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Twitter Proven to Impact Search Engine Rankings

 

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twitterOver the past 3 years most of us involved with marketing have heard of Twitter. At the same time businesses have prioritized their adoption of Twitter differently. Some business have made it a core part of their inbound marketing strategy, while others have delayed adoption in favor of other tactics.

More Signals to Prioritize Twitter

I know, there are so many things to do, and it’s hard to step away from focusing on the tasks that get visitors to your site from search sngines.  However, an article yesterday from Search Engine Land explains how Twitter directly affects your SEO efforts.

So, to all you folks out there that don’t have a Twitter account yet, or set one up but it’s sitting there lonely and abandoned, read on to find out why Twitter is not only important for building online reach but is also critical to help your business website rank in search engines.

How Twitter Influences Search Engine Rankings

First, a quick recap of some points- for more in depth information, check out the original article:

  • Twitter profiles carry a “score” with Google.
  • It’s likely the age of your twitter profile and how many followers you have affect how search engines will calculate your profile’s “authority”.
  • Just like inbound links give a website “credit”, so does social media sharing. A lot of retweets can tell the search engine that this is a good, trusted blog article.
  • When an influential person (including you) tweets your link, it is a sign to the search engines that it’s good, trusted content.

This information helps prove that social sharing has a positive effect on the reach of your business website. Like building inbound links and SEO authority, building “Twitter author rank” (or whatever they will decide to call it) will take time too.

Making Your Followers and Search Engines Happy With Your Twitter Account

Well, I’m glad you asked. Haven’t set up an account yet? What are you waiting for? Head over to Twitter and get your Twitter account set up. If you already have a Twitter account, get over to Twitter grader. We’ll help you see which areas you need to focus on.  Either way, if you need some direction download our in-depth kit on How to Use Twitter For Business. The kit will give you many of the answers you need to get started and be successful.

Social signals as a component of search engine ranking are only likely to get stronger. Whether you’ve thought Twitter was for you or not in the past, now is the time to build and solidify your Twitter presence.  Having a website that ranks well in search engines when qualified prospects are looking should be a priority for every business.

Photo Credit: respres

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Posted by Erin McCarthy on Thu, Dec 02, 2010 @ 10:11 AM

COMMENTS

Thanks for clearly and concisely breaking down the link between Twitter and SEO.  
 
<a herf="www.twitter.com/eatdrinkit">@EatDrink.it

posted on Thursday, December 02, 2010 at 10:24 AM by EatDrink.it


Great article. I did a blog post about something similar last week and got quite a stir on this.  
 
People seem to be hung up on the 'nofollow' tag on links. This doesn't mean that they don't index it, just that they don't assign any page rank to it. 
 
I can see Google building something like Trust Rank on social media links. So the more your tweets are RT the more they are important and trusted. 
 
Really find your articles refreshing - and thought provoking!

posted on Thursday, December 02, 2010 at 10:37 AM by Charlotte Britton


When i started Ladies Fishing last August, there was competition in my local market place tied in with a national fishing manufacturer. 
 
With no money, (we are a group of ladies who go fishing and raise money for charity) I had to think out of the box! 
 
The only way to establish the group online with zero budget was to have a blog and a twitter account. By January we were 1st on the google rankings. We are currently postions 1,2 and 3. This is the result of the wordpress blog and twitter linking together. 
 
Yes its taken time, but when you are passionate about what you do and have set yourself goals its part of my daily routine.  
 
More people are using twitter, which is great for Ladies Fishing, because we are now starting to receive followers from the fishing industry who are now using twitter. 
 
Keep up the good work Hubspot 
 
Regards 
Anne Woodcock 
Marketing for FishPal.com and ladies fishing.

posted on Thursday, December 02, 2010 at 10:46 AM by anne Woodcock


Great recap! I'm surprised that the internet isn't going crazy over this, it's big news. It's something a lot of people have suspected for a long time, but now it's confirmed - There is SEO value in participating in social media. 
 
This may be only one of the many good reasons to be involved in social media, but it's a clearer link to real revenue (which could be just what a lot of organizations need to be convinced.) Exciting stuff!

posted on Thursday, December 02, 2010 at 11:44 AM by Jeff


Hi there - the piece by Search Engine Land is certainly worth reading. And for any new Twitterers - you may find this How to use Twitter by a relatively new Twitterer useful. http://www.carvillcreative.co.uk/blog/how-i-am-using-twitter-by-a-relatively-new-twitterer/

posted on Thursday, December 02, 2010 at 11:54 AM by Michelle Carvill


As an internet marketing guru committed to the small business community I really welcome this article as I have been trying to encourage small business owners to make more use of twitter and this was always one of the benefits.  
 
 
 
Another reason I like this article is because it addresses the other components you need to think about when building up your twitter account. 
 
 
 
Whilst I help small business owners improve their website footprint on the internet, I will agree that we are all a bit guilty of trying to find sufficient time in the weekly schedule to tweet and do all the other things needed to power up a website. 
 
 
 
But this article gives even more reason why we should all find 'some' time to do a bit of tweeting as to what we all have to offer.  
 
 
 
Many thanks for sharing this with us Erin

posted on Thursday, December 02, 2010 at 2:18 PM by Web Marketing Specialist Brian Mathers


Very intriguing to think about the future of social WITHIN THE CONTEXT of SEO. Not that search is going anywhere in the short term, but the growth rate suggests its becoming more realistic to think of "social search" as a stand alone concept. It'll be fun to watch as real-time information continues to evolve.

posted on Thursday, December 02, 2010 at 2:36 PM by @Brett2point0


great information in this post. I will repost it at my site, this is "need to know" information.

posted on Thursday, December 02, 2010 at 3:38 PM by Jason


I always get the comment that twitter is cluttered or too confusing. Once you get involved you quickly realize how clear the channel is and how OPEN that space is for new business. Still surprises me how some companies are making a killing on inbound leads, and still others say on the sideline.  
Follow me @: 
http://www.twitter.com/ichoosetowin  
http://www.twitter.com/bsquareclothing

posted on Thursday, December 02, 2010 at 8:41 PM by Kristen Sonsma


Thanks for clearly and concisely breaking down the link between Twitter and SEO. In order to get first place for the search term law cloud on Google we've been trying different approaches but our twitter account is a massive part of maximising traffic flow. 

posted on Friday, December 03, 2010 at 10:34 AM by Law Cloud


Thank you for a clear and concise article about Twitter! I am going to use your twitter grader! The graders are fantastic tools!!!

posted on Friday, December 03, 2010 at 10:40 AM by Tina Ortiz


Here's my big SEO question concerning Twitter: is it best to use native URLs in tweets or are those shortened ones just as good?

posted on Friday, December 03, 2010 at 9:05 PM by Bill Bennett


I really love twitter I've used this tool to improve my page ranking on my sites. Thanks

posted on Saturday, December 04, 2010 at 10:00 AM by Eye Webmaster


I'm JUST starting out so I'm taking in as much as I can. This article helps me understand a bit more of the relationship with tweets and search engine relation. Awesome! I'll be checking more!

posted on Saturday, December 04, 2010 at 7:02 PM by Mark


For Bill Bennett, we have done some testing over the last few months and we found the full URL did better than bit.ly shortened URLs to support SEO tactics. 
 
If you want to learn how to drive your website and not just with the support of SEO, then go over to this site Achieving OnlineXcellence

posted on Sunday, December 05, 2010 at 3:51 PM by Brian Mathers


@Bill Bennett and @Brian Mathers: the challenge with a native URL in Twitter is character limits. Hence, shorteners and ability to track click thru. Thoughts?

posted on Monday, December 06, 2010 at 11:52 PM by Karyn


@Karyn - yes that was exactly my point. Does a cryptic, shortened URL help a site's SEO in any way? I think the answer I got says it does, but not as much as a full URL with words.

posted on Monday, December 06, 2010 at 11:56 PM by Bill Bennett


Erin, Great overview! 
 
I always get the most blog views with articles on FB and twitter. Now I see why. It seems there is always something new to discover. 

posted on Wednesday, December 08, 2010 at 3:12 PM by Dave Hale


Comments have been closed for this article.