Squidoo is a website where people around the world can share information related to a specific topic. Unlike Wikipedia, these Squidoo ‘lenses’ are made by regular uses which want to review, create a how to or just want to talk about an something. Many businesses and website owners use Squidoo to build back links to their website, as well as a part of their link building campaign.

Squidoo is great because you have massive control over your content you provide, including an outbound links. People use Squidoo to tell others about topics of their website, and then simply point back to their own. Because Squidoo has such a high Page Rank and reach, you are able to reach far more people than before and as you increase your visitors and inbound links.

The following will guide you through the creation of a Squidoo lenses to increase inbound links and help your SEO strategy.

• First, create an account at Squidoo
• After you’ve created your account, begin the lens creation process.

Step 1: What’s your ‘lens’ about?

Within this box, choose the subject of your lens. Often, this can be about a specific product or service you offer. The subject can also be about information provided on your website, think of it like reinforcing what you’ve wrote before.

Step 2: What is the goal?

There are 4 options available for your new lens:

• Get the word out
• Sell stuff
• Make a list
• Do your own thing

For the purpose of this tutorial, choose the (easiest option) of ‘getting the word out’.

Step 3: Create a Title and URL

At this point, you will want to make sure you have chosen highly optimized keywords for your Title and URL. Using highly optimized keywords will help gain exposure for your lenses, while building quality and relevant back links.

Next, choose your category. You should always choose the specific category your lenses truly belong too. Finally, rate your lenses depending on the content provided.

Step 4: Tagging

The next step is to tag the keywords related to the content you plan to provide. Again, use highly targeted keywords in this area based on research, don’t just guess. A very simple tool for determining keywords is the Google Keyword Tool.

Step 5: Adding Content

Now that you have your lenses created, it’s time to add content. Like any blog post or article written for your website, create a genuine piece which will attract readers along with a call to action to either buy your product or continue through the link to your website.

There are a few things to consider about your lenses

• Add lots of pictures – people love pictures
• Add a video – You could even use your own YouTube video to further increase engagement!
• Aggregate RSS feeds to add even more info – but be wary incase the readers leave via these links.
• Play around with it and see what you can come up with – make something people want to read!

Promote Your Lenses

Now that your lenses are done, don’t slack off, it’s time to tell the world! Get on all the social networking, bookmarking and media sites you regularly go to and link the article. You could also do a few additional tricks detailed in the other posts about using Articles Gala, YouTube and more.

In Conclusion

As you can see, using Squidoo is a great way to build back links and increase visitors to help your Search Engine Optimization efforts. Many people have solely used Squidoo to conduct business, but using it as a standalone tool in your search engine optimization repertoire is smart thinking. Now, what are you waiting for, get out there and start driving more traffic to your website!