If you’re looking for a way to improve your SEO, while driving tons of traffic to your site, you should be thinking about Twitter.
Twitter, if you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, is the latest dot-com craze that has affiliate marketers, consumers and the media worked up. It’s a microblogging service that blasts out 140-character “Tweets” which can update others on everything from the kind of sandwich you’re making for lunch to a great new bonus you’re offering on your casino affiliate site.
It’s exciting, it’s new and it’s hot. You might start off slowly with your tweeting, but once you get going, you’ll find it fun to get your visitors excited, engaged and ready for more.
It can be particularly useful in those early days of launching a new site. Instead of sitting back and waiting for traffic, it’s one way to get out there and build a following of people interested in your vertical.
If you do it right, you’re going to get your readers, and your SEO, worked up too. Wondering how to do that? Here are five tips for using Twitter in a way that’s going to drive your SEO.
Tip #1: Picking a good handle will help
If you pick an awesome Twitter handle, such as one that’s tied to your brand, or keywords, you’ll do best. Because your handle (also known as your username) becomes part of your customized Twitter URL such as twitter.com/yoursite or twitter.com/yourtopic, you’ll want to be aware that this creates a static address for future search indexing, which also helps usability for other cross-channel promotions.
It’s also similar to a vanity license plate. Everybody sees it!
You’ll want to choose wisely. The challenge, and the fun of selecting a handle is doing all this while keeping your name short, succinct, and easily tweetable.
Tip #2: Select an great account name
Optimize the Twitter account name to best reflect your brand. Your name is what appears next to your profile, which can be different than your handle/URL. You obviously want an account name that promotes you, your company or your brand. Also, be sure to consider which variation of your brand name has the most search frequency every month. (An example of an account with a great name is Online Casino Guide.)
Below, you can see the account name, Online Casino Guide, is different from the Twitter handle @SteveBourie
Tip #3: Use your keywords in your bio
Make sure you optimize your Twitter bio line so it includes the most important, mission-critical phrases, I mean keywords, for your brand. Take advantage of all 160 characters! (Yes, you get 20 more characters than a normal tweet.) Twitter bios are consistently indexed so their contents are what provide your Twitter page with its core relevance.
Tip #4: Spread the word about your tweets
Once you’ve got your account set up, it’s time to market it. For example, you can add your Twitter URL to your site by placing a call to action for your customers to follow you on Twitter. You can also integrate your Twitter URL within your site’s footer or sidebar. Making your Twitter account visible on your site offers your site visitors another way to stay in touch with you and helps drive your Twitter URL up in the search engines.
Tip #5: Use your keywords in your tweets
Just like all of your other content, Twitter is a great place for using your keywords. If you carefully think about (and research) what keywords will best convey your message, you can also expect your tweets to be picked up in the search engines more frequently. And the more traffic you get to your tweets, the more traffic you get to your site.
One of the common misunderstandings about Twitter and SEO is the no-follow links in tweets. While many have dismissed tweets as viable backlinks, because the links in them are tagged as no-follow for the search engine spiders, that’s just not true.
However, earlier this year, Google admitted that they do follow the no-follow links on Twitter and Facebook. What this means is that Google is taking social media very seriously and while you’re using social media tools such as Twitter to tell your site visitors about new content, you’re also getting help with your search engine ranking, even if it’s not an “official” backlink.
Now start tweeting, and start getting more traffic to your site!
Are you using Twitter for your casino affiliate websites? Does it work for you? If so, add your comments below.