Twitter Tweets to be Indexed by Bing and Google – Wow!

This is huge news for the world of search engine organic placement and inbound link creation if you did not understand these recent releases from both Bing and from Google.

First the background:

Bing is to index Twitter tweets and Facebook status updates:

http://kara.allthingsd.com/20091021/exclusive-guess-who-else-is-coming-to-dinner-twitter-microsoft-bing-deal-confirmed-but-so-is-facebook-bing/

Google is to indext Twitter tweets:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/rt-google-tweets-and-updates-and-search.html

If you are not already using Twitter this is an excellent reason to start right away. Not only will this new decision by the search engines allow inclusion of the very freshest news and updates in their index via rabid Twitter users who want to tweet just about everything, but tweets with links will be indexed too.

At least the indexing of tweets and links appears to be in the offing at this early stage. Meaning specifically that if you link to your website in tweets, you may now be driving search traffic not just Twitter user traffic, you may build web authority, and may even now use tweets as entry points to your blog or website. Additionally if Google or Bing count the links as inbound links – WOW! Now we just don’t know for sure if the real SEO benefits mentioned will stay in the mix until tweets start to be indexed and we can really evaluate traffic and if the engines filter tweets in some way to prevent organic benefits, but the potential benefits of this announcement to tweeters is huge!

So if you are not involved in Twitter why take a change that one of the biggest new ways to drive search traffic to your site will pass you by? Build your base before there is a huge rush. Establish your account as an authority now and not a newbie that will be lost in the shuffle.

 Twitter is free but if you need professional help we have a nicely developed Twitter service program and a great track record in growing account followings. Check out our Twitter services to see if we would be a good match for your needs.

Does Twitter Impact Your SEO Placement?

I had a colleague tell me that they have stopped blogging and now spend most of their efforts on Twitter. I was mystified as to why and found out that this person thought that Twitter would help with their organic search placement. “Yikes! Don’t stop blogging!” I said, “Twitter does nothing for SEO and blogging does.”

Twitter is great for social networking and driving traffic to your website, but for now, search engines do not index tweets so you get no SEO juice from Twitter. Blogging is still one of the very best and easiest ways to help improve your web authority and potentially your organic placement. Each one of your blog posts, unlike tweets, is indexed by search engines and builds content in your search authority profile that search engines routinely review with their spider bots.

If your blog is housed on your website server under your domain, you geet the SEO juice from your blog post. If your blog is under a different domain or at www.Blogger.com you get the links and traffic but not the SEO juice and web authority.

So, the bottom-line is even if you do Twitter, don’t stop blogging. Blogging actually works harder for you to bring you long term benefits at this point than do tweets when it comes to SEO.

Blogging SEO Tips from Google

Matt Cutts the engineer from Google who speaks to the webmaster community has posted slides of tips for SEO blogging. When Google talks I listen!

Here’s a link to the blog post. When he posts a video on the topic I’ll embed it in another post so keep an eye out for it.

Matt likes WordPress for his own blogging and so do I. Although in the slides it is hard to understand his input, the video will clearly be more exciting. In the slides and video he will talk about how PageRank is calculated and information on inbound links and their importance for organic placement for blogs. The slides are a teaser, but the real meat will be the video.

Who Do You Watch?

So when you want to know what is happening in the world of organic search engine placement who are you watching? Whose words are you hanging on, checking out the techniques, and monitoring their blog and Twitter traffic?

Here’s my list of who I watch to find out what to keep tabs on:

Matt Cutts

Matt is a Google software engineer. He is the voice to the industry for Google. Currently he is in charge of the Google WebSpam Team. He is a high profile blogger and is active on Twitter. You can check out his blog to see if you should be keeping an eye on him. I have to say that some of his blog posts are about his cat and weird stuff, but sometimes he has excellent nuggets and insight into Google that are very important to be aware of to stay at the very top of your game.

Danny Sullivan

Danny is a pillar in my industry. He is the editor of Search Engine Land and previously the creator of Search Engine Watch which was one of the most popular blog/ezines in my industry until he sold it to Jupiter Media and lost control of the content. Danny has excellent insight and is one of my most watched experts. You can visit Search Engine Land to see what you think.

Kevin Marks

Kevin is a new Google Engineer that I am just starting to watch. I haven’t decided if he is important to watch yet, but I am checking out his blog.

Webmaster World News

Although this is not one person, but rather a forum, this is the place to watch new topics surface. You’ll find out what others think about new algorithms that search engines have rolled out, hot topics, trending topics, and personal commentary. All the major search engines have forum monitors to see what the professional community is saying about them and problems. They post answers, take threads to higher ups and allow professionals to have open commentary with them there in the forum. I find it an indispensable assets. When you see a drop in SERPs you can find out if a new search algorithm has hit and what the early impact is on website. You can visit Webmaster World News to see what you think.

I am a free member, but you can pay a subscription there if you want. I post under the name Nancy99 on Webmaster World. You will frequently see my posts there under the AdWords topics.

If you have someone who you watch, I would love to know so that I can follow them too. Just leave their name and link in the comments below.