Twitter and SEO. How Tweeting Can Boost Your Strategy?

How social media affects SEO?

That question bothers numerous SEO specialists and can’t be answered in a few words as every SEO process is affected by a huge number of factors. Nevertheless, it doesn’t mean that it’s impossible to distinguish some correlations between social media profiles and visibility on Google. When it comes to the advantages of running social media profiles, we can certainly state that:

Social media platforms are a great place to reach new recipients. Creating your own community attracts interest and traffic to the site. Such user behavior will certainly be appreciated by Google robots.
Social media is an additional space for external linking. Share new blog entries or products in your posts.
Platforms like Twitter strengthen your brand. Before finalizing the transaction or interacting with your store or website, potential customers very frequently search social media to find information that’s of interest to them. Make sure that all the contact details are up to date and publish new entries regularly.
Users who have come across your company while browsing social media platforms can enter their name or related keywords directly into the search engine to access more details concerning your business activity. Apart from affecting your website traffic, it can also significantly improve your visibility in the SERPs.

As you can see, social media platforms impact the SEO process in an indirect way. Due to the users’ perception and interest, they’re an important ranking factor. Therefore, it’s a good idea to continuously develop your business profiles on these platforms and create relationships with the community. This way you can increase the awareness and trust of your potential customers and, additionally, improve your visibility on Google.

Twitter - how does it work?

As it’s been mentioned before, social media offers huge possibilities when it comes to reaching new recipients. Twitter is one of the most popular platforms - it was created in 2006 as a microblogging site. Although Twitter has had some ups and downs since the beginning of its operation, now its power is constantly growing, mainly due to its popularity among politicians and show business people.

What is tweeting all about?

Tweeting is about publishing an entry that’s of up to 280 characters long. This short post is displayed to people who follow your profile but it can also reach new recipients. This is all thanks to hashtags that describe the subject of the entry and can be browsed by interested users. It’s worth mentioning that Twitter was the first platform to use and advertise this functionality to categorize published entries. If your post is popular and inspires interaction, others can also retweet it. Then, it’ll be displayed in their feed. Obviously, users can also like or comment on your publications which improves your visibility as well. Twitter enables including videos, photos or gifs in the entries. It’s also possible to insert there some active links and this is the main reason why this platform is so popular among marketers. Below you can see screenshots of exemplary solutions and functionalities: [caption id="attachment_30995" align="aligncenter" width="711"]

Example of tweet with video content from Netflix profile[/caption] [caption id="attachment_30992" align="aligncenter" width="705"]

Example of implemention photo and link in a single tweet from Nike Basketball Twitter account: https://twitter.com/nikebasketball/status/1298628141888413696/photo/1[/caption]

How can your SEO process benefit from your Twitter activity?

A few years ago Google and Twitter concluded an agreement thanks to which thematic tweets are displayed in the SERPs. Because of the possibility to show entries in the search engine, Twitter has recorded much greater traffic, also among people who don’t have accounts on this platform. For Google, this cooperation proved to be beneficial due to the possibility to publish feedback in real time. Twitter is undoubtedly helpful in brand advertising. One of the main reasons for that is the fact that sometimes after entering a company’s name in Google the first results we see come from the abovementioned social media platform. Another aspect is the possibility to use Google to browse specific hashtags. Although this form of categorizing content is adopted almost by every social media platform, Twitter entries are the most influential in Google’s opinion. [caption id="attachment_30997" align="aligncenter" width="750"]

The newest entries with a selected hashtag, in this case it’s #Poland[/caption] Similar results can be obtained if you type in the most current topics, then, in the SERPs you’ll see the latest information related to these issues. When it comes to promoting your company, this is an extremely important part of real time marketing and it’s also ideal for all news portals. Twitter entries displayed on Google definitely attract users’ attention and are an additional facilitator that enables finding real time information. Advertising your website this way is an extra opportunity to reach new recipients interested in your activity. However, to make sure that your posts are taken into consideration by Google robots, you should focus on SEO activities.

How to optimize your profile and Twitter entries to be displayed on Google?

Already at the stage of creating your Twitter account, it’s advisable to take care of the content and design of your profile. Make sure that your user name is consistent with the brand’s name - this way you’ll certainly make it easier for users to search for your company. If possible, don’t use special characters and numbers in your user name as they may be treated as spam. The URL address is usually taken from the name of your profile. Make sure that it’s user-friendly (it also shouldn’t include any special characters or numbers), easy to remember and type in. It’s necessary to complete:

bio - meaning a short description of your business. The maximum number of characters is 160, so it must be well thought out. Insert there some hashtags or emoticons that will make it visually attractive.
location - this piece of information is especially important for all companies operating locally. In case of the Internet activity, the country itself should suffice.
link - provide a link to your website, obviously in a correct form.
logo - insert the logo customers associate your brand with. Apart from improving the visuals of your profile, a proper cover photo is a great way to communicate important information concerning the company.

[caption id="attachment_30999" align="aligncenter" width="717"]

Exemplary Twitter Profile - Cinnabon[/caption] After filling in all necessary sections, you can start publishing entries on your profile. Your posts should include matching keywords, possibly in the form of hashtags, related to your business activity. The optimal number of hashtags per post amounts to 3. It’s a great idea to complement your tweets with pictures or videos that will certainly attract users’ attention. Create picture file names referring to the objects they present and don't forget about alternative descriptions. This will make it easier for Google robots to identify and categorize your graphics. [caption id="attachment_31001" align="aligncenter" width="638"]

If you want to share your new product or blog post with people across the globe, don’t forget about providing a link to your website in the content.[/caption] These simple tips combined with a pinch of creativity and regular tweeting will help your company succeed in the search results and increase the awareness of potential customers. Social media platforms have huge potential that can be easily used to effortlessly advertise your brand.