Google and Twitter rejoin forces – what it means for you
One of the most talked-about stories in the SEO world in recent weeks has been the announcement that Google and Twitter have struck a deal that will result in the micro-blogging site’s 140-character updates appearing in the search engine result pages (SERPs).
This isn’t the first time that this has been the case – Google previously had access to the Twitter ‘fire hose’ some years ago, only for the expiry of that deal in the middle of 2011 to cause the sudden disappearance of the majority of tweets from the search index.
It meant that up until now, an estimated less than 8% of tweets could be found via Google. At some point in the first half of this year, however, they will be back, with new ones appearing in real time.
Why the partnership has arisen
This deal makes sense from both the Twitter and Google perspective. The former has seen slowing user adoption in recent months, and will welcome the exposure that this will give to tweets, including to those web users who may have strayed from the platform.
Google’s attempts at social search through its own Google+ service, meanwhile, have been stubbornly unsuccessful. It seemed to acknowledge this in its decision to de-emphasise Google+ and authorship markup last year – clearing the way for a closer relationship with Twitter, which has proved a continued worldwide phenomenon.
How this should affect your SEO approach
In some ways, the new Twitter and Google linkup may seem to make a difference to your SEO – and yet, in many ways, it certainly doesn’t. Many of the previous sound rules of thumb will remain precisely that.
However, the news does slightly alter your likely use of Twitter for SEO purposes. Since 2011, the micro-blogging platform’s usefulness from an SEO perspective was largely restricted to helping to increase brand awareness and authority, in addition to ensuring Google’s indexing of new URLs and content.
With this news, it has simply become even more important for your company to maintain an up-to-date and relevant Twitter presence. A coherent plan of action will help you to get the most out of this new partnership between two of the net’s true giants, in the knowledge that any images or links that you tweet will now appear in more places.
At the very least, if your firm is not yet on Twitter, you should ensure that it is – and once it is, you should post unique and regular content. Contact the SEO Local team for more guidance on how you can extract the maximum potential from Twitter for SEO.
