Every Squidoo lens will have a chance to shine, even if it’s not in the first weeks, months or even the first year after it has been first published.
A good case in point is Famous People From Bournemouth which has always ranked highly on Google, but which has not had a huge amount of traffic since this is not a really popular topic.
Over the last weekend suddenly the number of visits shot up by around 600 instead of the usual 50 a week, and on investigation this was because of a lot of Google searches for a woman called “Melita Norwood”, who was a spy with the codename “Hola”, and who was born in Bournemouth. It seems that something must have triggered a lot of searches for her, and my lens showed up even though I only have a small section for her on it.
You just never know what is going to be a popular search, and sometimes the most unlikely topics could result in your lenses generating a lot of traffic.
So far I have no idea why this woman caused a lot of searching, whether it was a news item for example, but it’s a good example of why you should never give up hope of lenses being successful in Squidoo.
This one was ranked about 40,000 last week, now it’s in the 2nd tier. With luck and a bit of tweaking it might stay there too.
Poddys, your observation that a lens can take off in popularity is consistent with my experience. I work hard to write quality content but some lenses are duds, at least they start out that way. I have been revising all my lenses to have square intro photos, which is very important to Squidoo it turns out.
Interesting what you say Tony. I must admit to being disappointed with progress so far on Squidoo. Having put a lot of effort into my lenses, I see little interest generally. I realise that golf lenses may not appeal to everyone, but I was hopeful my travel lens on Lanzarote would be of more interest. As far as I can see it matches other popular travel lenses for content and quality. Clearly, I have yet to unravel the mystery of Squidoo success.
It’s not easy to outrank other pages on Google, which is where at the end of the day most traffic usually comes from.
Best thing is to look and see what is on other pages about Lanzarote, to maybe add more detail on the places to go, things to do, add links to other sites about Lanzarote, and other tips.
Have you tried commenting on other sites/blogs about Lanzarote and leaving your lens as your link? That should give you some backlinks, and that combined with some keyword research might make a difference.
I do know also that traffic comes and goes as search terms become more popular. Lanzarote appeals more to European travellers than those from the USA, so traffic is likely to be somewhat lower, however it should still be significant. Keep working at it