Let’s Talk Tweets: How To Get The Most SEO Value With Twitter

Darren Franks - November 26, 2008

One obvious way to get the most SEO value from the micro-blogging platform, twitter.com, is to get natural links to your site and establish yourself as an authority in your chosen field. By “following” other “Twitterers” and getting them to follow you, you establish your own, mini-community of sorts and increase your online presence. Having your business featured on this site also shows that you are in touch with the latest evolution in Internet marketing, Social Media Optimization! If utilized correctly, it can take your business to new heights.

The 140 character limit for your “Tweets” is precious real-estate and has to be used wisely. Common sense suggests that you need to use URLs in the posts and precise keywords in the URLs. You have to keep in mind, however, that Twitter shortens any URL over 30 characters and all are “nofollow”. So, keep your Tweets short, to the point and make sure you’ve conveyed where that URL is taking the potential visitor. The URL might not necessarily tell them.

Another important advantage for Twitter is that the Twitter profiles themselves are indexed by the search engines! Some even get a great Google PageRank. I think the reason for this could be that the user pages are subdirectories (www.twitter.com/username) and the popularity that Twitter enjoys could filter down to its subfolders.

Twitter’s recent surge in popularity has created a whole Twitter counter-culture with websites, like twitterfeed.com, providing an option to link your Twitter account to your website’s RSS feed. By setting up an account on Twitterfeed, you are able to “feed” the RSS link to your blog posts and completely automate the Tweeting process.

Unlike other types of blogs, Twitter is merely a way to link to industry news, your website and leave messages for your friends, co-workers and industry peers. The 140 character limit might be slightly intimidating for more verbose individuals, but it’s a unique way to get the word out about your new product or press release succinctly. It’s a new type of business card, but instead of having a limited number of ways to get the word out through traditional networking, you get exposure to millions of people all clamoring to be heard.