Outbound Link Value on Lenses
I’ve heard several questions the past week about ‘when’ or ‘how’ to add external links (links to other sites) to lenses.
I try to follow a few basic rules of thumb that work quite well for me.
1) add ‘rel=nofollow’ to affiliate links - Especially if they link to some crazy domain or something. Besides, you aren’t trying to build link equity for the manufacturer you are trying to rank for, are you?
2) Links to other authority sites on the topic - Yes, I feel including these in a Do Follow format is actually benificial for several reasons, the main one being it provides a much better user experience. Remember when ‘linkbait’ seemed to mean ‘the top 100 sites for..’ ? The simple fact is that people would rather talk about something that links to a lot of useful resources. Sure you lose some visitors to the other sites, but they are more likely to come back than if your lens is simply a ‘dead end’ with no other information to follow up on.
3) Links to reviews / Forum threads - For the same reasons stated above, these can provide traffic back to you as well as improve user experience.
If you visited a site about your lens topic, would you want access to more information if you were truly interested? Of course.
If that’s what people want, why not give it to them?
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Comments
I’ll disagree on the tinyurl smashill - many people don’t trust them (with good reason) & won’t click on any from that domain.
Well an affiliate link is even worse I think, besides that your affiliate code can be stripped off pretty easy. I don’t trust affiliate offers and don’t click on them, still there are people who do 
Good tips, Captain. I’ve never added the ‘rel=nofollow’ but I think it’s time I started. I tend to not think about it when I’m writing, so I’ll have to go back if I want to add it to all my lenses.
Great info! thanks so much! I have to use squidoo to my advantage more… I only have a couple lenses and I’m not fully utilizing it! looking forward to more posts!
David
CeleryStalker, Thanks!
WIP (work in progress)correct?
I did not think so, but I thought I would come here to confirm.
Glad to hear this cause I love using my ens for their link value. Great News!
How about using your own URL Shortening Script and Redirect. Then you create a custom URL with your most important keywords for redirecting to affiliate offers. Just my two cents. I am using it own a lot of different things and it works out very well.
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I agree to that add rel=nofollow, it’s even better to go for a tiny url, cause then your affiliate codes can’t be striped away.