Twitter Google Deal 2015: Free SEO for Brands

It was reported that Twitter Google deal was announced, they agreed to work together once again. Twitter had agreed to provide Google with access to Firehose data, allowing Google to index statuses from Twitter. Previously in 2009, Google had used Twitter Firehose as the core of a new service called Google Real Time Search which was later killed couple of days after Twitter turned off The Firehose.

No one knows why the plug was pulled on the deal , maybe Twitter saw Google+ as a threat?

November 2014 Twitter’s CFO Anthony Noto suggested that Twitter would do more to generate search engine optimization traffic, free traffic from Google and other search engines. Twitter also made a deal with Flipboard and Yahoo! Japan.

Google+ works for you for free

Prior to Google+ brands had to come up with 2 content marketing strategies – one for SEO which required a lot of spending, effort, time and technical knowledge. And a totally separate strategy for social, which was a lot more easier and a lot more interesting and required very little technical knowledge

When Google+ was introduced, posts were being index directly from Google+ to Google search – that meant social activity on Google+ help brands be found on Google’s search engine – which was great for brands. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the same case for our region (MENA) as only few brands gave Google+ the proper attention it needed.

The case is pretty much still the same for the rest of the social networks, with Facebook not giving Google proper access to index it and twitter canceling the deal with Google, it was nearly impossible to get brand’s social activity on either of the social networks to help with their SEO strategies.

 The Good News

In Feb 2015 it was announced that Google will start indexing Twitter statuses again. which will be the same case as Google+, Twitter will become a free SEO tool for brands, with their statuses being indexed on Google’s search engine; brands now have 3 ways to amplify their SEO strategies

1. Sharing Website’s Content
2. Google+ Social Activity
3. Twitter Social Activity

Twitter Google working together again, why?

Twitter is basically working to improve the experience for logged-out users to generate more advertising revenue from a larger audience and getting seen by non-registered users (top up their users).

For Google, they currently have to crawl twitter for data, with this deal, they will once more have access to Firehose, which will enhance search results by access to real-time tweets and content.

The two networks will not share advertising revenues though.

How will indexing work?

Currently only small amount of tweets are being indexed, but the rate should pick up later on. Indexing will be based on 3 main points based on a study made by Stone Temple

• Followers Count
• Tweets with Images & Hashtags
• Backlinks to a status will increase it’s chance of getting indexed

Followers Count

If an account has +1m followers – index rate reached 21% of their tweets

10k followers to 1m – index rate reached 10%

less than 10k – index rate was 4%

Dustin from dustn.tv made a cool infographic as we all love those

So, what’s the strategy?

• Get as much inbound links to your statuses
• Use cross-posting application
• Use Twitter to promote your Google+ posts
• Influencers Retweets

Details

– Get as much inbound links to your statuses

With this deal, Twitter just became a lot more valuable for brands, and with inbound links giving a tweet a higher rate of getting indexed, its crucial for brands to start posting really interesting content and visuals . One of Twitter’s best feature as advertiser is Twitter Website Cards  website cards can replace the normal boring links, with cool looking cards and drive 3 x more engagement rate, which means higher rate of your tweet gets back-linked and indexed on Google. To learn more about Twitter Cards check my post about All about Twitter Cards.

– Use cross-posting application

I personally use Buffer App + IFTT to post my content on multiple platforms

Post To Google Page With Buffer

Then in buffer make sure to connect your Google+ page and any other accounts you would like

– Use Twitter to promote your Google+ posts

Twitter can generate summary cards of Google+ posts (make sure your make bold titles for your Google+ posts by using *before and after text*)

Just testing Google+ post .. oh and btw my website almost done <3 https://t.co/4X47jBKcxH

— Amged Osman ??‍? (@Amged) March 9, 2015

– Get your content to be shared as much as possible

Use pretty Social share icons on your website, I use my own, but that’s because I can code and develop my own, if you’re looking for the best social sharing plugin for WordPress then by all means use SocialWarfare

here’s an article  on How to get your blog posts shared 1000 times

– Influencers Retweets

Influencers now are super valuable for brands, more retweets equals higher chance of getting their tweets indexed

Measuring Success

Monitering which your indexed status is very important in understanding what works (which status indexed?)

simply use the “site:” search feature in Google search like so:

site:https://plus.google.com/+amgedmepage – Google Search

and for twitter i have 111 statuses index

site:https://twitter.com/amged – Google Search

Bottom Line

SEO is as important as SMO, and with the new Twitter Google deal, both worlds are getting together and sure will help brands with their SEO

---

Also published on Medium.