Hello Fellow Webmasters! Do Twitter tweets / retweets affect SEO rankings in the Search Engines? Let’s find out!
The case study:
Pick 30 webpages (we used Squidoo lenses!) to backlink / retweet using TwitterBacklinks.com . Each webpage receives 150 retweets. Wait over two months and report any changes.
The results: (Click Image to Enlarge)
In aggregate, there were 149 rank improvements in Google, from just Retweets alone. This is an extreme case of sites not promoted in any other way other than Twitter retweets; with a combination of link building and social signals, webpages will have a stronger synergy and more dramatic results.
Example of Lense / webpage Tweeted / retweed 150 times (can see full list in Excel image above)
http://www.squidoo.com/umbreon-plush
A 3rd party case study on Twitter Backlinks by Ben Cummings (a veteran online marketer in the Chiropractic space):
http://blog.practicebuildingcenter.com/review-of-twitterbacklinks-com-did-it-boost-chiropractic-traffic/
What do the SEO Experts think? Both these gentlemen listed below are light years ahead of others in the online marketing space.
Rand Fishkin from SEOmoz and Christoph C. Cemper
“Twitter is the single most important tool to power your links” – Christoph C. Cemper
“Tweets are superpowerful” – Rand Fishkin
In conclusion we see Twitter backlinks / retweets do have a positive impact on rankings. Social proof and trust is also an overlooked yet important component of conversions. Because someone else has tweeted your content, it can be seen as more valuable. This of course is an ancillary psychological benefit to the direct search traffic. If others like it, maybe you’ll like it. Basic psychology.
Best practices for getting your content Retweeted:
Tweet funny or insightful content, coupled with images or videos, whether using Twit Pic or Youtube
Engage with other Twitter members in your niche or geographical location. If you don’t go to other people’s funerals they won’t go to yours 🙂
Amass a following through promotions or offers such as coupons or inside information
Use networks to facilitate your Twitter marketing such as Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, and/or TwitterBacklinks.com
Add hashtags or Tweet related trending events while staying different and fresh
Very interesting my friends, good work.
Thanks a lot.
I’ve got a question regarding twitter profile links
I have noticed that some twitter profiles has a backlink to a website but in my profile , my link is being converted to a t.co/…
hi PrimeMagazine,
This is because Twitter uses internal url shorteners and trys to shorten urls whenever possible. Since it’s a permanent redirect, the search engines and Twitter are very good at understanding the final destination (epic movie! haha j/k) of the link