A Neverending Discussion–How Traffic Affects Lensrank
September 23, 2009 in Editorial, Featured, Lensmaster Blogs, Lensrank by lakeerieartists
Recently reading the Captain’s latest post, I was then directed to this post by mac33.
The discussion in hand is how lensrank decays over time, and how traffic affects lensrank decay. While we all know that there is a mysterious algorithm in place that affects lensrank on Squidoo, we also know what some of the factors affecting lensrank are, and to no surprise, traffic is one of them.
Traffic is an important factor on any site because the more focused or quality traffic you get, the more clicks you get on ads, products or any other income producing item. (See Seth’s newest post Everyone gets paid on commission for more on this.) Empty traffic is worthless because it doesn’t produce income which is why the algorithm doesn’t rely on traffic alone.
I believe it makes sense that a lens needs to dynamically increase in traffic for the traffic to have a continued upwards affect on lensrank, because again, it is the traffic that produces income for the page that is the key factor, not just any traffic.
Mac’s analysis of his particular lens just points that out, and that it pays to update your lens periodically for changes and broken links. For those of you who haven’t found it yet, there is a “Need to be edited” link on the left side of your Squidoo dashboard, that shows you any lens that hasn’t been updated in two months or more.
I think that all of us realize that if we get traffic from people already searching on our focused topic (that is what making a lens is all about) that those people are much more likely to buy now or return and buy items from our page or click links on our page. This is the behavior that will pay you or Squidoo or both.
Quoting allthatiscute: Diary of a rabbit owner. Ladies and gentlemen: the story you are about to hear is true. The names have not been changed to protect the innocent, because frankly I don’t care. —
Overheard on twitter...
From time to time I watch specific lenses and look at what activities do the most to boost lensrank. Traffic obviously does as Paula points out but I still think people fail to understand the importance of regularly updating a lens.
From my observations, just a small update can give quite a boost – I have even seen an improvement in Lensrank when I have updated a Lens that has had NO traffic. Again, from my own observations, the boost usually happens not at the next Lensrank update, but the one after.
AJ´s last blog ..A very special update!