How to Increase the SEO Power of Your Twitter Account

It is common knowledge that social media is now an essential aspect of SEO. It makes only makes sense because SEOs promote their websites where there are people—and there definitely are a lot of people (potential market, in other words) present and actively interacting in today’s biggest and most popular social media sites.

Twitter is the second most popular and widely-used social media site today. That is why it is one of the targets of any SEO company. Many were initially attracted to it because of its very unique layout, format, and social interaction system. It is actually simpler to use compared to the others because you are only given a few privileges as far as online socializing is concerned:

1. You can tweet about your feelings, mood, thoughts, or any other subject under the sun (provided that you limit the message to 140 characters!)
2. You can share images to the public and also tag your friends via hashtags.
3. You can add a background image or color of your choice.

Twitter has proven that a social media site doesn’t need to have so many customizable features in order to be a hit. In fact its simplicity has contributed to its success. People know what they can find and what they can do in Twitter—read about what’s going on with their friends and other famous people, and share the some messages to the world yourself.

Tweets = Messages = Keywords

Use keywords as hashtags. Image source 

When it comes to using Twitter for SEO, keywords are your most important accessories. Normally an SEO would conduct a keyword research using AdWords to get the keywords and phrases most frequently used by search engine users. SEOs can get a list of the top keywords used in his niche only, or the overall top searches at present.

However, it is very, very rare for your niche keywords to make it in the worldwide or national trending topics. That’s why it is truly a huge accomplishment to be able to make your business name or the keyword hashtags you’re trying to promote become a trending topic. It means you have captured the attention of the public because so many of them tweeted about your business or keyword hashtags too.

SEO therefore need to match the results of their traditional keyword research with their popularity in Twitter. Take your list of AdWords keywords and phrases, and find out which ones have the most number of recent tweets. There are many tools for Twitter keyword/hashtag research on the Internet. Some of them require monthly fees, but there are also some offered for free like Social Oomph, Hashtags.org and Twilert.

You can begin your Twitter SEO by giving those keyword hashtags a leg up. Frequently send out tweets using your strongest keyword hashtags and encourage retweets and other similar activity among your Twitter contacts. Just don’t tweet in bulk because nothing annoys twitter users more.

Be Creative 

Make sure your posts are worth reposting or tweeting about too. Make it interesting even while you’re promoting your website or business. The best tweets are those that inspire conversation. Also post twitpics and give the public other forms of content to share.

Program Retweets and Twitter Shares 

Have you noticed that sometimes when you tweet a photo or an article, there’s a prepared message that’s automatically affixed to the content? You can do this on your website content too. Check out this code provided by Aaron Friedman at SearchEngineLand which you can insert in your website pages that are optimized for social sharing. It will automatically prepare a twitter message. Users have the option to erase the message of course, but there’s a very good chance that they will approve the tweet with your embedded message.

Tweet Your Most Popular Pages 

The purpose of your Twitter account is to optimize your website. Promote your articles or blog posts, if you have a website blog. Talk about your services, tweet out a thank you to satisfied customers who have made their pleasure known, make official announcements if you have promos or contests—anything that will generate buzz for your website.

Look at your website stats and determine which pages have the most number of social shares. Also take note which articles or pages other websites link to or mention as references to their readers. Promote these pages and insert their bit.ly URLs in your tweets (bit.ly shortens links, which makes your posts look neat) along with a keyword hashtag, if applicable.

Establish Your Twitter Presence and Identity

Don’t neglect your accounts or neglect to post tweets for weeks at a time. Inactivity in your account will make newcomers think twice about following you. No one wants to follow inactive and uninteresting accounts, especially since there’s a limit on the number of accounts you can follow.

It is important to establish your identity in Twitter too because this is primarily a social network that’s used by people. People are more welcoming of tweets from people and entities they are familiar with. It becomes easier to cultivate trust, and maybe even generate conversions later on, if your audience already recognizes you.

Establish a recognizable and memorable Twitter identity. Image source  

The following are tips for creating an impressionable Twitter identity:

• Choose a memorable profile image. It can be your company logo (which is great way to publicize your company trademark, by the way), the product you are selling, and if you are an author, speaker, artist and so forth, you can use your own headshot.
• Don’t keep on changing your profile photo. When users scroll through tweets rapidly, they may only have time to register your profile photo and not on your profile name. It is therefore better to have a staple photo, unless if there’s a very significantly good reason to change it temporarily.
• Optimize your bio/profile page. Include significant keywords and URLs to your website.
• You basically just have to use Twitter as a human being, not as a machine. Reply to questions, comments, and trivia that are posted on your wall. Of course, you don’t need to reply to every single tweet, but the point is you can show to the public that your account is not run by automation software.
• Use a tone of voice that appeals to your target audience.
• Also post other things that are not directly related to your website or business. Post quotes because many users have a propensity for reposting inspiring quotes. Comment about today’s fads, popular stories, celebrities who have made headlines, and so forth. However, be tactful and avoid saying something negative about a person or entity. You might suffer backlash from the public.

Promoted Tweets

You can take social media optimization to the next level and pay for Promoted Tweets. These tweets are placed at the most visible locations on Twitter pages. They also appear in the twitter streams of people who are most likely to have an interest in them. Twitter determines the compatibility of Promoted Tweets to its users.  Of course, this is only possible if you have the funds to advertise tweets.

There’s really no formula for Twitter SEO success. Things may work differently for people, companies, or niches. The important thing is to have a smooth and working collaboration between your traditional SEO and social media—specifically Twitter—campaigns.

About Emma-Julie Fox

Emma, aka the "Foxy Lady", writes and promotes Pitstop Media's articles about search engine optimization and social media. She is a fun loving person and likes to help others with good advice. She is also a caring mother of a beautiful daughter.