How Do I Get My Lens to the First Page of Google?
Oct 20
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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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.
Lisa @ iRobot 610 Roomba Professional Series´s last blog ..iRobot 610 Roomba Professional Series updated Thu Jul 22 2010 1-29 pm CDT
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.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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-build-links-to-your-site-even-if.html
I hope you will like the post as much as I have enjoyed this one.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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, http://www.dailygrindescape.com. I think you’re doing a great job and I really appreciate all your help.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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?
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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.
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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
@Frank ~ when you’re searching for ranking you want to just put your whole keyword in Google, just like any other searcher would so you can see where you show up.
@Chad ~ You are finding product specific keywords, but research still needs to be done to make sure there is appropriate search volume and minimal competition for the keywords you’ve chosen.
@GBU ~ It sometimes happens that you’re RSS feeds will rank higher than your lens in the beginning, with more links to your lenses they should outrank them eventually ~ with your free ads you should not be using your main keyword in the title ~ just like in articles so they don’t do that. You don’t want a free ad outranking your lens. Use a related keyword in the title or something else that’s relevant. EX. the ironman lens. Instead of using the whole ironman keyword, I might write a post on inversion therapy, and then use the whole kw in the post to link back to the lens.
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Hi Jackie,
Thanks for your posts, especially about backlinkings. Really helpful for me.
I’m from South East Asia and English is not my everyday language. So make some posts or article in English is a struggle for me. But I try my best….
I sometimes found that my RSS feeds and my free ad posts rank higher then my lens, is that normal?
Thanks again. GBU.
Thanks for the quick response Jackie, awesome places to link do and great to get that confirmation. I am wondering about the KW research you are talking about. With these product specific lenses for the Christmas stuff are we not supposed to be using the exact product name?
Keep up the great work while I continue to take action
Chad
Hey Jackie!
Great post – as usual!
Here is where I’m at so far (and a question).
I have:
2 lenses on page one – position 3 and position 6
1 lens on page 3 – position 3
1 lens on page 6 – position 3
1 lens indexed, but not in the first 10 pages
1 lens not indexed yet
All these results are “phrased match” not broad match.
My goal is to have ten lenses on the first page of Google.
I’m having a brain cramp tonight – Am I looking for them to be phrased matched or broad matched for this goal?
Blessings,
Frank
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1. free ad blogs
2. create your own free blogs There are lots of places in addition to blogger
3. web 2.0 sites (hubpages, zimbio, wis.dm, wetpaint, knol to name a few)
4. Submit articles to multiple article directories ~ there are TONS of those.
5. Comment on blogs.
6. Social bookmarking
7. Directory submissions
(all in no particular order)
Check out this post on backlinking for more ideas
These product lenses ~ if you’ve done good kw research ~ shouldn’t take a huge amount of linking
(and if you can scrounge up $7 for 1 month of 1 way links it would be an easy way to get the links you need)
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Hi Jackie,
For those of us who can’t afford 1 Way Links or UAW where do you suggest we go to do back links?
Thanks
Chad
No you can comment on blogs of any topic ~ you’ll just use the name field as your keyword and then the link field for your url. Just make sure you provide a quality comment that is related to the topic of the post ~ if you do that, your name/link will be fine.
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Jackie,
I love reading your posts. My question is when backlinking, do I only comment to a blog in my niche? Keep the valuable information coming.
Thanks Jackie – Now I know just what to do next. Free ad sites, here I come.
BTW – the lens for this item is on the 1st page of google for it’s keyword already – and all I did was ping it and add it to my Christmas blog. Now, all I need are some click-outs!
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@Rachel PR – is a very GOOD thing to see when you look at product keywords. It means there is very little competition and you can rank pretty easily for it. Yes, it is because these are very specific keywords.
On my blogs I usually do link to both my lens and then to the amazon page. (I use my visual call to action as the post image and link from that to amazon)
@Laura I change up the posts some ~ it depends if they are long posts with lots of links or short posts. If they are short I just rewrite them. If they are long with lots of links I will rearrange paragraphs ~ and rewrite the first and last paragraph.
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Hi Jackie,
Thank you for this information. My question concerns posting to the free ad blogs. When you mention in today’s post that you “Submitted posts to 4 different free ad blogs.” , are all 4 posts different or are they the same posts just submitted to 4 different ad blogs? If different, do the changes need to be slight variances or major re-writes?
Thank you,
Laura
Jackie….thanks so much for all your help. I started a Christmas product lens 2 weeks ago and today I found that my lens and 2 of my free ad blogs are on the first page of google for my keyword. No sales yet, but at least I can be found and the ‘system’ is working.
When investigating specific products for keywords, I find that the first page of google has many PR as blank and it does not come close to adding up to 30 total. I have justed started using SEO for firefox, so I wondered if you find this to be true also? Is it because we are so specific with our 1 product keyword?
Also, when writing a post to blogger, do you link to your lens and also the product page in amazon or just to the squidoo lens?
Thanks again.