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How Twitter's New Geodata Will Optimize Local Business Websites

 

.

mapSuppose you run a cleaning company that serves businesses in Northeast Ohio.

You want to show up in Google search results for keywords like construction, cleaning and restoration services -- but not for searches from Southern California or Northern Maine. You only care about searches from Ohio because they're potential customers.

Right now your best tools are meta keywords (you can add local keywords to your web pages), links from local sites, and targeted local PPC ads.

But you're about to get another very important tool: Twitter.

Last week Twitter announced that it's going local -- it's going to make it possible to tie a location to tweets. This is big deal for marketers. It means that customers, businesses and search engines will be able to sort Twitter traffic by place.

There are at least three basic ways marketers focused on specific locations can take advantage of this new function:

(1)To Find People Looking for Their Service
-- Right now it's possible to search Twitter for keywords like "cleaning service" but you get a worldwide search. That's not very helpful for a business that serves customers within a specific geography.

But consider what happens when you can search "cleaning service" and narrow the results to a specific geography; all of a sudden the results of that Twitter search become a source of new business. Anytime somebody on Twitter asks for cleaning service suggestions, you can reach out to them.

(2) For Customers to Find Them -- As soon as it's possible to sort tweets by location, customers will get a powerful new tool for finding local business. Looking for a cleaner? Just search Twitter in your geographic area. The results will make it easy to see what the options are -- and what their reputations are.

If you're a local business, this means you need to get started building relationships and reputation on Twitter now.

(3)For Search Engine Optimization -- Twitter and other social media tools are now a significant factor in Search Engine Optimization. The links and authority thatsocial media sites help your business create help you rank higher inorganic search results.

Now that Twitter is adding geodata, it will be a significant factor in local search. Searching Google Maps for a cleaner in Northeast Ohio? Chances are you'll find a cleaner who has a lot of inbound location-specific links from Twitter.

What's missing from this list? These are the biggest benefits that geodata will have for local businesses, but I'm sure there are more.

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Posted by Rick Burnes on Mon, Aug 24, 2009 @ 07:15 AM

COMMENTS

Will there be a charge for this Geodata?

posted on Monday, August 24, 2009 at 7:48 AM by Meg


Since Twitter is releasing geolocation to platform developers before they add the feature to Twitter.com, perhaps HubSpot can assess the inbound marketing benefits of geotagging and mapping Flickr photos. A how-to webinar or screencast would be helpful as well, especially given Rick Burnes' background as the founder of Atlas, a simple, free online mapping tool.

posted on Monday, August 24, 2009 at 8:13 AM by A.M. McReynolds


Have you considered using a spell checker on this article? Your trend of words being combined, such as "Supposeyou", "likeconstruction", and "searchesfrom" looks less than professional.

posted on Monday, August 24, 2009 at 8:14 AM by Tim


It's up to Twitter, but it's unlikely that consumers will see a charge for the data.  
 
Perhaps advanced geo-related features will be part of the premium commercial accounts that they eventually role out: http://digital.venturebeat.com/2009/08/20/twitter-to-roll-out-commercial-accounts-this-year-co-founder-stone-says/

posted on Monday, August 24, 2009 at 8:15 AM by Rick Burnes


twitter is the most indurable site the i have to double check on of all the time

posted on Monday, August 24, 2009 at 8:42 AM by ben property solutions


@Tim, thanks for pointing out the spacing problem. I fixed everything (I think!).  
 
Looks like there was some sort of software problem that happened when the article got published.

posted on Monday, August 24, 2009 at 8:45 AM by Rick Burnes


Wow, this is HUGE. This is an important step in the transition of micro blogging into a lead generation machine. This is the reason that you tweet and the reason that you are AHEAD OF THE CURVE if you have been tweeting for the last six months or a year. The AZ Republic had an article on twitter in Real Estate and the reps using it said they get paying clients all the time from their use of the service

posted on Monday, August 24, 2009 at 9:57 AM by Dan Tyre


Interesting musing -- an another example -- of the value of Twitter going hyper-local

posted on Monday, August 24, 2009 at 12:32 PM by David


@Jonathan, if they don't add a sort by location feature, a third party certainly will. And, yes, there will be spam, but there is everywhere. Spam filters will emerge.

posted on Monday, August 24, 2009 at 12:57 PM by Rick Burnes


This will fill a fast-growing communications gap and enable businesses to target specific audiences in selected locales. Great innovation!

posted on Monday, August 24, 2009 at 2:59 PM by Melody Howard Ritt


Twitter is taking over! Have they made a profit yet?

posted on Monday, August 24, 2009 at 2:59 PM by zack


Since when do links from twitter pass SEO credit?

posted on Monday, August 24, 2009 at 4:13 PM by peter caputa


The links themselves don't, but Tweets generate links. So local tweets will generate local links. Should have spelled this out a bit more.

posted on Monday, August 24, 2009 at 5:20 PM by Rick Burnes


This is not correct: "Right now it's possible to search Twitter for keywords like "cleaning service" but you get a worldwide search." 
 
Currently, if you use the Advanced search at http://search.twitter.com/advanced, you are able to narrow down by location. See "Places." You can enter a city and within what distance you want to search.

posted on Monday, August 24, 2009 at 5:38 PM by Jessica


When I first started using UberTwitter, which enables users to geotag tweets, I was hoping Twitter would implement geotagging. This is incredibly useful for marketers and users.

posted on Monday, August 24, 2009 at 7:21 PM by Dylan Spencer


Pretty cool never though of using twitter as a search engine of sorts still kinda debating whether i like it or not.

posted on Monday, August 24, 2009 at 8:16 PM by Air Support


Jessica, you're right; I'm just assuming that this data is incomplete and not that useful b/c it's only available on the account level, not the tweet level.

posted on Monday, August 24, 2009 at 8:24 PM by Rick Burnes


The key to the usefulness and value of this will be whether users decide to opt in. History tells us people are reluctant to become vulnerable to applications that may *expose* them to additional scrutiny, scam and spamming activities. There must be a clear value proposition of what's in it for: we the people!

posted on Monday, August 24, 2009 at 10:38 PM by Greg Elwell


Since when do links from twitter pass SEO credit?

posted on Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 10:43 AM by Jim


I have just discovered twitter, and appreciate reading everything I can about it. 
 
 
 
I think the location based will be great for advertisers, but users should be cautious about giving out there location at all times.

posted on Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 3:21 PM by DashBook


Thank you for the info -- very helpful!

posted on Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 4:59 PM by TheTraveller001


Do Twitter no-follow tags effect the SEO benefits of local search? Most of the research I've read suggests links from Twitter are unfortunately not effective in boosting SEO.

posted on Monday, August 31, 2009 at 11:35 AM by Alison


I agree that there is some real benefits but will twitter continue to share that data with Google through the API? 
 
The second point will Google want to put so much geolocation data power into an external source? The biggest point that Google will focus on is there an increased relevance in using Twitter geodata and is it open to spam?

posted on Wednesday, September 02, 2009 at 12:11 AM by Webmaster


Comments have been closed for this article.