Whilst many people now understand the benefits that a well developed SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) campaign can bring to a business’ website, very few of these are still to appreciate the value which social networking communities can have. It is common knowledge that the likes of Facebook, Myspace and Twitter are held with great significance to a large percentage of internet users these days, but how many businesses are actually using these networks as part of their SEO and internet marketing campaigns?
Jump On The Twitter Bandwagon
In this blog we are going to briefly look at Twitter.com and the way in which social media has become a leading platform for use in SEO strategies and how it is much more straightforward to use your advantage than many people think.
The first step, if you have still yet to jump on the wagon, is to create an account for the business. It makes sense to choose a relevant username to the business and one which represents the company in a way which you want people to see. In addition to this, it is necessary to fully reflect the business in the ‘bio’ section on your account, including relevant keyphrases, just as you would when optimising your website.
Twitter Optimisation
Once you have created your account, you’re away and able to tweet to your heart’s content. Be sure to optimise your tweets with the inclusion of relevant keywords, using the # symbol next to the topic which your tweet relates to but be careful of overuse of keywords and the # symbol as there is the risk of being tagged for spamming. However, when used regularly, but not too regularly, tweeting with the inclusion of relevant keywords and topics can be a brilliant aid to what is thought of as ‘traditional’ SEO processes. It is also advisable to include back links to your website through your twitter account as well, which will drive traffic back to your site and further aid your SEO strategy.
Are You Tweeting Your Blogs?
In addition to these SEO practices on Twitter, does your website include a regular blog? Why not tweet your blog to your community, allowing others to retweet if they wish? Tweeting your blogs, in addition to displaying your Twitter feet on your website, provides a flow of information between the two and hence providing more links to what you are blogging about, hopefully increasing the number of readers to your posts.
Ensure your tweets, and blogs, are direct, straight to the point and full of content people want to see. There is little use in tweeting and blogging about irrelevant topics which your followers have no interest in. However, tweet and blog about interesting topics, complete with the optimisation tactics we described above, whilst keeping your followers both entertained and informed, will leave them wanting more, as well as providing a brilliant addition SEO tool to ‘traditional’ strategies.
Hey Nice Blog! Just wondering, how effective is website positioning by way of promoting an offline product or service. I see pages on a regular basis that promote a web based product (book, amazon.com and so on), but when I wish to promote say a fitness club – is the net an efficient means to do this? Are you aware of any examples of this? Anyway, thanks prematurely for any help.
Definitely…more and more people are using the internet every day and it is most peoples first port of call for information! If someone is wanting to find a fitness club, for example, it is likely that they will turn to the internet to find this. Most likely using Google, this is why SEO is so important for companies. If people are searching for your line of business, it is essential you are one of the sites which is viewed by consumers.