How To Create a Squidoo Lens For Local Businesses
One of the easiest ways to create a Squidoo lens for local businesses is through article marketing and social media channels. I’ve found the best, most intuitive method for creating and publishing a sound article online is through the use of Squidoo.
This system not only allows you to create an attractive article online, but it also takes you by the hand and walks you through the process, step-by-step! Squidoo is certainly the choice for beginners and pros alike because of its user friendly interface and LOADS of Google love it receives.
Rest assured, your competition is most likely NOT doing this. If you want to dominate your local market, Squidoo is the first option for small businesses.
Getting a Squidoo Lens set up is very easy to do. Fortunately for us, the process is pretty much laid out for you. This lens will have a tremendous impact on your local business online presence. Here are the basics for getting set up.
1. Create an account at http://www.Squidoo.com
2. Fill out your profile and bio. Be sure to upload an image and don’t leave any fields blank.
3. Click on “Create A Lens!”
4. Give your project a title and basic description.
5. Add a photo to make it more interesting.
6. Create a few text modules.
7. Add some sugar and spice.
8. Publish!
Pretty straightforward, right? The next sections will cover the recommended content and structure of your article in more depth. Whenever possible, be sure to include your city or region to help search engines know that you targeting a local market.
Intermediate Article Strategies For Local Businesses
how to get your lens noticed…
Now, anyone can do this obviously. But in order to get your Lens noticed, you will have to focus your lens on one specific topic and explore it in detail. In this case, we are going to share a few article marketing strategies that will get your lens quickly noticed by the search engines.
First and foremost, focus your lens on a specific key phrase. This one focuses on “Article Marketing” and you will notice that this phrase is naturally peppered throughout the entire lens. However, yours should focus primarily on your local business market. Use the industry you’re in as a main key phrase as well as the city or region that you operate in. You don’t want to “stuff” your lens with the key phrase. Search engines these days are too smart for that. Just be sure to use it as often as possible when writing your content.
So, aside from the phrase “Article Marketing”, we also want to use related key phrases that search engines will use to add weight to your message. For instance, Google can easily tell that this lens is about “Article Marketing”, but so are millions of others. What will give our lens more authority is the use of relevant key phrases that are similar in meaning. When we talk about Article Marketing, we usually bring up related ideas.
Here are a few…
Web 2.0
This is a blanket term that describes user generated, dynamic content vs. static content (Web 1.0). Social networks, blogs, article marketing sites, and wikis are great examples of Web 2.0 platforms. It creates an interactive experience for web users and allows “the people” to control the content.
Blogging
While Articles and blogs are not identical in structure, they do share several similarities. Most bloggers are article writers. The main difference is in how their visitors can interact with the information. Blogs are set up to allow comments, where as articles are not. The advantage to articles over blogs comes in syndication. Especially when your article is posted on one of the higher traffic websites like “E-Zine Articles”, your content is constantly being distributed throughout their network on autopilot.
Anyway, you get the idea. We are using relevant keywords associated with our primary key phrase to increase the juice our article emits. If you’re curious, the term Google uses for this method of ranking is “Latent Semantic Indexing” or (LSI). Just a little random trivia. 
This method is sure to increase your company’s online presence and garner significant attention from your online customers. Trust me, they ARE looking for your business online.
Advanced Article Ninja Tricks For Business Owners – how to make a difference…
Ok, so we’ve been through the basics of setting up a Squidoo Lens and making it attractive to search engines.
Now it’s time to set your article apart from the rest, by making it attractive to your potential customers…real human readers who are interested in your local business.
Notice that each module has a picture related to the content? Pictures are important to help readers maintain interest and draw connections to your information. Certainly any picture is better than NO picture, but it’s best to find something relevant to the topic at hand. Any chance you get to add a picture, be sure and do so.
Next, you will see that this article is broken into three sections: Basics, Intermediate, and Advanced. Organize your information into easily understandable and logical sections. Internet users don’t mind reading, but they want your content to be well structured.
Think of it like this…
If someone asked you to eat a 1/4 pound cheeseburger in one bite, you would probably balk. Sure, it’s possible but not very likely that you would even attempt it. But, if they said you could do it in 10 bites, you would see the SAME task (eating a cheeseburger) as much more manageable. Moral of the story, break your content into manageable chunks.
Finally, say something worth saying!
This should really go WITHOUT saying, but the fact remains, there is a lot of junk on the internet. And it’s due to lazy article marketers who don’t want to put any thought into the quality of their product. It’s not enough to just provide a “how to” on anything these days. Those are a dime a dozen.
In addition to your “how to”, you must also explain “why to”.
This just makes good business sense. It’s never enough to simply help your customers solve a problem. In order to gain their trust and earn their business, you have to show them how doing business with YOU is better than buying from someone else. What are the advantages to your method vs. someone else’s?
What kind of unique spin can you take on the information? How are you benefiting the reader and adding value to their experience? When you approach article marketing (especially on Squidoo) with these questions in mind, you are TRULY setting yourself apart from the rest and creating a viable online presence for your local business.
For more information visit: http://www.squidoo.com/how-to-create-a-squidoo-lens-for-local-businesses
About the Author
<p>For more information visit: <a href=”http://www.squidoo.com/how-to-create-a-squidoo-lens-for-local-businesses”>http://www.squidoo.com/how-to-create-a-squidoo-lens-for-local-businesses</a> </p>
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