I caught this discussion in the Web Pro World forums – Twitter for SEO – No Purpose for Twitter. While several people said Twitter could be useful for marketing in general, no one could come up with any direct search engine optimization benefits to Twitter. Some even seemed sure there aren’t any SEO benefits to using Twitter.
But here are 5 SEO benefits of using Twitter I came up with off the top of my head:
1) Google indexes tweets. Check out these search results. Note that #3 through #10 are all tweets. The links in the tweets do have the nofollow tag, though, so their value is debatable.
2) Twitter scrapers add links within tweets to their sites. Here’s an example of a page on topsy.com that is linking to a blog article of mine.
3) People blog about tweets. Many of the people I follow on twitter blog. The tweet links to their blog articles. If it’s a great article, I might blog about it. All because I heard about it through twitter.
4) Twitter can help you build relationships that lead to links. This is by far the biggest SEO impact because they are the most valuable links. For example, I’m helping to organize a group blog project on the book Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith. Sixteen of us will be guest blogging, commenting, and cross linking. Several of these people I met through twitter.
5) People retweet. And when they retweet your tweets it leads to more of 1-4.
Co-founder & CEO, OurChurch.Com
Paul has been the CEO of OurChurch.Com since its founding in 1996, combining his passion for faith and technology to lead the organization.
An accomplished writer, Paul has authored over 2,000 articles on faith and technology, featured on platforms like ChurchLeaders.com, The JoyFM, and his personal blog, LiveIntentionally.org.
Beyond his professional achievements, Paul serves as an elder at Journey Community Church and is deeply engaged in his community through his involvement with the Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranch and the Safety Harbor Chamber of Commerce. He is a contributing author of the book Outspoken! Conversations on Church Communication.
3 Comments
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Great article! Thank you for adding to the discussion.
I started the original article (No purpose for Twitter (or is there?)) because I didn’t see any value, until I used it… and wanted to share that with others. Since then I have seen many opinions and veiwpoints, and you bring out a few more great points here!
I think a lot of people are skeptical of the value of Twitter before they start using it. Your article does a good job of addressing that. Even if Twitter didn’t have any SEO value, I’m not sure that would matter. Building relationships, staying in contact with clients and associates, and bringing new visitors to your website are reasons enough to us Twitter.