finding Keywords That WORK on Squidoo –
Yesterday, I did a quick video about the effectiveness of Squidoo these days since I have been hearing lots of “Squidoo doesn’t work anymore!” comments thru-out my travels on the internet. In that video, I showed a technique I use to get keyword ideas for Squidoo lenses that are original to the Squidoo site (which should help the chance of your lenses being indexed…and STAYING indexed). Now that there are over 1.5 MILLION pages from squidoo.com found within the Google index, it more important than ever to give Google something unique from the Squidoo site. Prepare to be DAZZLED by my incredible video and graphic skills once again…
How To Find Keywords For a New Squidoo Lens
Before we start, if you have NOT watched yesterdays video about the death of Squidoo, please watch it first (or else this video may not make as much sense to you).
First…. I get to ramble about my emergency today….
I meant to post this video earlier today, but I had an emergency. Yes, an EMERGENCY!!!
The TV in my office just stopped working. Blank screen…nothing..nada… a goner.
Now don’t laugh… this is serious (said in my best “mean mom” voice…haha!)
Yes, this IS an emergency…at least THIS week it is. This is Masters Week. If you follow PGA golf at all, you know this is THE week that golfers wait for all year long. No TV in the office meant I either work… or watch The Masters…but I couldn’t do both.
During this one week of the year, golf would totally beat out work , so I knew I had to take immediate action. Ok, golf beats work most of the time anyway…but very rarely golf on TELEVISION =)
Nobody panic! All is right now. I went and got a new flat screen for the office….and now I may NEVER come out….haha!
OK – my rambling is over now…
Let’s talk about keyword for a Squidoo lens.
Better yet, let’s talk about finding keywords that give you a better chance of getting and keeping your lens in the Google index. Squidoo is a BIG site…. 1.5 million pages or more. We have to find a way to get keywords that DON’T bore Google… we need to give Google something unique.
In short, we need to give Google a REASON to index our lenses.
Here is a more in-depth look at one keyword research technique I use before ever making a lens on Squidoo.
Squidoo lenses still work, IF you’re not doing the same ol’ thing that has already been done thousands of times on the squidoo.com site. Not only is this better for the Squidoo site, it will also make your effort of getting indexed and ranked MUCH MUCH easier.
For those of you that have lenses that are having a hard time getting love from Google, have you looked into what kind of competition you have within the Squidoo site?
Does Squidoo Still Work?
Squidoo is still PLENTY effective, BUT – only as effective as the keyword research put into making the lens and the uniqueness of the content. A little research before ever making a lens can go a long, long way.
In fact, this same concept happens on many big sites that have user-generated content. This is not unique to Squidoo.com. I remember doing this same basic concept for my research when writing articles for Associated Content. The articles that had topics/keywords that were NOT already covered on the AC site did much, much better.
Your thoughts?
I Need To...
- Learn How To SEO My Blog Posts
- Learn How To FIX My Pinterest Results
- Learn How To Track My Blog Posts for Better Results
- Learn How To Earn MORE From My Blog Posts
- Learn What Works NOW for Bloggers
- Learn How To START Blogging for Money
- Join PotPieGirl's Affiliate Program
- See What Tools PotPieGirl Uses
&
&
It may still work to some extent but you can not deny that new lenses takes more time and more incoming links to it in order to get indexed.
Another sign (although I’m not a PR freak) is the drop to PR6 from PR8 in the last Google PR update (last week).
There are plenty of web 2.0 properties out there that can rank well, bring you traffic and give link juice to your site other than squidoo.
Hi Fistuk =)
While I agree that there plenty of other web 2.0 sites to participate on for backlinks and exposure, I don’t agree about PR playing a part in this.
If Page Rank was so important into indexing and good ranking of a web page, then why do my posts here at PotPieGirl.com rank so well?
I was a toolbar PR3 here… but dropped to a toolbar PR2 with this last whacky update. Google finds my new pages very quickly…and my rankings are great, if not better, than before this toolbar PR update.
I don’t think PR has much to do with this at all. I think it has more to do with the saturation of certain keywords/content…and the sheer volume of new content that comes thru that site every minute.
Just my two cents =)
Jennifer
~PotPieGirl
I want to add a little to my previous reply…
EzineArticles.com and Squidoo.com are now both apparently a toolbar PR6 (coulda sworn EzineArticles used to be higher too?)
It will be harder to get your lenses found by Google and indexed than it will be on EzineArticles.
Know why?
EzineArticles has a constantly updating list of new articles running on it’s home page at all times. This makes it VERY easy for Google to find those new pages added to the site.
Squidoo does not do this so yes, you DO need to “lead” Google to your new lens with links.
Do we now need MORE links to get Google to index a lens?
No, I don’t think so. All Google needs is ONE off-page link to find a new web page and get it in the index. BUT, will that new page STAY in the Google index? Will that lens be the page that Google chooses for a keyword query over other pages on the same site?
If it is unique content/keywords to the Squidoo site, yes I think it has a better chance of staying or ranking in Google’s index. Same for EzineArticles or any user-generated content site (2.0 properties).
As with ALL web pages, the back links will have the main effect on how well your page ranks.
I’d take toolbar PR with a whole bag of salt. Check your traffic and rankings – You’ll almost always find that these remain constant, even with a drop in toolbar PR.
I also think that quite a bit of it has to do with the growth of the web. This whole 0-10 scale is just a representation of the “real” PageRank algorithm.
PR is what is known in statistics as a wandering drunk algorithm – random person starts on a random page of the internet, and navigates by randomly following links. There’s also the chance he stops on each page.
So in this way, authority can be calculated. The more times you’re linked to (and the more links they have), the more likely you are to be found. Simple enough, right? (well, it is to talk about, at least! The math doesn’t look too pretty) 🙂
So the real PageRank for a given page on the site is actually a decimal integer, and then Google essentially has “ranges” that are represented by the numbers 0-10.
But as the web expands (and as their indexing of the web expands) that range has to shift to account for all of these new pages that our wandering drunk might stumble upon.
These pages may be low value, they may be in completely different industries than you, etc., so even though you may see that meter move around, traffic/rankings will often stay just the same. And at the end of the day, that’s what is most important.
So with all of that said, don’t be afraid of PR6 – that’s still a hell of a lot of authority, and again, what matters is what *works.* If Squidoo still works as an engine to get my content ranked quickly and highly, which it does, then I’m all for it.
Chris
I totally agree with the fact that PR is not a factor for ranking, but it does indicates some trust from Google.
And a drop from pr8 to pr6 is a huge drop.
Ezine was always pr6. (at least in the last 3 years)
What I wrote is from experience, I have been using squidoo for more than 2 years, and the last page I created 2 weeks ago, took me more time, more effort, more content and more links to get in the index.
Might be the fact that this topic of the lens is one that have a lot of bum marketers on it, and off course you can not conclude everything just based on one lens. But, if I feel a difference and other people as well it might be true to some extent.
I think that one of the “secrets” (I hate this world) in IM world is not to be rigid since often things that were working one day stop working, or work in a less effective matter.
It might be that squidoo has reached this moment.
I personally think that you better eat & drink in a good restaurant that is not frequently visited than in a restaurant that was good, become hype, everyone goes there so the quality goes down.
That’s my 0.02$ based on my personal experience.
I do new squidoo lenses just about every day. I find that when I find great keywords with search volume and not totally saturated in Squidoo I get indexed in no time flat.
Then as long as I build some links to the lenses I am able to keep them there.
It’s all about what you choose to write about. I totally agree with you Jen.
I think this is a problem for “beginners” because they get lists of keywords from “gurus” and then we have a million newbies writing the same keywords and the same “articles provided by product owners” in their lenses and they are all the same.
Then they get upset that they aren’t ranking and getting traffic and sales. It can be really hard to teach how to look outside the every day and dig into a topic to find the keywords like you are talking about!
But as the web gets bigger, no matter where you’re putting your content you are going to have to do this!
Thanks for another super clear video.
Jackie
Squidoo Marketing Helps last blog post..56. Rinse and Repeat
That is a lot of debate.
While I am new to affiliate game per se, I have used these techniques quite successfully to build my offline business. What I found was that you are not so much worried about your alexa or Google rankings as you are about getting traffic to your website/lens and the coverting them into buyers.
When I made my first squidoo lens, it was about nothing in particular. I wasn’t trying to sell anything. I just want to learn the ins and outs for squidoo. By using the limited knowledge that I have I drove traffic to the lens. It is now my best lens that I have. The last I looked it hadn’t been indexed at all, and I certainly was not showing up in organic search engines very high, but I am getting a bit of traffic to the lens.
So it is not about rankings, it is about getting links and generating traffic. We know that internet evolves quickly, and we have to adapt quickly as well to stay in the game. Stop playing by the old rules and learn the new ones.
That is how I am surviving. What about you…
Jae
Jaebird88s last blog post..The Secret X-Factor For Business Success
Getting links and generating traffic are not exclusive of rankings, though. In fact, rankings are a means of generating traffic, and links are part of getting those rankings.
Now, certainly search engine marketing is not the only form of traffic generation, and those aforementioned links, if well placed, can provide good referral traffic, on their own right.
In fact, my only real mention of “rankings” was just as a means of displaying the lack of change IN rankings and/or traffic after toolbar PageRank drops.
Now as far as Squidoo’s PR drop itself, I do agree that at first glance, that is a rather large drop. But I have to believe that at some level, what I first mentioned is occuring.
Because of the expansion of the web, the sites linking to Squidoo are perhaps losing some PR, as well as the pages of Squidoo itself. So between the slight drops of PageRank of millions and millions of pages turns into a BIG drop, overall.
Just my thoughts on the situation, but I believe it to explain the “why” of the PR drop. But again, plenty of people out there seeing these drops here and there, but as long as your traffic and rankings have held strong, then I don’t believe any PR drops to be an indication of a “problem.”
Chris
I think Squidoo has become less effective because of the spam fest it used to be (and still is). Also, I never really liked it for promoting something because there are way too many other options where the visitor can go away from your page. In this respect, ezinearticles is much better.
But other than that, why not create your own authority website and rank for long tails?
Chriss last blog post..humor as a means to go through your problems
I agree with you totally Jen. I’ve noticed with my lenses, the topics/keywords that are found the least on squidoo are the ones that get indexed the fastest. However, I really didn’t relize the why”s until reading your post, investigated my lenses & yep that’s it.
Thank you Jen for providing such good content. You are GREAT!
DianiaLee
Pot Pie Girl;
Thank you for the video, they are immensely helpful to this old carpenter.
Thanks
Reeder
This video is really helpful. I have just bought One Week Marketing and finding the right keywords was the one bit I was struggling so this helps hugely. Thank you!!!
Just on the PR thing – my two little blogs (which attract just a trickle of daily traffic) have just reached the dizzy heights of PR2, i.e. they are ranked the same as yours!!! Read into that what you will!
Marks last blog post..One Week Marketing Progress Report
Sorry no video shows for this page but a big blank square. How can I get to view this – thanks
Hey what a great post i like how you need to find long tail keywords i have been doing this and one test squidoo lense is ranking well thanks very much! Effective Traffic On Squidoo
I feel like I am still missing a piece of the puzzle here. Watching your video you say that the keyword phrase “natural treatment for panic attacks” was a good one because there was only 3 competing sites with this phrase on Squidoo. However, according to the Google keyword tool the approximate search volume showed “not enough data” for March. Even if this gets ranked well for that phrase I wouldn’t think it would bring much traffic to the lens.
By the way, I have the OW<
Oops I accidentally hit send before I finished. I was just going to say that I really like the OWM plan.
Hi Judy – I am wondering the same thing – re:”not enough data” for March – is it still a viable keyword phrase then? I have read elsewhere on PPG’s blog that she doesn’t worry about number of searches – just that someone is searching for that term so perhaps the fact that under the “average search volume” column there were some digits there – qualified this this term/phrase as useable.