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We’ve been talking about how to get Google to index your Squidoo lens. If you’ve been following along, you already know that I created two new Squidoo lenses and I was testing getting Google to find these two new lenses only by me blogging about them on this blog. The ONLY thing I actually did TO the new lenses was to ‘ping’ them from within the dashboard on SquidUtils.com. However, I did not ping them until AFTER the first blog post here was in the Google index.
Well, the results are in – and, to me, it is quite interesting. Both lenses are now showing in the Google index. However, the time line in which Google indexed each web page involved is a bit odd. For the sake of consistency (and to make it harder on myself…lol), I am going to time stamp each event in GMT time. I’m in Atlanta, so I am -5 GMT, but I don’t want to mess with all that.
Ok, here we go
Time Line for Google to Find My Squidoo Lenses
05-08-2008
03:00 GMT – First Lens on low cost hosting services was published within Squidoo
05:00 GMT – Second lens about cost to make a TV commercial was published within Squidoo
05:04 GMT – First lens (web hosting lens) was crawled and indexed by Google (as shown in the current cache)
06:00 GMT – Blog post here linking to new lenses was published
06:27 GMT – Google crawled and indexed the blog post
08:13 GMT – Second lens (TV Commercials) was crawled and indexed
16:00 GMT – Used Mixx to bookmark blog post
16:05 GMT – Dugg the blog post
17:00 GMT – Placed Blogroll links to new lenses on a PR3 niche blog (has not been crawled by Google since link was placed)
18:00 GMT – Pinged lenses thru SquidUtils.com
Now, does anything there look odd to you? The first lens was crawled by Google BEFORE the blog post linking to it was even published!
How? Seriously now, HOW did Google even FIND that lens? I did nothing other than create the lens and hit publish. It was still a WIP lens when first published, so I couldn’t join groups or anything.
Could it be My Tags on My Lens?
Ok, it could be tags I put on the lens, right? Here’s the funny thing – I forgot my own advice about tagging properly when you are first setting up the lens… and I didn’t add any more tags before I published it. So, right now, that lens has four not-so-great tags… and the primary tag is a bad choice.
Primary tag is: low cost hosting services for your business website
other tags are: hosting, website, websites
Could it be my lensmaster profile page?
This is a possibility. My PotPieGirl profile page on Squidoo is a PR4 – meaning Google is probably in there a good bit. So, when was my lensmaster profile page last crawled? Let me go look… talk amongst your selves, I’ll be right back. =)
:::cue “on hold” music:::::
Ok, for some reason, Google doesn’t want to show me a cache of my lensmaster page. However, I will need to rule that whole possibility out due to the fact that a new lens will not show on my profile page until it has a green check (not a WIP lens).
So, summary of all this is… I’m a bit stumped. I don’t have the discovery tool turned on for that lens…. and my lens wouldn’t show up on another lens via the discovery tool until it has a green check from Squidoo anyway.
How in the world did Google find and crawl that new lens in a total time of two hours?
I’m glad I used two new lenses for this test. The second lens (the TV commercial one) was crawled and indexed about 3 hours after being published BUT it was also crawled and indexed AFTER the blog post linking to it was crawled. Based on that lens, I would say that simply blogging about, and linking to, a new lens on a well crawled blog would get your new lens indexed quickly – BUT the first lens kinda blows that theory out of the water, doesn’t it?
So now I am opening this up to the audience –
- How did Google find and crawl a new lens that had NO links pointing to it?
- How come Google can take a WEEK or more to index a lens that has LOTS of links pointing to it? (yes, this happens to me, too)
I’m gonna get another cup of coffee and think this thru…. there is a logical explanation for this, but right now, it alludes me.
Your thoughts?
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This is an interesting puzzle…
We have to rule out tags too, because your lens doesn’t appear on the tag pages until it is out of WIP, just as with your Lensmaster profile.
The only thing I can think of is that maybe Squidoo automatically pings Google when a new lens in published. Another Lensmaster did mention this on twitter once, but they didn’t back it up.
It’ll be interesting to see how long it takes for traffic to start coming to your lens from Google. Be prepared for it to suddenly vanish too…
I checked with a reliable source (Gil), and only featured lenses get listed to Google (i.e. once they are out of wip).
{ PotPieGirl }
@ theFluffanutta – Good point about the tags – I didn’t think about that. As for Squidoo ‘pinging’ Google for each new lens, I imagine that is quite possible. This blog automatically pings a list of services each time I post, and Google comes a-crawling. Thing is, why wouldn’t Google come to ALL new lenses and index them all as quickly?
As for Google traffic, one of the lenses (the tv commercial one) is already seeing organic traffic from Google. That lens seems to rank well, while the low cost hosting lens is in a much more competitive query space and needs a ranking boost.
Fluffanutta, I need to ask you something about SquidUtils.com. Are the times reflected on various pages of your site in GMT time? Also, do new lenses in a certain category get shown on your directories as soon as they are published? Or after Squidoo gives a ‘green check’?
Thanks for reading… this little mystery has me mighty perplexed!
Jennifer
Neat breakdown. It will be interesting to see what comes of this!
~Kimberly
Squidoo’s Community Organizer
Jennifer – times on your Lensmaster page are in BST (i.e. GMT+1 hour). The creation times in the directory are probably EST (GMT-5 hours?), which I need to fix. The new lenses appear in the directory within 24 hours of coming out of WIP.
{ PotPieGirl }
Thanks, Fluff. I got to looking at my stats and saw a click thru from the SquidUtils directory. Got to looking at the directory and new lenses pages and saw the times… thought maybe I was on to something. But… I’m wrong. You answered my next question as to WHEN a new lens shows.
Long story short, I thought SquidUtils.com was a hint to the indexing, but I don’t believe it is (however, SquidUtils.com is MIGHTY powerful – those that read this far down need to know – USE SQUIDUTILS.COM )
Thanks, Fluff!
Hi Potpiegirl. I just want to give a report that your method Work!! Woo hoo, in One day, my lens get indexed in Google and Have good position in some keyword too. I promote a certain product and ranked well in the Product’s name too.
Let’s see, here is what I have done to make it appear in Google:
– Post a blog post in My Own Blog
– Ping it via SquidUtils
– Post a blog post in Squidtop
– Digg The Blog pOst in My Own Blog
– Digg the Lens (Last things I do)
Hope it will help 🙂
Oh yeah, just for addition, I also use nofollow for all affiliate links, so in the lens don’t give any links to anyone= The lens has more inbound links than outbond links..
It’s your name, PotPieGirl. It has to be — it’s all about branding, and your name is being crawled…maybe. Could it be???
Melissa
{ PotPieGirl }
@Cowy – Good! I’m so glad to hear that this all worked for you! While I’m sure this system is not fool-proof, it does seem like we are on to something =)
@Melissa – When I first started online and decided on the name PotPieGirl, there were exactly ZERO pages in the entire Google index with that name/term on it. Now, there are over 7,000.
Even so, Google still asks me “Did You Mean TotalGirl?” LMAO! I imagine that maybe someday, Google will recognize me as something other than a typo.
Whether its my ‘brand’ that leads to this indexing situation, or not, I have no idea. However, I do know that G and other search engines crawl this blog quite frequently. Interesting concept tho… and one I will be sure to explore.
Thanks for reading!
For me, lenses often get their first Google traffic within 24-48 hours. The hard part is continuing the traffic. After making a lens, I add it to a few Squidoo directories from suqidutils, use Stumpmedia, Stumbleupon, Mixx.com, and zimbio.
now you totally confused me, hmm…
Hi Potpie Girl
Your lenses are very helpful and I like your blog too. Some of my lenses pick up traffic from my posts. Not the title or even the url but the actual content of the posts. I guess if the content is relevant to the search terms used by surfers then the spiders are on their way to check you out. I also theorise that squidoo itself has something to do with it, even if your lens is WIP it is still included in the mix when thousands of other lenses are being crawled. So long as your content is relevant to others. If you post links to other lenses (link module) and also that you have other great high rank lenses in your profile. Lastly maybe the spider was close to your lens when you published and jumped across anyway, lucky girl.
Hey Potpiegirl,
Thanks for all the info! I actually clicked over from the WA forum and basically thought I can use all the help I can get with Squidoo. Granted I am still pretty knew with only 3 lenses, I couldn’t see why I couldn’t find any listed in Google. Let me ask if I got this wrong from other info–linking to other lenses with related content helps your lens–is that wrong or right? Am I hurting myself by using the discovery tool, having featured lenses, or even lensrolling? The things I’ve read make it sound like it all helps with Google finding you like tags and also supposedly helps with Google rankings.
All that seems so overwhelming to me that I’m more than happy that someone else is doing these researches and test and I am able to just learn about them and use what works… So – thanks again!
I have to agree with daria369. I’m trying my best to make sense of this but it’s enough to make your head spin. What’s the best product out there that goes into detail for this info?
Really appreciate these tips. I set up my first lens a few weeks ago and no Google traffic yet. I have a blog, so posting about my new lens is now priority, as well as checking out the SquidUtil, etc. So much to learn! Thanks.
I am experimenting with squidoo and google indexing at the moment, trying different things to see which gets me indexed, so I was pleased to find your blog today (for the first time). I will be having a good read through.
Well it has been almost 2 weeks and no indexing from google….I am stumped. Thought I was on the right track!