Visualizing Squidoo Link Flow Part One - Lenses

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This is the beginning of a 4-part series I’m going to release this week that describes how I believe Squidoo’s internal link structure works to help you get better rankings and what you can do to take advantage of it.

Let’s start off by looking at the 4 different ‘types’ of links that go into and out of Squidoo lenses.

Squidoo Link Flow Away from a Lens

As you can see, there are 4 major types of links out of a lens:

1. Tags - These link to tag pages within squidoo. You have complete control over which tag pages, but they will always go to tag pages.
2. Category - There is always a link to the Squidoo Category you chose when setting up your lens. You have control over this.
3. Discover lenses - This is a new addition and links out to other lenses on Squidoo. You have some ways to control these links as well, both directly and indirectly.
4. Modules - Any links you add to your lens in your modules or profile are completely under your control. These are the only links on your lens that lead out from squidoo.

Squidoo Link Flow Towards a Lens

Notice any similarities here? You have the exact same four sources of incoming links to your lens. These could also be called ‘backlinks’, those things everyone wants to have.

1. Tags - All the tag pages that you link to also link back to you in some form. The link to your lens might be on page 27 of ‘music’ though and your link to the tag page is to the first ‘music’ page….
2. Category - The same concept as tags. Your link points to the first page in the category but your link back is not necessarily from the front page.
3. Discover - Your lens will receive some links back to it from other lenses through the discover tool. These are ‘one-way’ links because you are not necessarily linking to the lens that links to you. There are some ways to control these links that could potentially make this very powerful.
4. External - These are the links that set you apart from other lenses. The toughest to get, they can make or break your lens if used correctly. There are a few Squidoo modules that allow you to automatically acquire external links to your lens as well…

Summary

So what does this mean? Squidoo allows you to control the links coming into your lens as well as the links leaving your lens when done correctly. The key is to use the ‘link infrastructure’ that’s in place to achieve your extra piratey goal…

Next up: Using Link flow from Tag and Category Pages to Improve your Rankings