image via louisvolant
The internet and social media are powerful way to advertise online. There are many companies that have dedicated SEO teams or outside providers to do their SEO, as well as teams of dedicated people just to keep their Social Media presence active.
Why else would companies be paying so much money and attention toward these marketing efforts if they weren’t providing great results? Well now that we have established that, you must be ready to take your SEO to the next level…right?
Good. get a glass of water, pen and paper. It’s time for Twitter for SEO 101.
Google, as you may know, is already indexing Tweets and Twitter pages, which are showing up in Google Search Results. Yeah, you read that right. Your rant (kind of like this one) could end up in Twitter. Think of what you can do with that premium space and best of all its free advertising and the only thing better than free advertising is making money from free advertising.
Check out these quick start tips for using Twitter as an SEO tool:
Select an account name wisely
You should optimize your Twitter account name to best reflect your brand. This name appears next to your profile, which can be different than your handle/URL. So you clearly need an account name that not only promotes yourself, your company, your brand or all three if applicable.
Think hard and get a good handle
Get a handle that’s relevant if you sell widgets don’t get an “obie-one-canobie” inspired handle it will serve you no good! This handle should be easy to remember as it becomes a part of your twitter URL. My tips of success here are to “KISS” it… Keep it Simple Silly.
What does your bio really say
Twitter was so nice they gave you a bio box that can house 160 characters. These characters very important for your account and since your BIO is always indexed remember to update it when necessary to get the most out of this BIO.
Keyword-rich tweets
Think of it like SEO from the early 2000′s where you could stuff keywords…whenever & wherever possible, start your tweet with your main keyword phrase to theme each message. Utilize any trendy lingo or buzz words as this will enable you to capitalize on timely searches on those terms. Of course, this doesn’t mean you should fill your tweets with buzz words at the expense of providing value to your followers!
Select the initial characters of each tweet carefully
The “lead-in” of each tweet appears to be important for SEO as it will determine what appears in the tweet’s title tag when it shows up as a search result on Google. Approximately 42 characters are factored into each tweet’s title tag, including the account name, as well as the initial characters of each tweet. Keep in mind that your full tweet and all its characters are still being indexed by major engines, though.
Use these tips wisely, and remember- utilizing your social media profiles for search engines is no longer a luxury; it’s a must. Also, don’t forget to to link your Twitter profile wherever you can. If you have any tips you’d like to share, leave them in the comments section. Until next time.
