Search Engine Marketing Connects to Social Media

Some months ago, Google added Twitter to its real time search engine. With search becoming more social, social media marketers have been presented with yet another avenue through which potential customers can find them. Here are a few search engine marketing tips that will help you take advantage of Google’s real time Twitter search engine and send web surfers to your website.

Search Engine Marketing Tips for Twitter

Optimize Your Twitter Page Title – Search engines use the title of web pages to both categorize the page and to display in the search results. The focus of search engine marketing is to rank well for a particular keyword; in this case, your name. To rank for your name, you need to make sure it is included in the title tag of your Twitter profile page. This is very easy to do. Log into your account and click on settings. Update the Name option (not the Username). Your name should now display in the title bar of your browser.

Optimize Your Description – Along those same lines, search engines use the bio block on your Twitter profile to describe your Twitter page. Therefore, your bio should be a real one that describes you. Additionally, you should try to include your target keywords in your description. For example, if you are targeting “search engine marketing” then your description could say something like, “I am an affiliate marketer interested in search engine marketing…”

Optimize Your Tweets – Just like your description, your tweets should include the keywords you are targeting and preferably within the first 20-30 characters of your tweet to make the most of their search engine marketing value. This is because the search engines include the first 30-40 characters of your tweet in the title tag. As we just discussed the title tag influences how web pages are index in the search engine catalog.

Tweet Often – Since it is a real time search engine, the most current results for the search query will be shown. This means if you want to stay on top, you’ll need to tweet often and probably during times when most people in your target market is using the search engine. This search engine marketing tip can quickly become an unwieldy task so you’ll want to use a tool like Tweetminer (now Pluggio) to schedule tweets to be posted throughout the day.

Link, Link, Link – Don’t forget to include links back to your content so readers can get the full story. The same Twitter etiquette rules apply so spamming is a no-no. However, don’t be too modest and avoid linking to yourself at all cost. As a search engine marketing bonus, the links do show up in the search result. When people click on it, they will be sent directly to your web page.

Build a High Quality Following – You and your Twitter followers are linked internally. There are rumblings that having Twitter followers whose Twitter profile has a high Pagerank linking to you will give your own profile a boost. Even if this is not true, you want people who are engaged and willing to spread your content around which will give your search engine marketing a boost.

Download my free social media checklist (sign up in sidebar) for a daily to do list of all the things you need to do to increase your following. For personalized help, contact me for a free consultation on the best way to market your business online including using Twitter and other internet business tools.

(photo credit: yufujamar)

Check out the articles in my archives for more search engine marketing tips for ranking well in Google, Yahoo, and Bing.