The importance of implementing smart search engine optimization strategies needs no explanation. Today, according to a report from eMarketer, web users are spending upwards of $1.5 trillion on goods and services purchased on the web each year. With 93% of the web experiences that drive those purchases beginning with a search engine, SEO is the key to being noticed and tapping into that ever growing revenue stream.
As Forbes details in a recent article, the search terms used to set off those online experiences are changing. Every day that goes by sees more web users switching generalized search terms for local terms. By using local search optimization, you can take advantage of this shift. One of the best local search optimization tools on the market today? Twitter.
Three Effective Strategies for Using Twitter to Improve Local Search Optimization
- Take Advantage of Twitter Cards
- Be Smart with Your Hashtags
- Respond to Your Customers
For the popular marketing news website Search Engine Land, one of the best ways to use Twitter to boost your local SEO is by making full use of the many digital business cards the service has available. In effect, Twitter cards let you post visually appealing tweets. So, for example, when you post your new blog post in a normal tweet, you have a brief blurb and a boring looking link — that’s it. Twitter cards display an image from your blog, a brief excerpt, and, if you wish, your contact information. The aesthetically improved design can improve your click-through rates and have a positive effect on revenues.
The hashtag is one of Twitter’s defining features. Used as a method of so-called “social bookmarking,” hashtags allow you to categorize your tweets, thereby making them a lot easier for Twitter users to find. As Sprout Social writes, with a little planning, hashtags can not only make your company more noticeable on social media, but also improve your search engine rankings as part of Google’s Hummingbird update, which seeks to give added weight to relevant tags. As a rule of thumb, use no more than two hashtags in each tweet and keep them relevant.
Simply demonstrating that you value your customers on Twitter, or any social network, can have a positive effect on your local SEO efforts. Whether you need to respond to an accolade or a criticism, doing so quickly will have a profound effect on how your customers, both current and potential, view your company. Needless to say, that will have profound effects on your bottom line.
Do you use Twitter as part of your local SEO strategies? What are some of the things you do that we failed to mention? Let us know in the comments below.
