One of the most controversial questions when it comes to SEO, is “does social media have an impact on SEO?” This may come as a surprise to some, but the truthful answer is, “it depends.”
While social media is not recognised by Google as a direct ranking factor, it does have an impact on your brand’s visibility in the search engine results pages (SERPs). Plus, it also has an effect on other ranking factors that are considered by some to be crucial.
We get some idea of the relationship between SEO and social media if we go back to 2015 — when Google struck a deal with Twitter which allowed Google access to Twitter’s live-tweet data so that they could show these on SERPs. Since then, Google has continued to strike more deals with Twitter, allowing them to collect more data — which has also made Twitter an essential platform for anyone wanting to increase their visibility in the search results.
So, what are the five key ways Zool can help you boost your search presence using Twitter?
Tip One: Use Twitter to build Brand Awareness and Brand Identity.
If you google your brand name, chances are you will see Google’s Twitter carousel at the top of the page:
This is a great way for customers to get to know your brand, as they can scroll through your recent tweets. It’s also one of the only ways we can control what shows up in search results when people google your business name. If we’re posting interesting and valuable content on your Twitter account — this is what people will see. The Twitter carousel also helps with brand awareness as it can showcase your thought leadership pieces, and help to humanise your brand.
This is why it’s so important to ensure you’re sharing relevant content on your social media accounts, and not just Twitter. Try to ensure your posts align with your brand messaging, overall business mission and show your personality. It helps.
Tip Two: Leverage Twitter carousels
This brings us to our next point. Now that you’re aware of Twitter Carousels, leverage them to your advantage:
- Discuss topics that are trending — this is a great way to grab your audience’s attention
- Share content your audience cares about — keep in mind their key challenges, and what’s happening in the industry as a whole when you’re creating content to share
- Be social — tag other accounts in things you’re talking about, such as key thought leaders and influencers, to encourage them to engage with your content
- Use popular hashtags (that are relevant) — as you’ll show up in search results for these hashtags as well
- Use your keywords — let your followers know exactly what your brand is about and why they should care
- Get your team involved — Twitter carousels appear for individuals as well as brands, so make sure your team are resharing your tweet
Tip Three: Be Active in Building your Following
There are around 500 million tweets sent out every day, so make sure that you’re not lost in the profusion. Don’t tweet just for the sake of it though, make sure your content is relevant to your audience and valuable — otherwise, you’ll start to seem fake.
Click-through rates have a massive impact on search rankings, and the more valuable and reliable content you post on Twitter in order to build your audience, the more your audience will trust you. Plus they’ll more likely click on your content when it appears in the SERPs.
Tip Four: Promote your Content
Using Twitter to distribute your content and promote it in the long-term is critical. This means a lot more work needs to go into it, than just publishing something once a week. Using Twitter Ad’s is another way to help optimise your content towards achieving your marketing goals — whether that be to build brand awareness, drive engagement, or getting customers to take a specific action.
Twitter Ads can be a great way to achieve shares as well, and we all know what shares mean — links. Links are vital for search visibility as they have a direct impact on Google rankings.
Tip Five: Optimise your Bio
One of the quickest ways to improve your search visibility using social is to make sure your bio is optimised. Your Twitter profile, for example, often shows up on the first page of Google — and you want searchers’ first impression of your brand to be a good one, right? In your bio, you have the opportunity to provide searchers with a clear overview of your brand, a link back to your website and any relevant key hashtags and keywords that will grab their attention.
As you can see, there are lots of different ways that Twitter can have a positive impact on your search engine rankings — are you making the most of them? Contact Zool on 01625 238 770 or [email protected] to find out how we can help you maximise your ROI on your social media efforts.
5 Ways You can Boost your Search Presence using Twitter
Digital Organic & Paid Social Media SEO / Jul 20, 2020
One of the most controversial questions when it comes to SEO, is “does social media have an impact on SEO?” This may come as a surprise to some, but the truthful answer is, “it depends.”
While social media is not recognised by Google as a direct ranking factor, it does have an impact on your brand’s visibility in the search engine results pages (SERPs). Plus, it also has an effect on other ranking factors that are considered by some to be crucial.
We get some idea of the relationship between SEO and social media if we go back to 2015 — when Google struck a deal with Twitter which allowed Google access to Twitter’s live-tweet data so that they could show these on SERPs. Since then, Google has continued to strike more deals with Twitter, allowing them to collect more data — which has also made Twitter an essential platform for anyone wanting to increase their visibility in the search results.
So, what are the five key ways Zool can help you boost your search presence using Twitter?
Tip One: Use Twitter to build Brand Awareness and Brand Identity.
If you google your brand name, chances are you will see Google’s Twitter carousel at the top of the page:
This is a great way for customers to get to know your brand, as they can scroll through your recent tweets. It’s also one of the only ways we can control what shows up in search results when people google your business name. If we’re posting interesting and valuable content on your Twitter account — this is what people will see. The Twitter carousel also helps with brand awareness as it can showcase your thought leadership pieces, and help to humanise your brand.
This is why it’s so important to ensure you’re sharing relevant content on your social media accounts, and not just Twitter. Try to ensure your posts align with your brand messaging, overall business mission and show your personality. It helps.
Tip Two: Leverage Twitter carousels
This brings us to our next point. Now that you’re aware of Twitter Carousels, leverage them to your advantage:
- Discuss topics that are trending — this is a great way to grab your audience’s attention
- Share content your audience cares about — keep in mind their key challenges, and what’s happening in the industry as a whole when you’re creating content to share
- Be social — tag other accounts in things you’re talking about, such as key thought leaders and influencers, to encourage them to engage with your content
- Use popular hashtags (that are relevant) — as you’ll show up in search results for these hashtags as well
- Use your keywords — let your followers know exactly what your brand is about and why they should care
- Get your team involved — Twitter carousels appear for individuals as well as brands, so make sure your team are resharing your tweet
Tip Three: Be Active in Building your Following
There are around 500 million tweets sent out every day, so make sure that you’re not lost in the profusion. Don’t tweet just for the sake of it though, make sure your content is relevant to your audience and valuable — otherwise, you’ll start to seem fake.
Click-through rates have a massive impact on search rankings, and the more valuable and reliable content you post on Twitter in order to build your audience, the more your audience will trust you. Plus they’ll more likely click on your content when it appears in the SERPs.
Tip Four: Promote your Content
Using Twitter to distribute your content and promote it in the long-term is critical. This means a lot more work needs to go into it, than just publishing something once a week. Using Twitter Ad’s is another way to help optimise your content towards achieving your marketing goals — whether that be to build brand awareness, drive engagement, or getting customers to take a specific action.
Twitter Ads can be a great way to achieve shares as well, and we all know what shares mean — links. Links are vital for search visibility as they have a direct impact on Google rankings.
Tip Five: Optimise your Bio
One of the quickest ways to improve your search visibility using social is to make sure your bio is optimised. Your Twitter profile, for example, often shows up on the first page of Google — and you want searchers’ first impression of your brand to be a good one, right? In your bio, you have the opportunity to provide searchers with a clear overview of your brand, a link back to your website and any relevant key hashtags and keywords that will grab their attention.
As you can see, there are lots of different ways that Twitter can have a positive impact on your search engine rankings — are you making the most of them? Contact Zool on 01625 238 770 or [email protected] to find out how we can help you maximise your ROI on your social media efforts.
