How to Use Twitter to your SEO Benefit

Twitter is an online social networking tool in which users post 140 character updates of what is going on in their lives along with links to things they think are interesting, funny, or useful to their followers (“following” being essentially what “friending” is on other sites). People use twitter in many ways, some as a newsfeed by following prominent people or networks, some as a pseudo-chatroom by limiting their followers and whom they follow to close friends and family, and some as a microblog for updating people about the work they are doing and their personal lives.

Direct Messaging

Direct Messages are private tweets (to other twitter users / the general public) that are exchanged between two users that follow each other. You cannot direct message someone that does not follow you and vice versa. Direct messages are the only private way to converse on twitter. “DM’s” are basically like emails that are limited to 140 characters per exchange. They are unsearchable on twitter.

hashtags

Hashtags are a way to label tweets so that other users can see tweets on the same topic. Hashtags contain no spaces or punctuation and begin with a “#” symbol. Many times at events like conferences or concerts, the organizers will tell attendees to add a particular hash tag to their tweets to gather opinions about the event and unite people at the same event.

Methods of using Twitter to your SEO Benefit

• Keyword searches are still important as it will increase the amount of traffic to your site. Twitter users use language they are used to, therefore of a conversational manner.
• Ensure to use keywords that relate to the twitter users.
• Try using Google keyword tools or Keyword Discovery to help you select keywords to be used on Twitter.
• Twitter is an easy marketing tool for your business; this network enables you to research your target market.
• Brand your business on your Twitter profile. Branding is very important in SEO and social media.
• Brand presence plays a crucial role on Twitter as traffic may overlook your businesses ad (blog).
• Set up more than one Twitter account when targeting your audience.
• Create a number of identities and use them to cater to different sectors of your audience.
• Be specific with your messages, as with SEO, the more specific the better to attract traffic.
• Your aim is to attract more followers on Twitter, thus resulting in more traffic to your site, the harder your message is to read, the lesser your chances you have in optimizing your site.
• If your brand is tasteful, it will be easier to customize your Twitter profile. Your blog must be descriptive and informative.
• Ensure to include your website’s address and your location within your Twitter blog.
• Twitter also looks at factors such as the amount of time your account has existed.
• Twitter like Google, needs to have trust in you in order to boost your Twitter search results.
• Twitter SEO depends on the amount of followers you have, you need to build strong relationships with the followers you have and make connections with other people that may become followers.
• The easiest way in obtaining new followers is to offer promotions or special offers.
• Ensure to keep in touch with your followers or they may lose interest in your blogs if you do not interact with them and keep them updated.
• Use relevant links and keyword searches as you only have 140 characters in which to get your message across to your audience.
• Create conversations or debates relating to your product or service.
• Provide advice or answer questions as frequently as possible.
• Start a viral marketing campaign on Twitter; maximize your number of “re-tweets” on your content.
• This campaign is successful especially if people are talking about you on Twitter.
• Additional links and multimedia material can work to your advantage, this will snowball traffic to your site and Twitter blogs.
• This will aid in establishing your brand image and develop new relationships with tweeters.
• Twitter SEO is a lot like advertising with e-mails as in both cases you need to offer tweeters high-quality content to keep their attention.
• Ensure your username is relevant and short; this also is a factor for SEO.
• Twitter can have a positive impact on your websites rankings on Alexa.com; this then sends users to your website.