Twitter, the popular microblogging website has received immense
attention and traffic over the time. And a significant percentage of
websites referring traffic to Twitter come from the search engines.
This goes on to prove the intricate relationship between Twitter and
the search engines.
Ranking Factors on Twitter
The
increased popularity of Twitter is not without reason. Twitter provides
an opportunity for businesses to engage with their target audiences and
attract more visitors to their websites. This works just like the
regular search engine optimization processes. This is why it is
important to understand the various parameters and use them to their
advantage.
Title & URL
The Title and the URL are
two prime ranking factors that determine the placement of your link
within the search engine results' page. Generally search engine results
display the full name of the company/business/website along with its
Twitter username. This is where the optimization opportunity begins.
Twitter Name & Username
Make
sure the full name relates to your business and brand name. It is
advisable to use the same name for the Twitter full name as well as the
username. This will ensure the much needed consistency and brand
alignment. Remember, keep your username short because it would be the
fixed URL through which users would access your Twitter page.
About Me Paragraph
The
small 'About Me' paragraph that describes you and your Twitter account
is yet another important factor that governs the click-through rate.
This section is visible in the bio of your profile page. The
information in the bio is used as the Meta Description for your profile
page. Moreover, this is among the first part of the page that users
will be able to see before they arrive on your profile page from the
search engines. So, make sure you provide a crisp introduction about
your company and business telling people who you are and what your
Twitter account is all about. Remember, you can either use the Twitter
account for personal and professional updates or dedicate it
exclusively for business updates. Whatever be the case, make it clear
in the intro so that users know what to expect of the account.
Optimizing your Tweets
Your
Twitter account is all about the Tweets that it contains i.e. content
or links that you post. Now, you need to write a Tweet very effectively
in order for it to have the desired search engine values. First and
foremost, all the content that you post should be relevant and useful,
and should appeal to your target audiences otherwise no one would care
to read. Remember, Twitter does not pass any PageRank.
For users
to find your Tweets, it is important to optimize you titles efficiently
at the same time not ruining the quality of the Tweet. The idea if is
to make strategic use of keywords while still drafting sensible Tweets.
Just like your bio works as meta descriptions, your actual tweet will
also be used as one when your tweets are indexed.
Also, make
your Tweets small enough for users to be able to re-tweet the message
easily. The problem with long tweets is that they can exceed the 140
character limit which further results in the loss of the original tweet
when people re-tweet them. Thus, make your tweets about 125-130
characters long – short and crisp!