An article (passed to me via my Twitter news feed) I read with interest recently was called “12 Social Signals From Twitter That Could Influence Search Engine Rankings”.
Although I RT’ed (retweeted) the article on Twitter, @TangibleWords and we all agreed that it was good #FFT (Food For Thought) we didn’t completely agree. For my part, here’s why I don’t think Twitter affects your SEO”
- Google’s “Don’t be Evil” motto tends to criticize SEO firms for simply not providing value and always trying to guess Google’s algorithms which is defeating the purpose of Google’s success (in a way these SEO firms are being disrespectful to Google by trying to circumvent the work Google intends to do—give readers the best content for their search). Google is consistent in saying content should be unique and interesting.So for companies, instead of jumping on the Twitter bandwagon, write your website content (pages and posts) to build confidence and make you more sales/convert traffic into a phone call? Is providing SEO to free directories really that important? Have a content strategy so you don't get burned when the rules change again(!) and then you at least have been authentic and will have a Better ROI than others.
- I still think that having a Twitter page which allows you to network and share valuable content with other people works best. Clicking on your links back to your website/blog will always be priority traffic--these are the people who are interested in what you say and they want to know what you do. In this way, the number of followers you have should not be as important as the level of interest generated by the quality of content you share.
- There is a point about spam and you being penalized for having spammers in your network: unlikely. It's not like you are interacting with them and this would mean giving props to people who are "evil" -- Google would not let spammers drag someone else down. Plus, people don't police their followers on twitter you police who you follow. Reporting spammers is a good thing to do--so keep doing it so Google will see that you are alive and fighting evil.
However, if you are actively sharing great content which consistently gets clicks on Twitter –this shows you are being a good person online, which Google would appreciate I think.
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