It was recently announced that Twitter and Google would be teaming up in order to give tweets a decent search engine ranking. Google will very soon be able to access the entire feed of tweets that Twitter currently holds so then they can all have an impact on search engine ranking. This means that content marketers are starting to utilize Twitter more in order to improve the search engine rankings for their sites.
Here we will look at how Twitter will be playing a bigger role in search engine rankings and how that can affect your site and your social media strategy.
How Did SEO And Social Media Previously Work?
This is somewhat of a grey area. Not that many people really know how SEO and social media have really worked together for the past few years or so. Some social media marketers have been able to gather together some vague data about how the two work together and how big an impact social media can have on SEO, but with no clear results.
These changes however will make things a whole lot simpler, at least when it comes to Twitter. When the changes come into effect, social media managers will be able to detect the direct correlation between Twitter and SEO, along with how they can word certain tweets in order to improve search engine rankings.
How Will The Changes Work?
Before Twitter and Google had made a deal, the search engine had access to Twitter’s feed but they were not able to prioritize tweets in search engine rankings. The only way they could have done this is if they had kept a track of the Twitter feeds constantly so then they could give them all separate rankings that would have been appropriate for their content. This, however, would have slowed Twitter down substantially and it would have been a very time-consuming task for Google.
It’s only now that Twitter and Google have been able to reach an agreement that pleases both sides. Google still has access to the constant feeds on Twitter, but now Google is able to index them. Google is effectively creating its own large archive of tweets. By doing this, Google is able to give specific tweets a value that can last a long time, thus making it a more substantial presence in search engine rankings.
This does change quite a few things from an SEO perspective. Previously, if you were to send out a tweet it would have a relatively short shelf life. Even if a specific tweet was retweeted many times, chances are it would not be seen by anyone again after a few days or so. Google changing the rules about search engine rankings however changes that completely. Tweets could soon start having a much bigger shelf life as long as they are listed in search engine results.
How Does This Effect Social Media Marketing?
On the surface, you would say that this does not make that big a difference, mainly because crafting a tweet already involves using specific keywords and hashtags in order to reach a wider audience. However, it does change how the content of tweets should be approached quite drastically. Now content will need to be planned out, not entirely unlike how it would be addressed when website content is being written. Not only do certain keywords and hashtags have to be used but the content also needs to be appropriate for the Twitter account and for the user it is representing.
It also means that when it comes to Twitter, social media strategies will have to be changed. Now that the entire tweet will be important instead of just the keywords and hashtags, Twitter will drift more into a content writing spectrum than a social media spectrum.
If you are running a social media campaign for a website, then it could be a good idea to team up with the content manager for that site and ask them what they think about certain tweets. They might be able to give you a little advice on how to word tweets so then the content remains relevant while still using the appropriate hashtags and keywords.
