Got a question today over at the other blog. It’s a question I get a lot and SWORE I had done a post on, but I guess not. So here’s it is.
The question:
Hi Jackie!
I was looking over your mind maps and i noticed that you said in the “create links” section, to ” do not use keywords in title. ? Could use explain this to me and anyone else that is perplexed? Because that is one of the things that i do to get links back to my lenses so that i can get traffic from google BEFORE the lense is indexed.
Have I been doing something wrong all this time? Talk to me! Please!
Thanx!
The answer:
There are a few things you need to think about when you’re writing articles to post to EZA.
When you’ve decided to target a specific keyword for a lens you want to get it indexed, and you want to build links to it. For sure.
However, you don’t want your article on EZA to rank better than your lens. If you use the exact keywords you are targeting as the title for your EZA article that is exactly what could very well happen.
I say don’t use the keyword in the title, and I mean that, but what you DO want to do, is use them as the anchor text in your links back to your site in the resource box.
Having your keywords in the title of your article that is going to help get your lens indexed ~ that doesn’t really make a difference. It’s having a very relevant link in that article ~ with relevant keywords, and pointing to a relevant page that’s going to get you indexed and ranked better in Google.
If you use your keywords in the title you’re going to end up with an article on EZA that’s ranking above your lens. This is not such a great thing.
It’s not a great thing because then people have to do this:
1. click on your article.
2. read it all the way through
3. read your resource box
4. feel compelled to click the link to your lens
5. read your lens
6. feel compelled to click a link to the product in your lens.
That’s a lot of reading and a lot of clicking people have to do before they get to a place that can make you any money.
You want to use your EZA article to get traffic to your lens, but not at the expense of your lens’ ranking.
So what do you use instead?
You use something that’s relevant or related to your topic. You can use a benefit of the product and write about that, you can use a feature of the product and write about that, you can use an experience you had with the product and write about that. (Here’s a post that will go into that in more detail.)
THEN…
In your resource box you push them to the lens using your targeted keywords in the anchor text. This gets them to the lens (for more information ~ or for reviews ~ or for whatever you’re using to get them there in the resource box) AND it helps your lens rank better in Google by using the keywords in the link.
Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions ~ I’ll try to help clarify. 
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More helpful posts:
Hi Jackie,
One way to enhance this method is to use longtail keyword that is related to ACTUAL keyword in squidoo lens for the article title.
It will lead more TARGETED visitors to your articles and hopefully click through to your lens.
Paul@Petsafe wireless containment system´s last blog ..Petsafe Wireless Containment System updated Wed May 19 2010 9-45 pm CDT
AND you can also use keywords that help solve a problem that your product solves, but may be unrelated to the actual keywords.
ex. for the ironman gravity 4000 inversion table I could write an article about ending back pain without medication.
This isn’t your keyword ~ but in your article you can talk about an inversion table being one option ~ in the resource box you can talk about the ironman inversion table being the best.
Solving a problem someone has ~ and using your product to do it is a great way to use articles.
ok, jackie,
I get it. So basicly what you are telling me is that i will have to find a whole ‘nother batch of low competition keywords to write my articles on that are related to my lense topic, right? I have no problem with that, i love to write.
It’s just that I wish i knew this beforehand. I have at least 100 or so articles out there that have my keywords as titles.
I have two more questions for you. Do you find that this method helps your articles to convert to sales better? Maybe this is why i haven’t made as many sales as I would like. I’ve made some sales, but for someone with 100 plus articles i would think that my conversion rate would be better.
Also I was wondering since Squidoo Christmas Cash is your niche, Do you still follow PPG’s OWM plan or have you decided to do your own thing with your SCC?
Once again, thanx for everything!
Kenneth L. White´s last blog ..Melagenina Plus… updated Fri Jun 25 2010 8:31 pm CDT
I still help people work through OWM via LearnItStepbyStep.com, but I don’t really use the OWM system any more. When I get a chance to do lenses these days it’s for a specific product and what I outline in the SCC. I just don’t have time to do 8 lenses for each thing ~ I also found that only 1 or 2 of the 8 would get traffic. I felt like I was wasting time.
It’s still very valid system if you’re JUST doing Squidoo, but since I have a lot more going on now, I don’t go all out anymore.
Your articles are fine as they are. Don’t worry about it. THey’ve done their job for you. They’ve given you links to your lenses (did you NOT use your kw in the anchor text of your links?). The main point of the EZA articles is to get the link ~ for me at least. If I get traffic to them all the better, but the primary purpose in my mind is to get a GOOD quality link to my lens so it will rank better.
I also don’t do a huge amount of article writing anymore ~ I’ve found it is much more fun for me to do some blog commenting instead. Spreads your links out across a number of domains, and is more fun (for me) than writing tons of articles.
Plus ~ at the level of competition I use for my SCC lenses it works really well to get them ranking well.