I’ve personally found that tagging influences a page’s visibility in google. In general, I’ve found that without good tagging, squidoo lenses rarely rank well in google at all. Good tagging doesn’t guarantee it but it opens up the door to it.

Also, don’t downplay the benefit of having other lensmasters discover your lenses…this can help you get squidlikes, and links to your lenses. Often, when building a lens, I like to see what’s out there. In fact, I think, per-view, views from other lensmasters are more important than views from internet users at large. Keep in mind that many lensmasters are also bloggers or webmasters, so reaching this audience can be a key part of networking if you want to connect with others who are in a position to share your own works!