Optimize Your Twitter Profile for SEO – On-page Factors
In a perfect world, you’d go about your life writing and tweeting without having to optimize anything for the search engines. Unfortunately, things do not work that way in real life. If you want to get the most out of your efforts on your blog, Twitter account, and even Facebook, you’ll need make some adjustments to things you tweet and display on your profile. There is such a thing as Twitter SEO. Who would have thought a few years ago that it’d be possible to dominate the search engines for a highly competitive keyword with just a Twitter account.
You won’t do any dominating unless you spend some time optimizing your Twitter profile for on and off page factors. We’ll discuss the off-page factors (e.g. link-building) in a separate posts, but here are 5 on-page things you can do right now to optimize your profile for the search engines.
User ID: the name you choose for your Twitter account matters. It is one of the most important decisions you make before committing to your Twitter strategy. When your account become more popular, you’ll have an easier time dominating the search engines for the term you used in your Twitter profile. It won’t be the only thing you need to worry about but you’d be surprised how having the right name can help you in the long run
Twitter Bio: it’s nice to have a chance to tell the world about yourself and your business. But don’t forget about your SEO efforts when doing it. Your Twitter bio gives you the chance to add your top keywords to your Twitter account and give yourself a better chance to show up high for those terms (relevant keywords are key).
Tweet Titles: there are a lot of people who use tools such as Tweetmeme to find and tweet stories. There is nothing wrong with that, but you should always aim to be in control of what goes on your Twitter page. So pay extra attention to the title of things you tweet (and customize them if you can).
Tweet Keywords: don’t forget to add hash-tags and any additional keyword that you see fit per each tweet you post on your profile. Your Twitter page is your web property, so don’t underestimate the power of hash-tags.
Twitter Lists: this is something I started testing a while ago. Your public lists do show up on your profile and give you yet another opportunity to add your relevant keywords to your page. It won’t be a decisive factor, but it never hurts to organize your Twitter friends into groups and add your keywords in the process too.
These tips are so simple to do but they can make a difference for your Twitter profile. You shouldn’t forget about the quality of content your tweet and those you connect with (will discuss those in a future post). Get the above steps right, and you are on your way towards pushing your Twitter profile to the top.