Twitter pages used to be marked with “Nofollow” tags in Google’s search algorithm, meaning that in the past your Twitter could not influence your ranking in the search engine’s index. This has changed so you need to keep in mind that the words you write in tweets may also be indexed and come up in searches for those terms.
Brands can definitely benefit from this, and they should not only focus on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for their website, it’s just as valuable for their social media profiles like Twitter.
Now let’s look at some SEO tips to easily improve your Twitter profile for a better search experience:
1. Keywords
When you set-up your content plan for Twitter make sure to integrate relevant keywords in your Tweets. This will require some research since you want to use keywords that people are entering during a search. But no worries, there are great tools for that like for example Twilert that will help you to define your keywords, and SocialOomph offering you the ability to have keyword searches sent to you via email as well as a keyword building wizard.
2. Hashtags
Twitter turns a word preceeded by a hashtag (= the pound sign ‘#’) into a searchable link. This allows users to easily track discussions topices based on those keywords. When you click on a hashtag you can see all tweets that mention the subject (though you will have to indicate yourself if you only want to see the ’top’ tweets or ‘all’ tweets about the topic). That’s why it’s very important to make clever use of hashtags in your own tweets: look at the Twitter pages of industry influencers with big reach and incorporate those hashtags when relevant also in your Tweets. Make sure not to have more than 3 hashtags per tweet.
3. Your Twitter Page Set-up
a) Twitter Handle
When you select your Twitter Handle or Username stay away from numbers that look like spam (e.g. Username4567). Also try to set a short username, so others can easily Retweet your messages. A long username will leave less space for the message.
b) Twitter Bio
Google looks at your Twitter bio so make sure to enhance it by including appropriate keywords, taking into account that you only have 160 characters and the fact that your bio should also manage expectations so people know if it’s interesting to follow you or not. Next don’t forget to link your Twitter profile to your website by integrating its URL. Avoid using link shortners for this, which might have a negative impact!
c) Profile Photo
When you upload your profile picture to Twitter the filename will automatically be used in the ALT Tag (= Alternative Text Tag), which Google recognizes for indexing purposes. This means that you should choose a filename that contains your keywords like for example: Kel Wouters Social Media Consultant.jpg
4. Get Retweeted
Google probably gives more weight to a Retweet than a tweet since a RT indicates that people find your content interesting otherwise they wouldn’t share it with their network. Getting Retweeted is of course easier than it sounds. Most important tip I can give you is to be consistent: on Twitter people follow interest based so define your topics/themes & provide your followers with useful up to date content. And of course you can always ask for a RT, but don’t overdo it 😉
5. Networking
Twitter authority is based on your influence => the more people you reach with your Tweets, the higher your influence. Therefor it is very imporant that you build a network of followers related to your business and influential in your industry who will share your content & retweet your links.