Since Twitter has grown explosively in popularity and has been adopted in a big way by Social Media marketers, there has been a lingering question in the minds of search engine optimization experts – does Twitter help SEO?  And if so, how to use Twitter for SEO?

Well, the answer to the first question is a resounding YES!  As to the second, there are many ways.  First of all, let’s get over the whole “Twitter redirects links and adds no follow.”  Yes, that’s true, but it doesn’t mean we can’t use Twitter for SEO, there are a few methods that can be implemented to wild success.

First, just because Twitter itself no follows your link doesn’t mean anyone who syndicates your feed will.  This is where the whole “be interesting, be follow-worthy” thing comes in.  Make your feed WORTH syndicating!  Therefore, when you tweet a link, it will get published (with a 301 permanent redirect if it’s been shortened) on all the sites that have syndicated you.

Next, remember that, even though it may seem as if the “big T” has been taken over by celebs, it is still largely the playground of bloggers and social media addicts…er…i mean…EXPERTS!    If you post links to really good content, it’s almost a biological imperative for these folks to share it.  And not only by retweeting it, either – many of them will blog about it and throw you a link in the process.

Lastly – and this is my favorite – don’t forget that Twitter ITSELF has a lot of power in the search engines.  Twitter SEO value is HUGE.  Are you a Bum Marketer who is frustrated with Ezine Articles shutting you down or taking forever to approve your articles?  Or possibly you’re frustrated because every time you search a “golden” Bum keyword there’s already an Ezine Article on the front page?

Try this – create a Twitter profile based on the keyword.  Use a shortened version as the address, use the keyword itself as the name, and then write keyword optimized text, including a call to action, as your “Bio.”  Include your link in the “Website” box.  Put in a default photo (respecting copyright!), and change the default theme.  Last, put in five to ten tweets on the subject – little tips, hints, or pieces of trivia.  Remember, it’s not the same as an article.  It’s bite size pieces of information.  Include your link in some of the tweets, but not all.

Throw some backlinks at that puppy and see what happens!  I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

The great thing about this method is that it doesn’t have to stop there.  You can ALSO gather targeted traffic directly from Twitter, and continue to communicate with your group as it grows.   Try to do THAT with an article, why don’tcha?

To learn more about marketing on Twitter, and taking it to the next level in a “Fill It and Forget It” kind of way, check out Kelly Verge’s The Tweeder Method.   I LOVE this method.  Much like the tip I described above, it teaches you how to market on Twitter in a way that’s not the normal “Gather a huge following and then spam your links at them! But make sure you include a bunch of tweets about what you’re eating for dinner in between the spam so it doesn’t look spammy!” that everyone and their brother is pushing.

Rather, it teaches you how to figure out what you should promote on Twitter – and it’s not the same lame CPA offers that spammers are pushing, I assure you!  It teaches you how to locate people on Twitter who are truly in a buying mindset, how to connect with them in a way that is helpful and welcome, and lastly – THE BEST PART! – how to automate a lot of it using free tools.

I use The Tweeder Method myself.  To give you an idea – I spent about a day setting it up (six or seven hours), and spend about 20 minutes a week maintaining it.  I have 7 accounts, or “modules” as Kelly calls them.  I earn between $400 and $500 a month, almost entirely hands-free.  I could easily scale it, and I plan to do that with outsourcing, I just need to set aside the time to do the research.  But, even at this level, it basically pays for all my article writing each month, and that’s awesome!

If you’ve been thinking Twitter seems like a goldmine, but you just don’t know how to get started, CLICK HERE to check out Kelly’s book.   It really is super-cool. 

*melanie