Optimizing your social media profiles for search engines is no longer a luxury; it's a must.
- Search engines use links from social media sites for ranking purposes
- Search engines index Twitter streams in real-time
- Google developed the Google Social Search
Here are some simple yet effective techniques that can turn your Twitter account into a SEO magnet. Let's get started
1. SEO Your Twitter Username
Think of your Twitter username as your Twitter domain address: all the rules that apply to choosing a domain name would apply to your Twitter username. Don't use underscores between words and make it short and memorable.
The Twitter username limit is 15 characters but it's best not to exceed 10 characters if you can.
Consider using abbreviations for your brand name combined with keywords. Let's say your company, Synergy Professional Services, offers training services. Then, @SPSTraining makes up a good Twitter username.
2. Link to Your Real URL
Using URL shortners on your Twitter profile URL section is a huge mistake as it may arouse skepticism and that's the last thing you would want. Using your real site/blog URL will boost the trust of your profile visitors in your brand and will give them a good reason to visit your actual site.
3. SEO Your Twitter Bio
Did you know that Google uses your Twitter Bio content as a the meta description of your Twitter profile on search results?
It makes sense and that's why you need to make the most out of the 160 characters limit and create a keywords-rich Twitter bio. As a general rule of thumb, you should aim for a perfect balance between keywords and good content.
So, if you ask me what makes a good Twitter bio, I would say it should be informative, eye-catching, compelling and contain some keywords that represent your industry and/or field of expertise.
4. SEO Your Twitter Profile Photo
Give your Twitter photo file a keyword-based name separated by dashes before uploading it. Say "xyz-la-fitness-training.jpg".
Make sure that your image is limited 250 x 250 pixels for optimal page loading speed.
5. SEO Your Tweets
In order to ensure more visibility on search results, ensure most of your tweets include keyword phrases and hashtags. It's a good idea to save your important tweets in the favorite category.
Studies have shown that constantly including keywords in your tweets can boost your search engine rankings.
Also, getting lots of retweets will magnify your Social Authority and give your ranking a kick. That's why getting into the habit of tweeting what I like to call "retweet-worthy tweets" and curating your Twitter content is a smart thing to do.
6. SEO Your Twitter Lists
Although Twitter lists are rather new, search engines love them. Make sure to leverage them for optimal SEO results.
For starters, make your lists public and include descriptive keyword phrases in your list name. For example, "XYZ SEO" is a better list name than "SEO".
Twitter lists have unique URLs that you can use on your blog or Facebook posts. You can even tweet about your lists to grab attention to them on the Twitter sphere.
A word of caution here: be picky when filling your lists and avoid creating ultra-lengthy lists. People only follow good lists so make sure your list is "following-worthy".
If you are a Twitter lists beginner, the following video tutorial demonstrates how to create a list and follow other people's lists .
I also invite you to check out Garious article How To Use Twitter Lists for Branding and Competitive Intelligence for more insights.
7. SEO Your Twitter Videos
With Twitter 2.0 allowing you to embed/share videos and access them within the Twitter stream, you can have the best of both worlds: real-time search and video marketing. If you haven't tried Twitter videos yet, watch the video below.
When thinking of Twitter videos, it's important to note that all the well-known YouTube SEO Tips would work like a charm with Twitter videos. There's one tip I stress: Twitter videos must be ultra-short and sweet in order to nicely fit into Twitter's micro-blogging nature.
Finally, make sure to link to your Twitter profile from everywhere possible; your blog, Facebook page, LinkedIn profile, Newsletter, you name it.
Also make sure to submit your Twitter profile to popular Twitter directories (such as TrackingTwitter, TwitterHolic, WeFollow) for more visibility and link building.
Go ahead: follow these steps and turn your Twitter account into a SEO magnet. To your success!
Great tips Heba! I remember overhearing from a coworker that a competitor to a popular keyword phrase for a client was just a Twitter account. Goes to show that social and search definitely mix well for great results!
Thank you, Kristi. I certainly agree with your coworker opinion. I would also add that the way search engine placements (SERPs) algorithms were designed made it super easy for spam sites to abuse them and get high ranks.
That’s why I strongly believe that “social authority” will become a key ranking factor in the near future
That’s a golden opportunity for small businesses to shine online like the big players becuase creating a SEO-freindly social media profile is a very easy task. All you need is to use the same keywords you decided are best for your own website on social media.
That’s it.Easy task with magnificent rewards! I love that thought.
Read more: https://www.searchenginepeople.com/blog/twitter-seo-magnet.html#ixzz1MhyPFrQX
This is a terrific tutorial very new to Twitter and it will be a great education, its great advice thanks from Hip4Kids
You are mostly welcome, Chris. I am so glad the you find this post educational and informative. I hope you can use the tips given here to magnify your Twitter influence.To your success!
Thank you, Kristi. I certainly agree with your coworker opinion. I would also add that the way search engine placements (SERPs) algorithms were designed made it super easy for spam sites to abuse them and get high ranks.
That’s why I strongly believe that “social authority” will become a key ranking factor in the near future
That’s a golden opportunity for small businesses to shine online like the big players becuase creating a SEO-freindly social media profile is a very easy task. All you need is to use the same keywords you decided are best for your own website on social media.
That’s it.Easy task with magnificent rewards! I love that thought.
From time to time I still come across Twitter accounts with the link section completely blank. It makes the hair on my neck stand.
I couldn’t agree more, Maciej. It’s mind-boggling how some people underestimate Twitter’s real value! Lucky for us, we know better!
I never knew before about Twitter videos, this is something new for me.
I did linked my twitter from my Facebook as you suggested, hopefully this will increase my twitter rank.
The Twitter video is rather new, Victor. It is a new feature that was added the new Twitter.
I am glad you the infromation in this article helpful. Please try it out and keep me posted :). All the best.
Hi, Heba.
Great tips you have here, thanks! While I was reading it, I kept going to my Twitter account to see if I am doing things right. I was in almost in a panic to see that I am not doing much of what is in the list. So, to avoid stress, I’ve decided to take baby steps in this. At least, I’ll have this list to go back to and use as a reminder.
By the way, I found this through Kristi of Kikolani, so kudos goes out to her, too! 🙂
Thanks for dropping by, Kim. And yes, Kristi certainly deserves kudos: she’s one of my favorite content curators out there. *And* does a good writing job. Talk about awesome.
You are mostly welcome, Kim .
It’s a great idea to take baby steps when you feel you have a lot to do. I’m so cusrious to know which item in the list will you start with :)?
Great, great post. I have never been thinking about my Twitter profile in that way. Thank you for all the tips. I will give me profile a checkup for sure 🙂
I am glad you found these tips helpful, Thomas.
To me, the Twitter video feature was a pleasant surprise and search engines love Twitter lists. So, you have plenty of great stuff to work with. Which item will you give highest priority? 🙂 I’d love it if you shared with me your revamped Twitter account when all is done. Good luck.
Regarding point 2, what do you think about using a personal url shortening service, which short your actual domain?
I like it a lot. For my own vanity domain ruudhein.com I use ruudhe.in, for example. I run it through Bit.ly but you could just as well (and probably better) set one up yourself.
Yep, I already have 2 shortening service (not using bit.ly, they’re custom made), but I was interested about point 2 of the article, which was suggesting to not use url shortening services.
Thanks for raising this point, Christopher.
Point 2 was warning agianst using traditional URL shortners (such as google url shortner that would look something like http://goo.gl/whatever) as these would raise red flags.
But what you and Ruud are doing is perfectly fine. That’s a great contribution to the post. Thanks a lot :).
Dan,
Thx for the post. Adding a video link on twitter will be great! The possibilities are endless.
Tom
Eaxctly, Tom and the best part is: you no longer need to leave Twitter to watch your favorite video. In fact, you can add your favorite videos to your favorite tweets.
I love Twitter! What’s not to love about a beautiful blue bird? 🙂
Great Tips Heba,
I never liked using the URL shortners and rarely do. My domain is short enough that I would rather just put my own site in for a link. A few months ago I realized that I need to keep my slugs as short as possible, so I can usually fit my url in a tweet.
That is a great tip on SEOing your twitter lists. Hadn’t thought of that one.
Social Media is the future of search I think, so either get on it or it will pass you by.
Thank you so much for encouraging words, Damon.
I agree with you 100% that search engines are favoring social media big time. Google Panada is just one example.
It’s interesting that you brought up URL shorteners. Recently, Twitter added a very cool URL shortening feature that allows you to paste the original URL and Twitter takes care of the rest. Interestingly, the final URL doesn’t look shortened. Instead, they remove the “http//www.” and display part of the domain name. For example, If I pasted a link to this article in my tweet, it will look something like: “searchenginepeople.com/blog/twitter…”This shortened link doesn’t look as suspicious as conventional URL shorteners. Don’t you just love Twitter? 🙂
Wow,
That is awesome, I hadn’t heard of that. I will have to check it out. The main reason I didn’t like the old way of shortening the URL’s is because of the trust factor as you mentioned and also I felt it took away from some branding opportunities. Why wouldn’t I want my name (which is my url) to appear in everyone’s twitter stream, even if they didn’t click the link, it still helps if they see my brand every once in awhile.
This new feature appears to solve that problem for me and would help on some of my slightly longer slugs.
Thanks for the tip Heba