How Twitter is Rocking Your SEO
Twitter is in a new relationship. It’s not “complicated”, but it should impact the way you approach your social media and SEO strategy this year.
Big news for tweets and search engine optimization.
Tweets will start appearing in Google search results within the next 90 days, according to reports.
This is the result of a new agreement between Twitter and Google, which gives the search giant access to Twitter data in exchange for indexing tweets.
If you are a business or online marketer, this means you have an opportunity to raise your profile on Google by tweeting.
Of course, we are talking search, and that means you’ll have to be mindful of how you use the 140 characters in order to positively affect your SEO strategy.
Here’s what we mean:
Keywords are going to be especially important. Not only in your tweet, but also in the page content of any URLs being shared via the tweet. Google will likely need to see that your tweet and the link that it points to are relevant to the users’ search terms before displaying your tweets further up in search results.
Engagement will (still) be measured. Likes, shares, comments and clickthroughs have all been important indicators that social media content is relevant to the audience. This data is not going to be lost on Google (especially being granted direct access); you can bet that tweets with higher engagement will receive more SEO weight than those without.
Think mobile. A big part of what Google is doing now focuses on mobile users, so in creating your tweets you want to be sure you appeal to smartphone and tablet users as well. Develop messaging that speaks to the intent of mobile searchers, which is primarily researching a product/service, looking for reviews, and finding a physical store.
The new relationship between Twitter and Google forces businesses and marketers to evaluate the role of tweets in the overall SEO strategy. You will have to consider the ubiquity of posts as they start to exist outside of your Twitter bubble, and what that means for your organization. Your tweets will soon be backed by the power of Google to give you more exposure, drive more traffic to your website, and grow your Twitter audience through a search (not social) based experience.
