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Use Twitter to Rank #1 in Google in Less Than Five Minutes

 

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Rank number one in Google in five minutes?  Must be black hat, right? Wrong.

Many marketers and small business owners still fail to understand the marketing impact Twitter can have on a business.  Twitter isn’t only read by other Twitter junkies, it shows up in Google too.  And, in some cases it can be used to outrank behemoth competitors.

number 1

When using Google to search the web for information, one of the options that can be selected is to search the “Latest” results, rather than “Any time” results.  When “Latest” is selected, the results that are displayed in Google can be from a variety of sources including blogs, Facebook, and traditional news outlets; but if the most recent story comes from Twitter (and it frequently does), then that is what is shown first.

To demonstrate how quickly a business can have an impact using Twitter, I did a “Latest” Google search for the extremely competitive term: “marketing”.  What appeared as the number one result was a tweet by the marketing powerhouse Michael Trigilio.  Michael Trigilio?  OK, so maybe Michael is not a marketing powerhouse, but he did set up a Twitter account and without a single follower and on his second tweet he ranked number one in Google for the search term “marketing”.  It was literally a matter of seconds until he was ranked number two, but Michael still had his fifteen seconds of fame.

Below are the screenshots documenting Michael’s momentous accomplishment:


marketing serpMichael Trigilio

Marketing Take-Away

The point here is not to advocate for a strategy of using a Twitter account and a troop of monkeys to speed tweet your way into a consistent presence in the Google SERPs.  The point is that Twitter can have a significant and sustainable impact on your business if you follow a few simple guidelines:

- Create quality content that will generate interest when someone reads it.

- Have a link to allow people to find out more if they like your tweet.

- Tweet regularly.  Twitter is all about “recency” and your efforts to keep your content fresh are handsomely rewarded by Google and others.

- Get going!  Five minutes from now you really could be generating leads using Twitter.

- Remember to use keywords important to your business in your tweets.

- Download our free webinar on Twitter for Marketing & PR.

For the marketers out there who are already embracing Twitter maybe you can use the demonstration outlined above to help convince a doubting colleague or boss about the importance of tweeting for your business.  For the business owners out there who have been resisting Twitter, we hope you become inspired enough to consider adopting a Twitter strategy.

Photo credit: Leo Reynolds

Free Download: 2010 Online Marketing Blueprint

Free Download: 2010 Online Marketing Blueprint

Posted by Adam Blake on Mon, Jul 12, 2010 @ 02:00 PM

COMMENTS

Adam, 
 
Very interesting stuff. A lot of what you discuss here is similar to search engine optimization but in real time via Twitter. Many of the same techniques used to rank well long term in search engines are the same to rank well in real time news search results. Good content is important and timing is very important. Having relevant tweets at the right time can definitely help boost exposure to your social media profile. I would love to see more data on click through on this area of Google's search results to get a better idea of it's impact. 
 
-Sean

posted on Monday, July 12, 2010 at 2:13 PM by Sean Hecking


Great link bait title but this is not "ranking" in Google. That is not a misnomer it's just plain misleading. 
 
Let's stick to good info rather than sensational headlines that benefit the HubSpot blog and not your readers.

posted on Monday, July 12, 2010 at 2:15 PM by Frank Reed


I agree with Shawn. How many people search using the "latest" feature on Google? Are there any studies out there about this? I would be very interested in seeing some numbers.  
 
 
 
It is something to think about though. Even if the latest search hasn't completely caught on yet, it could still have an impact.

posted on Monday, July 12, 2010 at 2:18 PM by Katie Russell


Of coure the first thing I did even before finishing the post was go to Google and attempt a "latest" search. Hmmm. No "Latest" feature to be found. Since the preceding commentators mention it and Adam cites it I'm sure it's there but I am a regular Google user and this is news to me.

posted on Monday, July 12, 2010 at 2:33 PM by Richard Harrison


Any numbers on how just many searchers are actually tailoring SERPs to "latest"? This was rightfully lauded as a potential game-changer back in December 2009 when real-time scrolled above the fold on Page 1 organic results. But, I'm more than a little skeptical that a significant number of searchers are manually adjusting Google's settings now...

posted on Monday, July 12, 2010 at 2:34 PM by @Brett2point0


A couple people are concerned about how many people are actually using this search function vs. regular search - understandable and I would like to have some data on that as well (please post if you do). 
 
The point of this blog post is more along the lines of highlighting a new axis that is being opened up in search (real-time) and how and where Twitter fits into that equation. Marketers need to understand how and where tweets show up beyond Twitter and that "recency" is an important component of Twitter. 
 
Real-time search is still in its infancy and we are far from a point where Google and others have optimized how and what to display. Hopefully this blog post will help you consider the element of "recency" as you continue to refine your marketing strategy.

posted on Monday, July 12, 2010 at 2:37 PM by Adam Blake


@Richard - Go to google.com and search for a keyword (regular results will be displayed) - on the left hand side of the screen is a section titled "All Results", click on "more search tools" - one of the options that will drop down includes time elements including "latest".

posted on Monday, July 12, 2010 at 2:41 PM by Adam Blake


It will be frustrating when companies start setting up bots to stay on the top of google. A company I used to work for would be all over that idea (some people dont understand/have ethics). I am with Frank and I am not a fan of this title, you guys can and should do better!

posted on Monday, July 12, 2010 at 3:37 PM by Mike Handy


"The difficult things take time, the impossible takes a bit longer"

posted on Monday, July 12, 2010 at 5:16 PM by Michael Ewing


To stay on top for this, you will have to tweet and tweet again the same topic over and over again. This is not called achieving no.1 position. I am not saying there is no value in this but it is not really a no.1 position and you efforts (think ROI) might be better spent doing actual SEO.

posted on Monday, July 12, 2010 at 7:18 PM by Anil Batra


Adam, this is terrific content. Oddly enough, I googled myself last week and realized the first hit on my name that was me, rather than someone else by the same name, was my Twitter account, not my LinkedIn account. It's great to see a substantial treatment of the subject that explains my observation.

posted on Monday, July 12, 2010 at 7:52 PM by Ed Han


Ya, lets all provide "quality content" in 140 characters or less...pleeeeeese!

posted on Monday, July 12, 2010 at 11:18 PM by RogerT


Shouldn't the headline be: 
 
Rank #1 in Google For Less Than Five Minutes 
 
Interesting read nonetheless.

posted on Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 2:46 AM by Ben Kelly


Well Adam, I must say that I do agree with you I have said that Twitter is very powerful tool for online business or blogs and so on. I have written many articles about social networking again I say it is a must thing to do. I think what a lot of twitters do wrong they just bombard everybody with what they are selling yes I think you should tell people but also add interesting things they want to learn or know about 
 
Michael 
 
UK Greeting Cards 

posted on Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 4:54 AM by UK Greeting Cards


Amazing but too clicks to be the first position forever

posted on Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 6:19 AM by Web murcia


nice catch... 
 
but,I don't think that a mass traffic can be generated through this method... 

posted on Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 7:16 AM by Sachin Saxena


Nothing new. Google copied it from http://www.tweetaboogle.com/

posted on Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 9:34 AM by Hema J


Ranking number 1 in Google is no small feat. This clearly shows that Twitter has really surged in popularity since it started a few years back - and brought several personalities, brands, etc. up with it. However, accessing social media sites like Twitter brings with it a number of threats to your network security, especially for businesses. This is where decision-makers and IT managers weigh the pros and cons of using social media and figure out a way to safely enable it. Check out this white paper “To Block or Not. Is that the question?” which allows businesses to do just that here: http://bit.ly/d2NZRp

posted on Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 9:49 AM by kellybriefworld


But really how much impact will 15 seconds on Google do for you?

posted on Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 11:57 AM by Jessica Ojeda


I agree with Frank...great title to grab the audiences attention, but this is by no means serves as a ranking in Google.

posted on Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 12:43 PM by Mckinley Media Group


To those who didn't appreciate the title or found it misleading, thank you for the feedback, we will keep it in mind going forward. 
 
The title was intended to help people realize that Google SERPs are changing and should not be thought of as a simple universal result anymore. Among other things, time is an element that is considered for some types of searches.

posted on Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 1:55 PM by Adam Blake


Interesting article. Kinda doubt many people are using the latest search feature so not sure how valid the point is about it. But certainly, Twitter is a great seo ally.

posted on Wednesday, July 14, 2010 at 2:18 PM by chip tudor


Interesting post..I doubt you can rank on google in 5 minutes..but nice catchy title. Twitter is definitely the wave of the future for sure. With the click of a button your link is on twitter which is great technology. Thanks for the info..good post.

posted on Wednesday, July 14, 2010 at 4:48 PM by Connor Bringas


Adam, 
 
 
 
Great trick. I'm going to try and get me some fame today I really appreciate the tip! 
 
 
 
tom

posted on Monday, July 19, 2010 at 7:10 AM by Tom Ranieri


Nice trick. 
 
Well, though it is good for only if someone searches the latest info yet it's still something that should not be avoided. 
 
Btw, backlinks from twitter is also counted by google, so its a backlink too!

posted on Friday, July 23, 2010 at 3:15 PM by Love


Comments have been closed for this article.