Study Breaks, one of the leading college media entertainment companies, offers Twitter users seven pieces of advice for optimizing their accounts and increasing the chances of search engine exposure for both their companies and themselves.

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To have one's social media updates better found in search, an easy place to start is Twitter. It only takes a few minutes a day to optimize Tweets and help a business appear in search even more frequently...

Austin, TX (PRWEB) June 13, 2012

Search engine optimization (SEO) is undeniably a crucial component of inbound marketing, but marketers often don't think about how it applies to social media. Similarly, many just think of social media as simply a tool for expanding reach, brand awareness, and engagement -- neglecting to think about how it impacts search results. To have one's social media updates better found in search, an easy place to start is Twitter. It only takes a few minutes a day to optimize Tweets and help a business appear in search even more frequently. Here are 7 key ways for one to optimize their Twitter presence for search:

1. Don't completely believe the "no-follow" warning

Yes, once upon a time in the dark ages of social media SEO, networks like Twitter and Facebook were automatically marked with "nofollow" tags. This attribute signaled search engines to not give SEO authority to inbound links from these social networks, meaning those links wouldn't help optimize a business in search. But both Google and Bing confirmed in an interview that tweeted links are in fact a signal for a search engine's organic and news rankings. So users should tweet away that content. It counts.

2. Build reach

In the same aforementioned interview, Google and Bing both indicated their algorithms check the authority of the user tweeting the link. Google is quoted saying, "We do compute and use author quality. We don’t know who anyone is in real life :-)" This means that Google is basing users' Twitter authority in search on their influence on Twitter. Building a stronger reach with high quality followers will help boost tweets' rankings.

3. Create a special subset of Twitter keywords

While a business should have a set of keywords it tries to rank for, all those keywords may not translate over seamlessly to Twitter--especially if they're long. One should analyze their keywords through various tools (HubSpot customers, use the Keyword Grader tool) and pick a subset of keywords specifically for Twitter. This set should be smaller, as Twitter is updating constantly and Google updated its search algorithm to display the most recent results--so that tweet from yesterday is probably long gone. One should try to have a small set of keywords and use them throughout the day in theirr tweets to help boost rankings.

4. Ensure Tweet lengths are retweetable

As if the constraint of 140 characters isn’t enough, there’s a little more limitation. First of all, one should try to integrate SEO-ready keywords into their tweets so that these updates appear in search. Then it's important to make sure these tweets save a solid 10-20 characters of legroom so that users who “RT @username” don’t have to eliminate the keyword to make it fit. One strategy is creating a formula for your tweets based off how long your Twitter username is (which brings up the importance of a short username).

5. Post remarkable updates that appeal to influencers

Once one knows the importance of authority and has learned the art of SEO retweeting, it’s time to ensure the actual content is remarkable enough that other influencers are also retweeting posts. Search engines will register the value of other authority-holders and correlate them with the value of the link that's posted, which would basically become the Twitter equivalent of an inbound link. Posting these updates that appeal to influencers will truly boost optimization efforts.

6. Make Twitter usernames spam-free

Many Twitter spammers have usernames that include a bunch of numbers (e.g. @Name546789). When Google’s algorithm scans links on Twitter, it often completely disregards usernames that include numbers since there is no way to differentiate between who is real and who isn’t. Therefore, one should choose a unique and professional username, and try to use their company name if possible.

7. Include keywords in the Twitter bio

Twitter allows 160 characters worth of information to be displayed on a user's homepage. This “about” section is typically used to provide bio information. One shouldn't riddle this with keywords, but be sure to have at least one in there to reflect their business in an accurate way while simultaneously helping to improve search visibility. It's important to keep in mind that search engine results often display theTwitter bio in the description of the link when a Twitter username appears in search. It's a good idea to make it attention-grabbing so that users are inclined to click on the link.

Study Breaks College Media provides a one-stop solution for small businesses, providing them with big marketing strategies and delivering college students.

Study Breaks magazine is an award-winning line of monthly entertainment magazines for college students with a mission can best be explained through its slogan: We are college life. Published by Shweiki Media Printing Company, it is distributed in five Texas cities (Austin, Houston, San Antonio, San Marcos and Lubbock) and three southeast cities (Athens, GA; Auburn, AL; Columbia, SC). (Studybreaks.com)