Twitter and Real Time Search

Posted on 01. Mar, 2010 by Pete Hollier in Search Optimization, Social Media

Web site owners are well aware of the importance of Twitter to Social Media programs. Due to the implementation of Real Time Search, Twitter now also benefits Organic Search Engine Optimization programs.

The top 3 Search Engines Google, Yahoo and Bing all have agreements with Twitter to access up to the minute Tweets for inclusion in the "Real Time Search" results now included within the primary search results.

So just how does this influence your Social Media and SEO? A few weeks ago Google’s Amit Singhal leader of Google Real Time Search development team provided some insight into the inner workings of how Google will handle Twitter. In true Google style exact details were vague and web professionals and others were left to read between the lines to determine just how Google will be filtering Tweets to provide Searchers with results relevant to their search queries.

Authority and Relevancy

Google has historically depended on the authority and relevance of a web site to determine which pages were included in search results for a specific search request. Although these two factors depend on numerous elements the two issues which relate to these within the Twitter context are:

Authority

• Links: The number and quality of inbound links to a web site

Relevancy

• Words and phrases used in content

Twitter Authority

Google has apparently reworked their Page Rank Algothrim which evaluates the quantity and quality of a web site’s linking environment to evaluate the value of Tweets and Retweets. In the Twitter equivalent of Page Rank it is not how many links and who the links are from, but how many followers and the quality of these followers which is taken into consideration.

How this actually works of course was not indicated by Google. However, if we consider what we do know about how Google operates with evaluating the linking environment and transfer that knowledge to a Twitter context we can make some assumptions.

Number of Twitter Followers

The number of Twitter followers you have is taken into consideration when including specific Tweets into the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) similar to how the number of links are considered when including specific web pages into the SERPs. Growing the number of people following you on Twitter can assist to improve your visibility in the Real Time Search Results. Just like links, more is better.

A large following can also assist by providing a larger audience who will potentially retweet your Tweet. The number of times a Tweet is Retweeted is also likely to be a factor in Google’s Real Time Search Algorithm.

Quality of Twitter Followers

The quality of Twitter followers is also taken into consideration by the Google Real Time Search Algorithm, which is similar to the quality score used to rank the value and authority of inbound links to your web site.

Ideally you want to keep your Twitter followers focused on your keywords and your business niche. Targeting within your niche will be important. Keywords are obviously a large part of this strategy when determining who to follow with the hope you will get a follow in return. If you obtain a large following from industries outside of your niche it is likely to have less value than a highly niche targeted following (this of course depends on your business).

Obtaining follows from thought leaders within your niche who have a large following themselves is likely to have a positive impact on your own visibility with the Real Time SERPs. Obtaining follows from thought leaders is likely to pass on Authority in a similar fashion to that of the Google’s Page Rank Algorithm.

Twitter Relevancy

Twitter relevancy of course matters, otherwise Searchers would be served results which had no relevance to their search query, and serving the most relevant results possible is at the forefront of Google’s objectives.

Keywords are again the driving force behind building relevancy. The use of topical keywords within Tweets will be one of the primary elements which assists Google and other Search Engines to determine the primary topic of your tweet, and when to include it in the SERPs for a particular search query.

Twitter Context and SPAM

The Real Time Search Algorithm. of course will include elements which assist Google to avert spamming of the SERPs. There are a couple of methods likely to be used to defeat the Spammers.

As I stated keywords are important to achieving visibility in Real Time SERPs however, as all those who have Twitter account know, there is a significant amount of noise within the Micro Blogging environment.

To further evaluate how relevant a specific Tweet is, Search Engines will also evaluate other words and phrases which are included in the Tweet, similar to the method used to evaluate the keywords used in content and the words used surrounding Anchor Tex in web page links. When building relevancy in both web pages and Tweets it is important to include secondary terms which support the primary keyword used to ensure relevancy and context can be determined by Search Engines.

All Twitter account holders know about the # tag used as part of the Twitter search function. Search Engines are also aware of how Twitter uses the # hash tag and the potential for it to be abused by Spammers. So although the hash tag is acceptable within the Twitter domain, it would be highly recommended the hash tag be used prudently when considering its’ potential to be interpreted by Search Engines as SPAM.

The Last Word

It is still early days with regards to Real Time Search and without doubt all will be involved in a learning curve. However, by including some prior knowledge of how Google interprets and evaluates web pages and putting this information into a Twitter context, it is clear that the number and quality of a Twitter accounts followers and how keywords are integrated into the Tweets will be dominant factors in obtaining visibility in the Search Engine Results Pages.

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