How is Twitter becoming more and more relevant to SEO and internet marketing strategies today?

Let’s talk business strategy for a minute…

First off, and most obviously, there has been an overwhelming public interest and participation in online social media networks in the past few years (Twitter, in particular;) microblogging is arguably the newest phenomenon in high tech communication.   Commercial industries must and will cater their marketing strategies accordingly.  Every notable business today has a Twitter account you can follow, right?

Proof’s in the Pudding

Google has altered its indexing algorithms based on real time conversations as a result of Twitter’s growing influence on consumer opinion and product branding.   Since the public has a voice through these social media venues, marketing is becoming more and more tailored according to consumer wants, likes, and dislikes.  Google, too, has noted this gradual shift, and developed its real time and personalized search features as a means of specifying search results.  Services like Yelp, that allow users to give their personal input on a product or service, centrally locate businesses in online search results; public preference plays a key role in how Google optimizes site rank.

Google’s recently released caffeine update will further increase the value of link sharing and traffic building through social media venues like Twitter and Facebook.  Google Caffeine speeds up the search engine indexing process, allowing pages to be indexed more quickly; the caffeine update has essentially made “real time” search results possible.

Real time search results index live Twitter feeds at the top of Google search engine results pages.  Twitter makes “real time” link building possible—this is a quick and easy way to get a site ranked on the first page of Google.

Finally, expert predictions regarding what will be the most effective SEO strategies in the upcoming year all point to the incorporation of social media as a key.  Getting genuine incoming links from quality, relevant sites will get you the most “bang for your buck” in terms of link juice and effective search engine optimization; link building on blogs is becoming less and less worthwhile and effective because so many comment forums now have “nofollow” tags on guest post hyperlinks.

Love it or hate it, it looks like you might want to start embracing Twitter– if only for the sake of your business.

The useful-ness of Twitter has been a much debated, controversial subject.

Twitter is most common criticized for being a waste of time.  I won’t deny it–there’s definitely some legitimacy to this statement.  Without a set agenda, Twitter probably won’t be a very good use of your time. However, the secret to using Twitter as a very useful business tool is to develop and stick to an agenda.  Decide what you want to achieve, and develop a game plan of how to do it.  Stick to your purpose, and Twitter will prove to be a crucial resource for the success of your business.

There are a lot of very that are tweeting about relevant, useful content every day.  This microblogging site allows users with similar interests to connect with one another.

I discovered an flock of interesting, knowledgeable, and yes, even influential, people in the internet marketing industry via Twitter; this microblogging site connects individuals with similar interests and puts them in direct contact with one another. What better news source is there than the real time conversations of industry professionals, especially in a society where business fundamentals increasingly cater to public opinion? Twitter is an amazing resource for staying tuned-in to the most current public dialogue around the world, even pertaining to niche industries.

For me, Twitter became a tool that helped me build links and traffic to our website—key aspects of search engine optimization.  I opened lines of communication, became a guest blogger on other’s sites, and contributed my own interesting and informative tweets.  Making business contacts, earning viral attention, building your brand, receiving consumer feedback, and accessing cutting edge industry information are all inherent values of Twitter, if used correctly.

If you haven’t heard, it’s official—Bing and Yahoo, two major players in the search engine world, recently merged to form one company. The marriage between these two internet bigwigs has lead inquisitive minds to wonder, from internet users, to business owners, to SEO’s: What kind of changes will result from this corporate integration?

Here are the cold, hard facts—

Press releases have issued an official statement that confirms Yahoo will control Bing’s MSN Ad center for paid links, while Bing will reign over Yahoo’s organic search results listings.

But our burning questions persist:

Will Bing and Yahoo’s collaboration create one super-powered search engine that can compete with King Google? Will it change how we (the users) search?  How much will it shake up existing organic business rankings?  How will the Bing/Yahoo partnership affect SEO practices?

Unfortunately there aren’t any definite answers to these questions; but there are certain elements to keep an eye on in 2010 that will likely reveal crucial clues about the changes taking place in the realm of search engine marketing:

Look out for:

Search engine algorithm changes—

These are the contributing factors that affect search engine results.  For example, it’s been hypothesized that the birth of Google Caffeine will alter the criteria for organic rankings.

Blended searches—

We’ve recently seen that Google search results have become much more blended, incorporating different types of categories into results pages; multimedia, real time news, and social networking content is now being indexed with written content.  It’s likely that Bing/Yahoo will follow suit due to the publics’ increasingly influential role on marketing and product branding (thanks to the popularity of interactive online media.)

Content Format—

The old rules still apply for SEO-related content in 2010– relevant, high quality writing is always of utmost importance.  Content structure will likely be of special import in 2010, however, since there is a much higher volume of content being indexed on the whole (thanks to blended search results.)  Make content index-friendly by maintaining an organized and hierarchical structure with pointed keywords. This will let search engine spiders more quickly and easily index your site content.

Where visitors come from–

It’s more important than ever to gather information about where your site visitors are coming from since there are so many available SEO leveraging resources. Collecting and analyzing information about where visitors come from will allow you to pinpoint your target audience and effectively concentrate your SEO efforts, identifying the most valuable strategies for your particular business.

Stay tuned for more updates and exciting revelations in 2010…

Ever wondered out loud why it’s so fanatically difficult to facilitate a link from Wikipedia to one of your websites? Were you simultaneously embarrassed because someone caught you talking to yourself at a red light? We feel for you deeply and there are indeed simple ways to make this task easier. Read on for some suggestions which have given our team a serious leg up when it comes to traversing this frustrating hurdle of search marketing.

Even with the variety of <NoFollow> tags now in place, a link from a prominent Wiki article can be the Holy Grail of both relevant referral traffic and algorithmic relevancy bequeathment for your most valuable keywords. Not to mention, there’s a lot of debate within the SEO community as to whether the tags truly negate link juice benefits as was previously thought. You’ll want to rethink spending the first month of a new client engagement obsessing over PR sculpting from now on. Will you choose… wisely?

Wrapping up my incredibly amusing preface, I’d like to start off with a quiz meant to hammer home a crucial point. Please bear with me…

Question: If you haven’t put in your time and developed a reputable profile on Wikipedia, adding links to your site from one of their articles is about as useful as:

a) Teats on a bull.
b) A screen door on a submarine.
c) A cheese sandwich to a drowning ferret
d) A chocolate kettle
e) Shut up and get on with the article, Dave

If you answered “e” – then I already don’t like you. Regardless, I’ve still made my case. It’s darn near impossible to get a new Wiki link to stick if your profile makes you look like an SEO, social media marketer, blogger or anyone with something to promote. Sure, you may get lucky. An established Wiki denizen may see your resource in passing and add it to an article “naturally”. Likewise, you may catch the first individual to review your change on the same day his wife gives birth to healthy twins. Realistically though, in both cases you’ve got a better chance of seeing a three-legged cat bury a turd on a frozen pond.

Wiki is Picky – Build Trust
Why so cynical? Simple – there are oceans of Wikipedia power users who like nothing better, not even World of Warcraft LARPing, than to delete the “contributions” of self-serving online marketers (regardless of what you might want to call yourself). That’s what you are to them and they hate you with every fibre of their being. It’s easy to increase your odds of successful link dropping resource inclusion on Wikipedia by making contributions over an extended period of time which improve the quality of their articles. Your level of trust then increases exponentially with every objective edit that you make within their kingdom. This isn’t hard to do once you’ve figured out the basics, nor does it take a lot of time. Consistency is the crucial ingredient, and here are a few tips to help maintain your momentum.

1. Every time you edit something in your own interest, work on at least one other article for no reason other than improving the resource.
2. After you make your calculated edit, hit the Random Article link in the navigation sidebar if you’re feeling low on inspiration.
3. Contribute to subjects you enjoy and are knowledgeable about. Books, authors, movies, directors, cars, countries, pets, houseplants – there’s an article for absolutely everything!
4. Link to well established sources of information you see sticking on other articles – news sites, reputable blogs, guides, manuals, etc. Keep a list of these for future reference.

One more time for the cheap seats: Any individual or agency devoting eons of time to creating free, objective, Wiki-friendly resources must also devote time contributing to the general Wikipedia community. Set a reminder, form a habit, pick subject matter which genuinely interests you – but stick with it. In a few months the suspicion with which new or rarely-used Wikipedia profiles are regarded will have turned to trust – vastly increasing the likelihood your business-related additions will remain intact. You could say that the aforementioned elusive, disabled and incontinent feline might just become one of the most powerful tools in your marketing arsenal. However… I’m pretty sure you won’t.