A growing number of businesses have begun using Twitter over the last year but soon they may need to worry about Twitter search engine optimization (SEO) just as much as they worry about it for their own websites.
According to a report this week from CNET, Twitter will be adjusting its search function in the near future which will crawl for not only the text found in various tweets, but the links in those messages as well.
Although Twitter has not expressly stated how the new function will work, Santosh Jayaram, vice president of operations at Twitter told the news provider that the new search will factor in "reputation" when delivering search results.
As CNET’s Rafe Needleman points out, this should cut down on the number of "re-tweets and low-value content" that currently shows up in a Twitter search.
For companies looking to use Twitter to gain visibility online, this will mean that original content will be just as important on Twitter as it is on their own website.
Noah Mallin at Searchviews.com says these companies will need to consider search engine optimization when tweeting – even if it’s just 140 characters.
"For brands who want to use Twitter as a means to reach out to current and potential customers, SEO will be essential to figuring out what content needs to exist on their profile and in their tweets, not to mention what links they share," he writes.
