Rachael Giza, March 26, 2015
Social media's relationship with search engines is growing stronger. Google and Twitter recently reached an agreement to make tweets, the 140-character posts Twitter users publish to their followers, searchable on Google. According to a report from Bloomberg Business, tweets will be searchable on Google the moment they're posted. Twitter CEO Dick Costolo states we can expect tweets to show up on Google's search engine results pages within just a few months. Twitter currently shares its users' data with the search engines Bing and Yahoo, but its new alliance with Google, which commands the most traffic of any website in the world, will have a far greater an impact.
Google and Twitter both have much to gain from this agreement. By pulling from the content of Twitter's 284 million users, Google has even more to add to its search engine results pages and the information boxes they feature. The move is also reflective of Google's continued emphasis on social media; the search engine giant has already included links to social media in its SERP information boxes and has allowed trending hashtags to rank on its results pages. This latest deal to access live Twitter content is therefore a logical progression for the search engine giant.
Twitter, on the other hand, will benefit from exposure to a wider audience, particularly an audience that includes non-users. In other words, Twitter's appearance on Google search engine results pages could more effectively persuade those not already a part of the Twitter community to hop aboard. Wider viewership also opens up additional advertising opportunities for Twitter, although an advertising deal has not been mentioned as part of Google and Twitter's initial agreement. Twitter's move to make its site more visible and engaging also builds upon its fall announcement of the Instant Timeline, which offers users a feed of pre-selected tweets and eliminates the need to follow specific accounts to view them.
Google and Twitter's new partnership certainly benefits both companies, but the rest of us have something to gain, too. While the thought of searchable tweets may make some private users apprehensive, businesses have every reason to see this partnership as an incredible opportunity to enhance their digital marketing campaigns. In fact, this partnership means that leveraging Twitter for Google results pages will likely quickly become a necessity for businesses that wish to stay competitive in the digital marketing game. Twitter can no longer be viewed as just a social media platform; rather, it's now a highly valuable extension of search engine optimization. Because tweets will now be indexed and ranked, incorporating keywords and phrases matters even more. Additionally, real-time marketing will increase in importance as the limited-time offers, special deals, and announcements specific to social media platforms like Twitter will now be accessible to Google's much larger audience.
Ultimately, the Twitter and Google partnership will be a huge advantage to businesses, as it presents a new way to reach even more potential customers, customers who won't need to create a Twitter account to read your latest tweets.
Learn more about what the Twitter and Google partnership means for digital marketing campaigns and social media strategies by contacting us today.
