Tapping into Twitter for Rankings and Traffic

Do you still think of Twitter as a vehicle that teenagers use to blitz each other with trivial messages? With both Google and Bing considering links in tweets to be ranking criteria, it’s time you started to take Twitter seriously.

It’s easy to dismiss the 140-character limit of tweets as inadequate for serious online business. However, as the most popular microblogging platform, Twitter offers immense potential for getting the word out about your client’s websites, goods and services.

Twitter for Rankings

Most experts agree that Google and Bing rank tweets from users with proper bios and pictures. After all, few spammers bother with such details. Other factors include the number of followers a tweeter has, the quality of those followers, and the ratio of the number following to followers. All these factor contribute to a sort of ‘Twitter rank’ by which tweets are evaluated.

Other than ranking, the main benefit of tweeting is to directly attract to your website. If you’re a restaurateur about to launch a new menu or offer a free glass of wine with every meal, let your followers know. They’ll visit your website for full details and being targeted traffic, they’ll stick around.

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Harnessing Twitter for Your Client’s Websites

The first and most obvious strategy is to write quality tweets. Don’t just send out messages on a whim; announce promotions, relay useful news in the industry, link to interesting resources, and generally provide value. In short, make sure that followers look forward to your clients’ tweets.

When choosing a Twitter user name or handle for your client, it’s a good opportunity for branding. Use either the company name or a pithy summary of who they are. This handle becomes part of the Twitter URL that’s indexed, so it helps to build awareness of the company or service.

Then be sure to create a solid bio for the client. It should be keyword rich and contain a powerful benefit. You only have 160 characters so you’ll need to get creative.

Next, you need to make retweeting and sharing convenient. People love to retweet useful and intriguing content. Make sure this is easy to do right from the web page using buttons and various incentives.

Above all, be sure to prepare messages that engage your followers and create a dialogue with them. Don’t just blast out a tweet every time you want to promote something. That’s the path to mass unfollowing.

With social media platforms such as Twitter, it’s easy to send out the occasional tweet and then leave it at that. However, as with all kinds SEO, tapping into Twitter has to be aligned to a strategy with concrete goals. Ultimately, the goal is to become a trusted resource that customers are happy to do business with.

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About Nathanael Vanderkolk

Nathanael Vanderkolk is the Director of the Smart SEO Company, a SEO Agency in Sydney, Australia. Smart SEO Sydney has a keen awareness of the latest approaches to online marketing. Follow him on , Facebook and Twitter.
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