Those who want to strengthen the Twitter leg of their SEO strategies are here! Twitter SEO tips and tactics that can contribute to increa...
Those who want to strengthen the Twitter leg of their SEO strategies are here! Twitter SEO tips and tactics that can contribute to increased search visibility; It requires researching Twitter algorithms and understanding who uses Twitter and why.
It is not right to think of huge social networks such as Twitter as platforms isolated from search engines. Google; It pulls tons of information from social media giants like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn and lists it in search results. The more your posts are viewed on these platforms, the more likes, tags and comments they receive, and the more they are supported by retweets, the higher your search engine rankings will be.
Who are Twitter Users?
Twitter has 192 million daily active users worldwide as of the fourth quarter of 2020. Although this data may seem pale compared to Facebook's 1.84 billion daily user statistics, it cannot be denied that Twitter is full of good opportunities in terms of marketing campaigns .It is known that as of the first quarter of 2019, Twitter's average monthly user number has reached 330 million (Statista). The platform, which allows users to interact with celebrities and brands, has also become an important communication channel for governments and heads of state. So much so that, as of March 2021, the most followed celebrity is Barack Obama with approximately 130 million followers.
Numerous studies, such as the VAB (2018) data showing that six out of every 10 Twitter users (63 percent) worldwide are between the ages of 35 and 65, reveal that Twitter has a more mature audience than Snapchat and Instagram.
It is also a common knowledge that Twitter is more popular among men than women. According to DataReportal, which gives the ratio of men to women two to one, 66 percent of Twitter users worldwide are men and 34 percent are women (2019).
It's recommended that you take this data into account when considering how you can use Twitter, which is 15 years old, to connect with your target audience.
Why Do Users Prefer Twitter?
One of the most important reasons why people use Twitter is that it is seen as a news source. Easily and quickly accessing tweets in the form of short news summaries plays a big part in this. In fact, journalists make up almost a quarter of all verified accounts on Twitter.
Twitter's product-related hashtags help you quickly get an idea of what the product is like. The majority of B2B businesses also use Twitter as a digital marketing tool. Moreover, businesses can learn from Twitter how people react to their products/services. Twitter can also be a tool to strengthen a company's relationship with both its customers and employees.
Twitter is also preferred as a way to improve website SEO. Because there is a strong partnership relationship between Twitter and Google. This relationship allows Google to access the Twitter feed and index the results for search traffic. This means Twitter plays an important role in search engine optimization.
Although tweet trends change every year, the most interesting data belongs to 2020 due to the pandemic. Amidst a global health crisis, Twitter has served as a platform where people come together to check news, updates and have fun during quarantine. More than 7,000 Tweets about TV and movies are sent every minute, with a 40% increase in the use of the house emoji. On top of that, cooking-related Tweets nearly tripled in 2020. Many food and drink emojis have also seen a significant increase in usage worldwide.
What is Twitter Google Partnership?
Although many people think that Twitter and Google have nothing to do with each other, in 2015, the two companies formed a partnership that changed the way SEO works. This partnership turned Twitter into an influential player in search engine optimization because Google was given access to the Twitter feed and indexed tweets in search results.
So what did Google want to achieve with access to what's happening on Twitter? Google's aim was to provide users with real-time information, because in our world that rotates at dizzying speed, even the news of five hours ago is old for many users!
How to Do SEO for Twitter?
Social media is not a direct ranking factor, but it does make a difference to your Google search visibility because it affects other important ranking factors.
Twitter is one of the most effective ways to stay in touch with followers. Optimizing your Twitter account with some SEO tactics will allow you to reach more potential followers or customers. Of course, it's important to have a lot of followers, as you need followers to engage with your tweets regularly. However, considering that Twitter users send approximately 500 million tweets every day, which means approximately 200 billion tweets per year, it is necessary to use some tips to gain visibility in search engines thanks to Twitter.
If you want your Twitter page to rank high on Google, you need to optimize the bio accordingly. When indexing Twitter profiles, Google reads the display name and username as title tags. This appears as blue, linked text in Google search results. It is critical that you create a username with the name of your brand/site as Google also displays Twitter accounts in the search list when someone searches for a brand/site name.
The meta description is the block of text below the title tag on the Google search results page. The bio section is indexed as the meta description of your Twitter profile page. Therefore, it is recommended that you take the time to carefully create your Twitter bio, adding an effective summary of your business or brand using hashtags with the right keywords to stand out.
Adding your website link to your Twitter profile is one of the factors that improves the backlink profile of your site, giving your Twitter account more credibility in the eyes of the search engine.
Additionally, using the same username on all your social media profiles will allow you to be easily found on any platform you have. This consistency helps weed out and identify scammers. Moreover, it improves the SEO of social media accounts because the weight that search engines give to the brand increases as the artificial intelligence behind the search engines uses repetition to confirm the accuracy of the account.
Hashtag’ler
If a user clicks on a hashtag, they can see other tweets containing that hashtag. Hashtags are very effective in drawing attention to a particular topic or event; It can be added anywhere in a tweet and can be viewed in Trending Topics if it is added to an effective message that keeps the pulse of the agenda.
Trending topic on Twitter; From politics to fashion, from technology to food, these are the topics that many people talk about. Adding worldwide or country-wide trending hashtags to tweets means more visibility and interaction opportunities. However, it is important not to overdo it to avoid being perceived as spam.Twitter recommends not using more than two hashtags per tweet.
Hashtags have the same role on Twitter as keywords in SEO. When you turn the basic keywords you use on your website into hashtags in your tweets, your tweets will gain visibility in Twitter searches for your target audience.
When using hashtags, it is not recommended to include hashtags that are unrelated to the content of the tweet or your brand. It is important to focus only on trending topics that contain keywords relevant to your industry / audience.
It is recommended to use your brand name and product names as hashtags in tweets to stand out from the crowd when indexed by search engines.
Checking the trending hashtags during the day to see if there is anything worth tweeting and using hashtags related to important events such as concerts and sports events; It can quickly drive traffic to your account from other people who share the same hashtag.
Attribution / Tagging
Mentioning other user accounts with the @ tag on Twitter; It is used to refer to the people who forward your tweets and to ensure that your tweet reaches the target audiences of these accounts.
You can search for hashtags and keywords on Twitter in connection with your brand / niche, and mention the relevant account by retweeting messages that you think speak in the same tone and sharing tweets. Thus, as soon as your message is published, the accounts you refer to; You increase the likelihood of liking and retweeting your tweet.
Sharing Blog Posts
Post Frequency and Time
Effective marketing requires delivering the right message to the right person at the right time. When this fact is added to the fact that the lifespan of a tweet is very short, it is of great importance that you post your tweets by taking into account your audience's peak interaction hours.
Research on this subject generally emphasizes that 12:00, 17:00 and 18:00 are the most effective times of the day. For example, Hootsuite research shows that the best time to post on Twitter is between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.
It is also possible to come across data that mentions the potential for effectiveness between 13:00 and 15:00, especially on Mondays and Thursdays. The most inappropriate time to tweet is after 20:00 on weekends and after 15:00 on Fridays. These time periods have the lowest engagement, click-through and retweet rates. In this regard, it is of course useful to check Twitter Analytics to verify that most of your followers are online and active.
For brands and accounts with a global audience, it is stated that every hour of the day is important and appropriate planning is recommended according to time zones.
When it comes to how often to post on Twitter, this can vary depending on your industry and niche. Some companies may see engagement start to drop after posting more than three times per day. It's important at this point to do your own research and try to see what works with your followers.
Resharing Content
Even if you tweet at busy times, there may be a possibility that many followers may have missed your tweet from time to time. Of course, it's also possible that new followers may have missed your previous most educational/informative tweets.
So if a tweet performed well the first time, it might be worth retweeting your best-performing message, assuming it will have a similar impact again. You should even find creative ways to reshare, not just retweet. You should also make sure that you choose an offer or slogan that is different enough from the original so that it is not perceived as spam.
If you want to share the same content more than once, it is also important to leave enough time between them. Your followers won't like seeing the same tweets every day. It is also recommended that you pin these tweets to the top of your profile.
Increasing Interaction
Social media has opened up the possibility of personally communicating with followers and consumers. So much so that the brand-customer relationship has moved from a one-way relationship to a two-way and even multi-way relationship. However, it is becoming increasingly important for brands to not only be present on Twitter, but also to be interactive and engaging.
One of the benefits of Twitter is the ease of reaching your target audience. For businesses, this should be seen as a way to build customer loyalty and brand awareness.
All good relationships in the virtual world, as in real life, require commitment. It's the same on Twitter. The fact that companies respond to questions and complaints publicly has an impact on consumers' purchasing behavior.
However, one of the disadvantages of Twitter is that a discussion can turn into a fight watched by thousands of people. For this reason, companies that use Twitter for customer interaction are recommended to act professionally, taking into account the brand's image. Although there are some customers who focus on trickery to get a refund, the majority of loyal customers have valid complaints. These people often need a sign that someone at the company is listening and working on the issue.
Twitter gives customers the opportunity for personalized responses. This way, you can resolve issues much faster, which is why Twitter is the preferred channel for many major brands to communicate with their customer base.A great example of a personalized response that stood out was between Morton's Steakhouse and Peter Shankman: Peter Shankman jokingly tweeted to Morton's Steakhouse, asking for someone from the restaurant to meet him at Newark Airport. And sure enough, someone from the steakhouse greeted him at the airport with a steak! The story went viral on Twitter and social platforms and turned into a powerful advertisement for Morton's Steakhouse.
Poll, Thread, Retweets
Ways to get the interaction you need on Twitter: chatting with other accounts with similar interests and expertise, voicing your opinion on controversial topics, or writing something funny. It is also important that you respond to people's posts and hit the like button because people feel satisfied when they are appreciated and their words are taken into account.
Creating polls on Twitter and soliciting your followers' participation can generate tons of customer/follower feedback and offer valuable insights. Asking for answers with GIFs or emojis in polls can increase comments.
Tweeting as a thread can also be a fun way to establish a theme or narrative and create good opportunities for followers to engage. Stories have the potential to influence audiences to stand up for what you believe in and highlight what's important to you.
Retweets should be considered an effective method to showcase your interests to your target audience. However, do not ask users to retweet or like a tweet as it brings negative consequences. You can also retweet, quote and share positive comments with your followers. Using customer feedback in this way increases engagement.
Photos, Videos, GIFs
Tweets with photos, videos and GIFs tend to attract more attention. Using images in your tweets makes people three times more likely to engage, and the increase in engagement allows the Twitter algorithm to rank your tweet higher.Twitter data shows that tweets with videos get 10 times more engagement than those without them, and tweets with GIFs get 55% more engagement than tweets without them.
Humor
You can guess that brands that use humor in their tweets are retweeted more and followed by more people than others. This is exactly the case because using humor as the voice of a brand/account gets people excited to revisit that Twitter page and share the messages with their friends.
Voice Tweets
Since eighty-six percent of customers prefer companies with an honest, open and unique identity, voice tweets will help your brand be perceived as more real and sincere.
When using voice tweets, it is important to make your point quickly and keep messages short, clear and simple. Adding sound effects or slogans will help to reinforce your message. It's also recommended to end voice tweets with a call to action (CTA), such as directing followers to your website.
Since most customers expect companies to engage with them on social media, you may also want to consider using audio tweets to add a different dimension to your brand/identity to personalize the user experience. Interacting, such as answering questions via voice tweets, will make your followers feel valued. You can even add the follower's name to the tweet in the reply. Such personal touches may cause people to choose your brand over your competitors.
SEO experts also recommend using a series of audio tweets answering 10-15 FAQs in a thread. If you wish, you can pin audio tweets answering company policy and FAQs to your profile.
Voice Tweets are seen as an exciting opportunity for users and brands to connect with their fans and followers in a whole new way, so it's important to use voice tweets to build your brand, increase engagement and follower count.
How Does the Twitter Algorithm Work?
Thus, the platform introduced an algorithm that allows users to track tweets based on relevance and popularity. This algorithm aimed to display relevant content to Twitter audiences, helping users avoid missing important tweets.
In fact, like most social media algorithms, Twitter's algorithm is all about personalization. Twitter's timeline combines real-time Tweets and personalized Tweets.
Twitter algorithm; It intelligently matches relevant content by analyzing various factors such as engagement rate, relevance to users, and post type. It also uses different ranking factors that determine whether a user will like the content or not. As a result, the user can see the latest tweets of the people he follows and the tweets that the algorithm thinks will interest him the most.
Twitter algorithm and content ranking parameters are constantly changing. The factors that define relevance are quite complex. Twitter states that immediately after a tweet is sent, it ranks the tweet based on a relevance model. This relevance model is based on algorithms that identify whether a particular tweet would be relevant to you.
Every day, Twitter finds new ways to keep the feed up to date with the latest tweets that interest its users. In summary; We can say that Twitter's ranking signals include factors such as novelty, relevance, engagement, and rich media. In other words, criteria such as the freshness of the tweet, whether it contains images or videos, the total of interactions such as the number of retweets or likes, your past interactions with the tweet owner, the strength of your connection, the tweets you found interesting in the past, how often and how intensely you use Twitter are included in the algorithm. It is effective.
When it comes to algorithms, it is difficult to talk about a one-size-fits-all solution. In general, getting a lot of interaction from your tweets will result in you ranking higher on users' timelines. It's recommended that you use Twitter Analytics to track what's working and what's not, and adapt these tips as appropriate for your account.
Summary
More and more users are paying attention to Twitter's potential to increase traffic and brand awareness, generate leads, and positively impact sales.
It is obvious that companies that do not use Twitter correctly, which has become one of the world's largest news sources, miss a valuable marketing opportunity. It is known that approximately half of the users who follow a brand on Twitter complete the purchase.
For all these reasons, it is recommended that you consciously include this huge consumer pool in your SEO strategies and do regular research on Twitter SEO tips.
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