Who knew that Twitter could play such an important role in all things SEO? Yes, search engine optimization certainly deals primarily with people finding your website via the search engines, but Twitter works well in conjunction with these programs. Indeed, in February 2015 Google and Twitter reached an agreement on indexing tweets, providing a powerful way for you to advance your web presence.
Google and Twitter
Google and Twitter have a relationship that goes back at least to 2009. That’s the year when Google first began indexing Twitter tweets (short messages) in with its search results. The advantage of that is when a relevant tweet was posted, it stood the chance of getting picked up by Google.
Google tweaked its Twitter initiative, discontinuing the service, then bringing it back. Until 2015, its methods left much to be desired as random tweets would oftentimes get more attention than carefully placed tweets. Thus, people grew frustrated with the process and wanted something better. The agreement between the two technology giants should begin to change all that.
A Percentage of Tweets
First off, Google is not indexing every tweet made. If it tried to do so it would slow Twitter down appreciably. Instead, Google takes a small sample of tweets, roughly 7 percent of all messages and indexes those.
Second of all, Google gets its information via API or what is known as the “firehouse” in this industry. The firehose data represents Twitter’s complete and unfiltered stream of tweets its sends via this service.
Followers and Signals
Google is always coy about its methodologies, leaving SEO experts to speculate on how it does most of anything. For instance, we do know that having more followers increases the likelihood that your tweets are getting indexed. However, experts also believe that Google separates the wheat from the chaff as it is easy to game Twitter by suddenly and sharply increasing your follower count.
Other signals may also be at work, including the user profile. Indeed, the more authoritative your profile, the more likely you will get Google’s attention through Twitter. Spend some time working on your profile, by carefully choosing your keywords and using other metrics to signal Google such as your line of work, company and career path.
Preferred Content
There are certainly some ways that you can enhance your Twitter content to give Google the tweets its prefers to index. Tweets that are mentioned (retweeted) elsewhere tend to much better than those that are not.
Further, tweets that contain an image are also more likely to get indexed. Using hashtags is not just critical to help people find your tweets via Twitter, but it also helps Google determine the language used. Adding a link to your tweets is important too.
And lest your think that Google has slapped down links completely, you may be pleasantly surprised to learn that SEO experts have discovered that links from third-party sites that are not Twitter are important too.
Twitter Considerations
With these changes in mind, it is imperative that you make your tweets more engaging by adding helpful photos, smart hashtags and links. In taking these measures your SEO and Twitter efforts should begin to rise and even thrive explains BestSEOCompanies.com.
Finally, consider applying these methods to your other SEO efforts. Although Google doesn’t index other social media sites such as Facebook, Reddit, Instagram, and Google Plus in the same way, you can still leverage these sites as part of your overall and comprehensive web strategy.
Whatever you do, it is important that you remain consistent. This means looking at your SEO strategy as an ongoing effort, not a short-term solution for your long-term needs.