Many brands use Twitter to send out company news and updates. What these companies may not realize is this social media platform can also be used to increase your search visibility.
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How to Use Twitter for SEO
Having a Twitter account for your brand is a great way for customers to stay up-to-date on what’s going on with your business. Optimizing your Twitter account will allow you to reach more potential customers so they can learn about your business. Social media may not be a direct ranking factor, but it does have an impact on your Google search visibility.
3 Ways to Boost Search Presence with Twitter
Here are the three best practices for Twitter SEO:
Optimize Your Display Name and Bio
When creating or editing your brand’s Twitter account, it may be hard to create a username or Twitter handle that reads exactly like the brand name. If you have to get creative with your handle, don’t panic. Even if someone is already using your preferred Twitter handle, you can still have the display name represent your business.
Your display name should be your business or brand name. When indexing Twitter profiles, Google reads the display name and username as the title tag. This is the meta data that shows up as the blue, linked text in Google search results.
Take time to craft your Twitter bio carefully. It should include relevant keywords, hashtags, and a link to your website. The bio section is indexed as the meta description for your Twitter profile page. The meta description is the block of text underneath the title tag on the Google search results page.
Leverage the Twitter Carousel
When a person or brand’s Twitter shows up in search results, there may be three boxes with their recent tweets that appear as well. This is the Twitter Carousel.
The most useful part of the carousel is that it simply takes up more space on the results page, making the listing eye-catching to the user. It also gives your users a chance to see what your Twitter feed looks like without having to click through.
Unfortunately, having the carousel appear for a brand account isn’t as simple as adjusting a setting. The secret to having the carousel appear for your brand account is to have an active Twitter account with users regularly interacting. Google will notice users interacting with your account, which triggers its algorithm to index your tweet and display it as a search result. While this may be easier for big brands, algorithms don’t play favorites. Any account with activity has a chance of appearing in a carousel, even a smaller business.
Use Hashtags
The high-level definition of a hashtag is: “a metadata tag that is prefaced by the hash symbol, #. Hashtags are widely used on microblogging and photo-sharing services such as Twitter and Instagram as a form of user-generated tagging that enables cross-referencing of content sharing a subject or theme.” Hashtags appear for topics trending worldwide, allowing your brand an opportunity to be seen by more users when including trending hashtags in your tweets. Staying engaged with trending topics is one of the easiest ways to create engagement with users, which leads to the chance of having a Twitter Carousel in search results.
There is one rule to remember when using hashtags: only use relevant hashtags. The hashtags you use in a tweet should be relevant to the content of the tweet itself, and preferably relevant to your brand. Keep an eye out for trending topics that involve keywords for your business.
If you have any questions regarding Twitter SEO or how to improve search visibility for your business, reach out to us! For tips on social media lead prospecting, download our free guide.
