Using Twitter and Facebook for Search Engine Optimisation

Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the last couple of years, you’ve probably heard of Twitter. If you’re a business in Bath or Bristol and have had any contact with a web design or web development company they’ve probably talked about Twitter. But do you understand what is the point of Tweeting? How can it help with search engine optimisation?

In simple terms, SEO “experts” bang on about the benefits of Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites for a single reason. It’s a simple way of generating content. You don’t needs any complex tools, experience or software installed on your webserver to enable you to write articles about your business. The content you create is then potentially available for Google to index, analyse and hopefully add your nice shiny content into its search results*.

Twitter and Facebook also provides a “captive” audience. If you can get someone to Follow you, or Add you as a Friend, everything you then create will pop up in their news feed. So you get captive eyes.

To make the most of Twitter follow some simpe rules:

1. Choose a good username. Mine isn’t great. “Powerbookboy” says little about the businesses I run. It should be “MacSupportBath” or “WebDeveloperBath”. I’ll sort that when I get a moment…
2. Use hashtags. If you’re Tweeting about a subject, extend the number of people who might see your post, then sign up to follow you, by using a relevant hashtag.
3. Write short keyword rich “teaser”  articles that then point back to your main website, which should contain the full article content.
4. Think about what you’re tweeting and why. None of this “Stuck in car. Bored” rubbish. Every piece of content you create should be considered. Ask yourself “does this article help promote my business goals?”. If it doesn’t, don’t publish it.

Want to understand more about Search Engine Optimisation and Web Marketing? Based near Bradford on Avon, Bath, Bristol, Trowbridge, Wiltshire or Somerset? Give us a call on 01225 30162

* You won’t get any benefit from “link-juice” as all links you create getwrapped  by “nofollow”; so don’t believe any crap you get told about creating beneficial  “in-bound” links.