Squidoo and NoFollow Links

[joatsaint]

I tried inserting hypertext into the body of a text module and it worked. e.g. - <a href="hxxp://xxx.squidoo.com/fixit">fixit</a>

But, the link is nofollow.

Are nofollow links of any value?

Am I a total nuub or what?

[Tel]

Randy, as far as I can see, all squidoo links are do follow. If you want me to check it out, please PM me the link to the lens and I'll have a look.

[lissie]

REALLY - so whats the point of them? Hubpages live for me then!

[Tel]

I checked it out. Seems the lens in question hasn't been ranked yet. That might be the cause of the blanket no-follow as the whole page is - not just in-text links.

All my lenses are still do-follow (even my latest one which is only a couple of weeks old) so no one should be alarmed by this.

It could be that squidoo are finally putting into place a means of deterring spammers by delaying the ranking of new lenses - maybe they come up for a visual inspection first? This is just theorising on my behalf, as they couldn't possibly inspect every new lens when they're being created in their thousands every day.

I'm going to put this to the test right now and create a new lens to see what happens!

But I for one would like to see something like this - maybe short period of no-follow until a lens has been populated with a set amount of text, say 500 words minimum of original content - that would certainly deter spammers and raise the squid in the eyes of Google once more - which is good for honest lensmasters (like me) who put a lot of quality content in their lenses.

[Tel]

Ok, I built the lens at http://www.squidoo.com/weightdown

Its unranked and no follow throughout. Lets wait a day or so and see what happens when it gets ranked.

[Tel]

Ok, its just over an hour and squidoo have updated.

My lens is now do-follow having been ranked at #117,254 down from #650k!

No problem!

[DeMerchant]

So they must be no follow while they are a "work in progress". Look at your "My Lenses" page and if it has a green check beside it it should be do follow I'm assuming.

[Tel]

yep, that sounds about right. It must be the level of content that determines when a lens is no longer a "work in progress" and they rank it.