Twitter’s new layout has made the social networking site more user-friendly, and it’s generating more activity within and around it. Bloggers and big companies have utilized Twitter’s social media platform to create social media buzz and interest for its target audiences. Aside from having a solid and constant presence on Twitter, social media users also know that personal interaction on Twitter is not enough to drive traffic to websites and blogs. To optimize Twitter’s social media interface, here are a few things to consider:
1. Handle names and profiles are probably Twitter’s most important features because it contains information that should be search engine-friendly. For example, the Twitter handle @yourbrand creates a fixed URL equivalent to Twitter.com/yourbrand which search engines can index. It will also drive more traffic to your site or blog quickly and easily because future information can be accessed faster. The profile name that appears next to your Twitter handle establishes your brand which should contain target keywords related to your brand or product.
2. In line with this, important keywords should be incorporated into profiles so search engines can easily see and index it. As with any text on the web, the same SEO tactics should be practiced such as the right keyword to content ratio – except characters should be limited to only 160 as per Twitter’s standard.
3. 140 characters should not limit you to tweet for SEO purposes. Maximizing Twitter’s social media platform means getting the attention of search engines by including keywords relevant to your business or blog. Google’s search engine results also link back to a user or individual’s tweet which means that tweets are indeed searched so appropriate keywords should be integrated especially at the beginning of tweets for maximum attention from search engines.
4. Don’t get discouraged from ‘nofollow’ and Twitter. The nofollow attribute basically ignores links on search engines as they are considered spam and malicious. Now that Twitter has gone nofollow, external links posted does not really contribute to SEO thus leading to very poor indexing and tweet searchability. Don’t fret, though. Twitter’s popularity has produced more third-party sites that include tweets for a particular niche which would consequently determine the ‘follow’ or ‘nofollow’ policies. Just spread those links rather than entirely give up on them. Use URL shortening services such as BitLy to allow search engine to index destination URLs.
