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| | | Header = Using%20Twitter%20for%20an%20SEO%20Boost | | | Header = Using%20Twitter%20for%20an%20SEO%20Boost |
| | | Subhead = Links tweeted on Twitter matter for SEO | | | Subhead = Links tweeted on Twitter matter for SEO |
| − | | Bitly = http://bit.ly/Twitter4SEO | + | | Bitly = http://www.aboutus.com/how-to-use-twitter-for-seo/ |
| | | Date = March 3, 2011 | | | Date = March 3, 2011 |
| | }} | | }} |
| − | | + | ==Links tweeted on Twitter matter for SEO== |
| − | It's [http://searchengineland.com/what-social-signals-do-google-bing-really-count-55389 official]. Google and Bing include social signals - namely, links that get tweeted on Twitter - when determining rankings in their search engine results. This was confirmed by [http://searchengineland.com/author/danny-sullivan/ Danny Sullivan] in his [http://searchengineland.com/what-social-signals-do-google-bing-really-count-55389 December 1, 2010 post] on [http://searchengineland.com/ Search Engine Land], and it was likely a factor for a while before that.
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| − | To put this new factor in perspective, Google uses hundreds of signals to determine how it should rank a websites. These include [[Learn/Get-Good-Backlinks|inbound links to the site]], the [[Learn/Increase-Site-Traffic-with-Title-Tags|title tag]] of a web page, and [[Learn/6-Easy-Ways-to-Improve-Your-Site-Speed-for-SEO|site speed]].
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| − | Getting people to link to your site is really all about having great content that people want to share, whether on their blogs or websites, or on Twitter. As Google and other search engines increasingly take note of social activity and the links shared on sites like Twitter, having a good [[Learn/Social-Media|social media]] presence will become increasingly important for ranking well in search results.
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| − | Many companies have been employing social media as a part of their marketing strategy, and for good reason. Now that social activity has so much impact on search engine optimization ([[Glossary/SEO|SEO]]), companies that take SEO seriously know they must use social media as part of their strategy for getting onto the first page of search results.
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| − | Note for those who are not familiar with Twitter: "tweets" are the 140-character (or less) messages that people post on Twitter. Twitter offers [http://support.twitter.com/ help for new users] on its site.
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| − | ===How Can I Use Twitter To Help My SEO?=== | |
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| − | The ways of search engines are mysterious, and people are always trying to figure out which specific tactics will help more than others. But just as we know that other ranking factors are considered in light of giving searchers the best information for their queries, you can bet that search engines will elevate the best content on the social networks - especially the content that's shared by real people who have influence.
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| − | Based on case studies, the more '''quantity and quality of tweets''' that link to your website, the more of a lift you can expect to see in your search engine rankings for the linked-to page or pages.
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| − | ===#1 Mind the Text Around the Link===
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| − | When you tweet a link, it's likely that search engines use the text you enter to determine what your link is about. It's very similar to the way that search engines regard [[Glossary/Anchor-Text|anchor text]] on web pages - the text on which a link is built tells the engines what the linked page is about. This in turn can help the linked page rank better for the keywords contained in the anchor text.
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| − | ===#2 Who Says?===
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| − | '''''Who''''' links to you on Twitter matters. You probably know already that it's more beneficial if influential tweeple - "people" in Twitter-speak - tweet about you, or retweet your tweets, because they will reach a wider audience. The same is true for the SEO value of Twitter. Google and Bing both say they look at '''the author's authority or quality''' when evaluating links that appear in tweets.
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| − | The search engines are mum on how they determine author quality, but here are some indicators of authority that SEO experts think search engines consider:
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| − | *Presence of an avatar or portrait. Spam accounts often don't have one.
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| − | *Has the account been verified? Did the person confirm their email address? (People can't see this, but Twitter has this information, and the search engines may be able to get it.)
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| − | *More followers.
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| − | *Quality followers. (This means people who follow someone for a good reason - NOT purchased followers!)
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| − | *Ratio of following to followers.
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| − | *It may be better if the URL in someone's profile doesn't match domain they're tweeting about, because then it's certain the person isn't engaging in self-promotion.
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| − | *Twitter handles that don't have numbers. (Many spam accounts on Twitter have user names like Name8765.)
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| − | *A bio with complete information.
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| − | *Engagement. (Accounts that never reply to other people certainly seem spam-y to me.)
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| − | *Included in lists created by quality tweeple.
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| − | *The [[Learn/What-PageRank-Means-for-Your-Website|PageRank]] of a Twitter profile
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| − | Think of it this way, who would you rather have link to your website?
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| − | [[Image:MarshallKTwitter.png|right|300px|This is a real person with lots of cred and followers]][[Image:SpammyTwitter.png|left|200px|A link from this Twitter account won't be too valuable for SEO, or anything]]
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| − | {{CLR}}
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| − | The idea of author quality is much like [[/Learn/What-PageRank-Means-for-Your-Website|PageRank]] for web pages. If a web page has 100 links, each from a different page with a PageRank of 0, they probably provide the same SEO value as a single link from a web page with a high PageRank. A link tweeted by a respected and well-followed person on Twitter will be worth more - both for your reputation and your SEO - than 100 tweets from spam-y bot accounts.
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| − | [[Image:TwitterReportAsSpam.png|right|150px]]
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| − | Something to keep in mind is that using bots or cheap labor to create a ton of Twitter accounts and tweet links to your site would be nothing but a spam-y waste of time and money. You won't get any SEO value, and you could be identified as a cause of Twitter spam.
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| − | If you notice a spam-y Twitter account, click "report [username] for spam".
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| − | {{CLR}}
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| − | ==What Can I Do To Encourage Tweets and Links?==
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| − | # This should be pretty obvious - I hope: Create great content that people will ''want'' to share.
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| − | # Make it easy for people to tweet and share your content. Consider including a Twitter button, a call to action, or some simple way for people to share a link to your website.
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| − | # Engage with your followers and attract new, quality ones. See our [[Learn/Use-Twitter-To-Engage-Your-Customers|Twitter Marketing 101]] article for guidance.
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| − | # [[Learn/Track-Your-Social-Presence|Keep tabs on who has mentioned or linked to you]] and thank them. You can also ask them to link to the newest thing you've created.
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| − | ===What Do We Know About Twitter and SEO?===
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| | ---- | | ---- |
| − | '''Case Studies:''' | + | It's [http://searchengineland.com/what-social-signals-do-google-bing-really-count-55389 official]. Google and Bing include social signals - namely, links that get tweeted on Twitter - when determining rankings in their search results. This was confirmed by [http://searchengineland.com/author/danny-sullivan/ Danny Sullivan] in his [http://searchengineland.com/what-social-signals-do-google-bing-really-count-55389 December 1, 2010 post] on [[SearchEngineLand.com|Search Engine Land]], and it was likely a factor for a while before that. ''[http://www.aboutus.com/how-to-use-twitter-for-seo/ ... read more]'' |
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| − | The people at one website [http://www.seomoz.org/blog/tweets-effect-rankings-unexpected-case-study noticed] the site suddenly ranked on the first page for a particular keyword right after the site was linked to by a prominent Twitter account - one with more than 350,000 followers - and that tweet was retweeted more than 100 times.
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| − | In http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-do-tweets-influence-search-rankings-an-experiment-for-a-cause a recent experiment], people were asked to link to one page or tweet a link to another page. The results so far? The page that was linked in 522 tweets outranked the page that was linked 646 times across 36 different websites, showing up as the first result in results for a specific keyword search.
| + | <big>''Note: This article has been moved to our new blog at [http://www.aboutus.com/how-to-use-twitter-for-seo/ www.AboutUs.com/how-to-use-twitter-for-seo].''</big> |
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| − | Points of order:
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| − | * Only public Twitter accounts can be used by search engines. If you see the lock symbol and you have to request to follow someone, their tweets won't help anyone's SEO.
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| − | * Building traditional backlinks to your website is still very important. Links from Twitter are a new tool to help your SEO, but they can only do so much.
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| − | * Links from Twitter are still NoFollow. It is explained that the search engines receive a stream of all public tweets, and in that "firehose" the links are not NoFollow so some traditional link credit may be passed this way.
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| − | * Google and Bing are also looking to Facebook for links, but they can only do so in profiles that have their status updates set to public. Most people have their Facebook accounts private (the opposite is true of Twitter), so search engines can primarily just see information on public business pages.
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| − | What don't we know for sure?
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| − | * How long will the SEO boost from Twitter links last? It's believe that the SEO boost from a Twitter link will decrease or go away over time. The Twitter SEO boost from links in tweets is likely less permanent or constant like a normal link from a website.
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| − | * If you're going to get x amount of tweets linking to a given page, is it better if they're retweets with the same content or uniquely written tweets?
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| − | Time will tell as we have more long-term data from experiments like the ones above.
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| − | This is another step making SEO and search engine algorithms more complicated, and hopefully better equipped to produce good search results. In today's social Web it makes sense to take into account more links than just the ones on regular websites and not leave all the information and sharing on social networks on the table.
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| − | ''Want to know how many traditional backlinks your website has, or how your website's on-page factors fair for SEO? Check the [[Website Visibility Report]] here on AboutUs.org.''
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| | | ShortBio = Kristina is a community manager for [[AboutUs.org]] who talks with a lot of website owners who are trying to promote their business online. <small>Have a question? [[Kristina Weis#Contact_Kristina|Contact me]].</small><br />{{Twitter|KristinaWeis}} | | | ShortBio = Kristina is a community manager for [[AboutUs.org]] who talks with a lot of website owners who are trying to promote their business online. <small>Have a question? [[Kristina Weis#Contact_Kristina|Contact me]].</small><br />{{Twitter|KristinaWeis}} |
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