Welcome To My Island

Before you make a lens, consider doing some research first. Doing research first can help you find the right keywords to use. This can help your Squidoo lens get indexed higher in the search engines, which means more traffic, and potentially more money!

How to dig for keyword goldmines and use them with Squidoo lenses

1. Decide on a topic - Pick a topic for a lens you would like to make.
2. Come up with some keywords – When you have decided on a topic for a lens ask yourself, “If I was searching for my lens on a search engine, what would I search for?” Come up with several potential searches. Each search you come up will be a potential “keyword” you can use.
3. Research the keyword on Wordtracker or another tool – Use a keyword research tool such as Wordtracker, and do a search for one of the keywords you came up with in step 1. Wordtracker will show the keyword you entered, along with a list of other related ones and how much they are searched for in a day. What you are looking for are keywords that are being searched a fairly good amount, but also, have little competition.
4. Research possible keywords on Google or another search engine - Pick some of the keywords that are being searched a good amount and would relate to the topic of the lens you want to make, and do a search on Google for them one at a time. When you make a search for a potential keyword, this is when you’ll assess how much competition there is for that keyword, and if your lens will have a good chance of getting to the top. The idea is to find a keyword that no one has fully taken advantage of.
   1. Find out how competitive each keyword is – once you perform a search using a potential keyword, pay attention to the sites that come up in the search results. Pay attention to the title of the sites, the url of the sites, the content of the sites showing up, and how related the sites are to what the search was.
      1. Does the title of the top sites contain the keyword you searched for? Look at the title of the sites coming up. See if the titles have all of what you searched for in it, and if they are close to what you searched for. If you searched for “Tropical islands for sale,” you are looking to see if the top sites showing up in the search results have “Tropical islands for sale” in their title. If the title doesn’t contain the keyword you searched for, you’ll have an edge over it if you have it in your Squidoo lens’s title.
      2. Does the URL of the top sites contain the keyword you searched for? Look at the URL of the sites. If you searched for “Tropical islands for sale,” look to see if any part of the site’s URL has it in it. For example http://www.tropicalislandsforsale.com, or http://www.example.com/tropical-islands-for-sale.html.
      3. Are the sites showing up related to the keyword? See if the sites that show up relate to the keyword you searched for. If you searched for “Tropical islands for sale,” see if the sites showing up are sites with tropical islands for sale or about tropical islands for sale. If some of the sites aren’t about tropical islands for sale, then this might be a sign that you’ll have a pretty good chance of getting indexed higher.
      4. How much content do the top sites have? Check to see how much content the top sites have. If you can write more focused content than them, as well as better content than them, then you’ll have a better chance of getting more traffic from search engines.
5. Pick A Keyword To Use - After researching, and following the steps above, pick a keyword that is searched a good amount, but also has little competition. Once you pick your keyword, you are ready to build your lens.
6. Build Your Lens - Now that you have a topic, and a keyword, building your lens is the next step, there are a few things to make sure you do.
   1. Use the keyword in the title of you lens – When you are entering the title of the lens, make sure the title has the keyword you chose to use in it. This will help your lens get higher search engine rankings when that keyword is searched.
   2. Use the keyword in the URL of the lens - As with the title, the URL (address) of your lens should have the keyword in it. If your keyword is “tropical islands for sale” you could make your lens URL http://www.squidoo.com/tropical-islands-for-sale, http://www.squidoo.com/tropicalislandsforsale, http://www.squidoo.com/tropical_islands_for_sale, or something else with your keyword in it. Having the keyword in the URL of the lens will help your lens get higher search engine rankings when the keyword is searched.
   3. Use the keyword throughout the lens – When you are filling your lens up with content, try to use the keyword throughout the lens. Don’t force it or abuse it though, you don’t want to sound like a broken record. Try to make it sound natural. Having the keyword throughout your Squidoo lens will help it get higher rankings in search engines when the keyword is searched.
7. Finish! - Finish your lens and publish it! Now if you want, repeat again and again and build more lenses! The more quality lenses you have, the more money you can potentially make from Squidoo!

I hope this guide helped!