How Do I Get My Lens to the First Page of Google?

Thanks for all your replies and comments on the survey! I really appreciate it, and it looks like linking is the overwhelming winner for the moment. :)

Last week, on Friday actually I got down to business, collected my thoughts and lenses and grabbed a group of lenses I really wanted to focus on. My goal is to get these 14 lenses to the first page of Google.

Once you get a lot of lenses it’s pretty easy to lose focus on the actions that drive you toward your goal, and much easier to just keep doing the stuff you like (which for me is building new lenses lol). Let’s take a look at what these lenses were doing on Friday ~ 10/16. (some of these are old and some are new, some have better kw than other ~ and some I picked new keywords to focus on)

3 Were on Page 1 for main keyword.

4 were not even indexed

2 were ranking on page 3 or lower

5 were indexed but no where to be found

Here’s what I did on Friday ~ yes, just this past Friday.

1. Submitted posts to 4 different free ad blogs. I used all the links in 1 post ~ just did a best gifts for type of post, and then split the lenses into gift types ~ outdoor, the cook, kids etc. I then wrote a quick paragraph about each item and linked back to the lens using my keywords as the anchor text.

2. Sent a total of 18 posts out using 1 Way Links, but the posts went out a few a day over a couple days. You can only have 3 links per article, but they can be within the content of the article, so I basically pulled apart the article I used on the free ad blogs and broke it down into specific product groups ~I titled my posts things like:  Gifts for outdoor lovers, gifts for cooks, gifts from the kitchen ~ something like that, and then linked to 3 different lenses using the appropriate keywords as the anchor text.

Today I checked through my lenses ~ so I could write this post and see how things did ~ otherwise I would NOT have checked my stats til the end of the week. ;)

5 lenses on page 1 for keywords (2 of which were not indexed on Friday)

2 lenses up from page 3 to page 2

1 was indexed

5 still MIA and

1 still not indexed

This can tell you a few things, and it tells me some interesting stuff, not sure what it all means yet, but it’s interesting none the less. :)

The 5 MIA lenses are all lenses I built last year. They’ve sat around for a year not doing anything, and I haven’t really done anything with them. I’m not sure I’m going to put a lot of work into them though, because it seems my newer lenses are much easier to get moving around.

When you get some numbers like this you have to take a minute and think. “What am I doing to do now?”. You really have two choices. You can spend time trying to get your MIA lenses ranking or you can build more links to your lenses you can find and bring them up to the top of the first page.

Once you’ve made your decision you need a goal and a plan of action.

Goal: I’ve decided to work on getting the ones that are doing something all in the top 5 and create a few more lenses so I can meet the goal from a couple posts ago to have 10 lenses in the top 5.

Plan of action:

1. Write articles for the lenses that are working and new lenses created submit to EZA

2. Send out another round of posts through 1 way links.  (if you have UAW you could use this just as easily)

3. For new lenses ~ 1 round of  posts on free ad blogs (at least 4 different ones)

4. Post to my blog for current and new lenses (using anchor text for the links ALWAYS)

Then we’ll check in a week or so and see how things are doing. Don’t make this too complicated. Linking is NOT complicated, it’s just boring and tedious. :(

If things are still not where I want them in a week guess what I’ll do? The same exact thing that is listed above, I’ll just do it all over again. Rinse and repeat. Once the lens is done, it’s just about creating enough backlinks to get your lens to move up the search engine rankings to where you want it.

BIG NOTE

There are tons and tons of ways to create backlinks. Do not spend a million years researching all the ways you can create links to your lenses ~ just try some different ways and see what you like.  Then do that!!

You do not have to do what I do, I do it because it’s what I like to do, and it works for me. I personally don’t use much bookmarking because I don’t see a lot of return for the time I spend doing it ~ granted I don’t have software that does that for me so it is very time consuming. If you’ve seen good results with bookmarking, then do it!! If you’ve had great results with putting up a hub for your topic then do it, whatever it is that you find you like enough to keep doing, and it works KEEP DOING IT.

Here’s what I have learned over the last couple years (and it may just be me, but I’m pretty sure it’s not)

If I don’t like doing it ~ I won’t.

Doesn’t mean I’m a bad person, or I’m lazy, or whatever ~ it just is. It is nearly impossible for me to motivate myself and stay focused on tasks I just don’t like to do. (which is probably why my dishes are never done lol)

Backlinking happens to be one of those things for me ~ however, there are enough ways to build links that I’ve found a few that I actually enjoy doing, and can stay focused on. Those are the ones I do. Luckily for me they happen to work lol.  So please, don’t try to force yourself into doing something that makes you miserable ~ you just won’t do it, you’ll find reasons to walk away from your computer, you’ll get discouraged because things aren’t working and you’ll eventually believe this whole stupid internet marketing thing just doesn’t work for me. Well it truly can, just stick with stuff you can tolerate ~ of find someone else to do the things you hate. :)

Stay tuned ~ I’m going to put together a post that links to all the posts on different kinds of linking as well as some of my other resources for linking ~ that way you can easily find what you’re looking for all in one place. Then I’ll keep adding to that post as new resources are created.

If there are specific aspects or questions you have about linking please ask them in the comment section. I’ll be glad to answer there or create a post to answer your questions.

Also ~ make good use of the search feature on this blog (right hand sidebar, just below the sign up box) ~ it can really help you find the answer to questions.

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Great post it has been nice to hear that you found something that works for you. It is even better that you have sheared the ideas with your readers. I do not know much about lenses but then I am still glad to know of a way to get them to the first page of Google.

Hi Jackie,
Thanks for that great post, its an area I am finding so difficult and know that I mus master. I am now beginning to get a few sites up and running my latest being http://www.squidoo.com/polish-food which I am quite pleased with. I think its my best yet. I agree with you that building sites does get easier with practice and you do get quicker. I also get a great deal of enojyment from my researching a subject. My objective is to become a Giant Squid as quickly as possible.
Thanks again Jackie for a great blog.

Tony

Tony

One thing I know is that slow and steady beats fast and furious, then stop! If I just plug away at creating backlinks little by little, I'm going to gradually increase my rankings. I don't do much with squidoo, but I may start again. I was into that for awhile, and not only can the the lenses get ranked, but you can get some pretty good backlinks to your blogs. I do mostly wordpress blogs, and I'm just focusing on a couple right now. If I do more than that, I get overwhelmed.

My favorite thing right now is blog commenting, I use a program called "Fast Blog Finder". It's what I used to find your blog!

Thanks for the info, and best of luck!

Hi Jackie,

Well it looks like I got another page pushed back from page 3 to 284. This is a page from my moneysite I have been spending a lot of time and effort on building links to and to the web 2.0 sites pointing to it. This is the second one from the same domain. The first one completely disappeared completely. It looks like Google will push you back very quickly. I do not think I was pointing too many links to these pages. I was mostly pointing links to the web 2.0 sites that were pointing to these pages.

Needless to say this is very aggravating.

Do you have any suggestions?

Do you think think I should just pick a web 2.0 and make it the center of the wheel?

Thank you for your help.

Sincerly Disgusted
Chris Porter

First of all... take a deep breath. :) This is all part of the process. Your pages will come back, and most likely they will come back higher than they were before. Just keep working your plan and it will be fine. Yes, it's discouraging, but it's part of the business, to be expected and it will be ok. Your hard work is not in vain.

Thank you Jackie for reminding us of how you go about steadily doing the grunt work to get the backlinks our lenses need!

I'm going to work at that today ...

Fran

Hello Jackie. I am building a lens in Squidoo for the first time, one problem is the linking of product from amazon in which I cannot manage to put in the module the "picture" of the product along with its "price tag" and the "buy now" button. All I can do is just like what you have in your video tutorial that only the link appears without the picture and price. Can you give tutorial on how to put this just like the lens "Jungle Party Supplies?" Don't mind about my blog it's just an experiment for me trying to exercise my writing, (lol).

I'm not sure what you mean by "how to put this just like the lens “Jungle Party Supplies?". The squidoo modules do not support the boxes with the product image, and buy now button, that amazon creates... if you want a box like that you'll have to go to Squidutils.com and create one there.

Hi, I can? understand how to add your site in my rss reader. Can you Help me, please

if you look below the search box in the sidebar you'll see an orange rss square. Click it and it will let you choose what reader you want to add the feed to.

I'll have to study your other pages on backlinks. I don't quite get the use of classified sites for links.

Thanks.

link popularity is the most important aspect of SEO, you need to gain lots of backlinks.;-

You really can't say that. Because the type of link you get makes a big difference. A link from an .edu site is much better than a link from a forum profile. So yes, backlinks are key but you can't just say get a lot of links ~ you have to think quality as well.

That is simply perfect! Do you have a result about this tht you have formalated? Thanks in advance.

I have a little system for linking in place, and after reading this post, I checked and found not all my links are being counted. I think I will try to add links over time, like you, and not do it all at once. I just have to get better organized.

It takes time for Google to find your links, and Google will never tell you ALL the links it has for your site. It's part of their secret sauce. They'll give you a piece of what's linking to you.

Get a system and if it works for you keep working it. With that said, it's a good idea to have some links building over time. :)

as everyone knows, link popularity is very important in gaining page rank.,~'

link popularity is very important in order for your website to get higher up in the search results page of any search engine.~~`

Ingrid ~ that's fantastic! Let me know how it continues to go!

Hi Jackie

my lens is now on page 2 of google it was MIA earlier and is now seeing 40+ visitors daily am work on it. This post inspired me to do four free ad blog post just now. Will let you know when it gets to page 1.

I'm not doing a ton of individual directories. The only directories I'm submitting to are RSS directories and you only have to do that once and you get the benefit for every new lens you make. It only takes 15 minutes or so ~ so it's worth it to me.

Otherwise, find things you do like to do to build links. It will take a LOT more links if you have no control over the anchor text than a few well place keyword anchor text links.

You can also do blog comments ~ especially using blogs that use the commentluv plugin.

Speaking of which ~ this blog uses the keywordluv plugin so feel free to use your name followed by @your keywords ~ that way I can talk to a person ~ not the new sweepstakes. :)

So glad I found your site. Tons of useful information and purchased your blueprint. Super confused about backlinks though and how to get started. Doesn't make sense yet.

backlinks are really simply... links that point from one site to another. So when you left a comment on this blog ~ you added your keywords in the name field, but you have to add your lens or site url in the url field. When you do that your name would have been made into a clickable link that points to your lens. (also since this blog uses commentluv you would have gotten an additional backlink in your comment ~ with the title of your lens as the anchor text). That's all a backlink is. Starting with blog comments is a really easy way to start getting links pointing at your lenses. (but you have to add the lens url to the url field in the comments area for it to work. )

Hi

I have been using free automated tools for creating back links. This however does not allow anchor text, but its O.K with me. For me submitting to individual directories just feels an intolerable job like getting the dishes cleaned.

Seeing you put up so much of hard work is a great motivation for this otherwise lazy boy.

Thanks again for the post

When I use my blog address on your comment area it gives a message that my page does not exist. So far only on your site. I will test it out on others. Weird
http://blog.pmaschofield.com/

My blog works but comments do not work when I paste in the url of my site here.

Hey your comment area is not working right. All comments are getting bumped to a page not found error.

Hey Jo,

It usually takes a month or two for them to stop bouncing around. I usually do the very basic linking (rss feeds, free blogs, links on my own blog network) and then I leave it alone. Look at see what it's done like a month later. If it's on the first couple pages I'll build more links to bump it up a little further. If it's no where to be found, just move on.

Hey Jackie,

Thanks as always for your awesome information. As can be expected you continually provide quality useful content.

Question...

Knowing the fickleness of Google's ranking, (IE one day 1st page and the next day gone), at what point to you decide to stop backlinking for a lens? Also, do you ever go back to that lens later down the road to add more links just to ensure your positioning in the search engine?

Thanks,

Jo

I have enjoyed this superb post. I really liked your advice about focusing on those areas of link building which we like and enjoy. I have commented on this article in my blog post, which you can find here:

http://rookiemarketing.blogspot.com/2010/03/how-to...

I hope you will like the post as much as I have enjoyed this one.

While articles are a great way to build links and get some traffic, they certainly aren't the ONLY way to build links. I'd suggest you check out the current web traffic tips series for more ideas on how to get traffic to your lenses.

Just look in the increase web traffic category. :)

Jackie thanks again for a great post . I've submitted articles to ezine and a couple others but not getting any traffic to speak of guess a I'll have to come up with more articles.

EZA is a great directory but it is by no means the only one. I have been having issues with them well here's where I stand on the issue. If you're looking for just a plain article directory look at articlebase.com and articlealley.com or goarticles.com they all do quite well in the search engines and have fewer rules and hoops than EZA.

Jackie, there is something about Ezine and links I would like to ask you. With the anchor text only allowed to be 3 words, is it still a proposition to write for them? I've had quite a few problems with them lately and I'm not so sure it is really worth the hassles any more!

I'm not one of those continually complaining about them. I have used them for more than two years now. I've never had problems before it is only starting now. If the links are still really good for some link juice I'll continue I just need a little imput from others as how to proceed here.

Have you ever used Xomba or SheToldMe to build backlinks? If so, what's been your experience as far as the effectiveness of those links?

Thanks.

Rosalyn

BTW, I gave your niche blog series a thumbs up on my blog, www.dailygrindescape.com. I think you're doing a great job and I really appreciate all your help.

I don't usually do it more than once :) Unless the lens just isn't getting indexed. I mainly use this as a way to get a site indexed, because I like to spread my links around to many different platforms so they are coming from a lot of different addresses.

but to answer your question ~ as long as you are writing new content you could write a new article on a free ad blog every hour and I don't think it would be considered spam. They are basically content directories ~the owner WANTS your content ~ it's what make THEM money. :) As long as you're not pasting up the same article time and time again you'll be fine as often as you want to do it.

Just realize Google will only count a certain number of links from the same domain ~ and I'm not sure what that number is ~ but I've heard around 20

Hi Jackie,

When is considered spamming on freeadblogs. Is it safe once a week or do you spread it out? Have you had any problems?

Thanks,

Steve

Jackie, I read one of your posts on back links yesterday and followed your example on commenting on Ezine. I found that it works great . I made an appropriate comment and my link was to a product appropriate for the article.

Hi Jackie,

Thanks for letting us test out our links on your blog. I have 36 lenses built, but not many clicks, so I'm trying to learn all I can to get more backlinks, as part of our 6 month plan!

Thanks again,
kikij

Hi Henry,

To tell you the truth ~ I have no idea. I don't spend a lot (any) time worrying about if my backlinks are showing up somewhere ~ I just keep checking if my google search placement is where I want it to be, if it's not, then I keep building links.

All the other stuff is just more complicated than I care to get ~ when it all comes down to if your lens/site isn't where you want it, you need more links.

The time spent chasing this information around, for me, is better spent building more links, or more content.

Jackie,

I’ve been following your posts with interest for a few weeks (I think I was introduced to your Christmas Gift thread by PotPieGirl). I’m not doing the Christmas thing but I’ve created a couple of lenses to link to my product review site. I’m new to the game so, it applies to me all the same.

I’d appreciate your comments on two backlinking issues that really intrigue me:

1. Although my lenses are both indexed by the SEs, no backlinks show when I submit my domain for Link Popularity at Submit Express(Hubpages and EZA do).
2. At present I have 24 backlinks to my review site (indexed by G), 8 from Yahoo, 8 from AltaVista, 8 from AlltheWeb, none from G and none from MSN. Out of curiosity I followed a link from your Ironman Gravity 4000 Inverter lens to one of your sites. Submitting this particular domain name at Submit Express, produced similar results – 75 backlinks (25,25,25,0,0). Why none from Google and MSN?

Thank you for a most invaluable blog!
Henry.

That only works in comments. :) At the free ad blogs you are using your product name as the anchor text for your links in the content. I have said frequently that you are welcome to use the name field in the comment section for your product name and the url for your lens url to create an anchor text backlink from here to your lens. (that's creating backlinks using blog comments. :) It's tougher to do with such niche topics, but it's fine for you to do that here.

This may be a silly question, but I have noticed that a couple of the readers of this blog use their link as their name to leave a comment. Are we supposed to be doing that here as well as on the Free ad Blogs? Did I miss that part? If so, where do I find that information in your tutorials? Thanks for all the great information!!

Log in to Squidoo. On your dashboard there will be a link that says "all my lenses" click that and you will have your lenses there. If you titled them by keyword you should have your keywords as well.

Hi Jackie
I really appreciate your great posts - they're extremely helpful.

I have a rather foolish question I'd like to ask.
I mentioned my loss of data due to hard-drive collapse earlier.
One thing I lost are the exact keywords for the two lens I was working on.
Is it possible to backtrack on Squidoo to confirm these keywords (before I do all
my linking)?
If so, can you tell me how?
Regards
RUSSELL

Another great post Jackie! I have one question - does 1 way links work for blogger blogs and squidoo lenses or only for sites that have our own domain name and hosting?

Thanks Jackie.

I started getting my info together for my Christmas Blog. Hopefully I'll get that together tomorrow so I can get my Amazon affiliate account started. I read your blog on free add blogs. I'll take a look into that once I'm started.

Thanks again, Jackie.

Angie

Hey Angie,

1. Take a deep breath. :) now take another. ;)

It's gonna be ok. I'll do a post today on the free ad blogs. No they're not usfreeads. It should answer your questions. If you look at the mind map there are a few of them listed under that branch of the tree. :) But I'll go into detail in the post.

Perfect! Thanks Jackie. Keep up the great work.

Chad

When you say free ad blogs, what are you referring to? Something like USFreeAds? I'm confused by what you mean. That to me isn't a blog. Am I wrong? The more and more I read, the more and more I become even more confused. I'm so beside myself at this point, I don't even know where to begin.

Advice please,

Angie