4 Ways Link Builders Should Use Twitter

Guest post by Kaila Strong

It might not be the first resource traditional link builders think of when they want to develop a link building strategy, but social media sites like Twitter can be a go to spot to help out. Not only can Twitter help you find link building opportunities, but can act as a communication channel, help you tap the pulse of ‘what’s hot’, and actually serve as a place to build links (albeit no-follow, but links nonetheless). Let’s examine each of Twitter’s link building offerings.

Link Building Research

Surprisingly, you can find quite a plethora of websites on Twitter through the use of Twitter Search. Websites that have branded accounts, tweeting on a regular basis, in a particular industry, within a certain niche are all easily found (and equally as accessible) on Twitter. The hard part is just doing the research.

A few Twitter research tips: search keywords and phrases to see who is talking about them, click on their profile and visit their websites, click on individual tweet links and see what type of content is being tweeted, and follow those that warrant a follow in your industry.

Reaching Out on Twitter

Once you’ve done the research, monitor the contacts you want to acquire links from. Don’t immediately contact them, but rather build relationships slowly over time. Trust me, it’s worth it in the long run. Once you feel comfortable contact them and get to the point of what you want. Surprisingly, in most instances you’ll find that they are more than willing to link to you, and may even offer you more than you initially thought. I’ve secured more than a couple links this way, it really does work.

What’s New and Popular

Not sure what’s new, popular, and exciting in a particular industry? Well then you’re in luck. Searching through Twitter you can literally tap the vein of what’s hot, the topic du jour in any niche. Look up a few keywords, figure out who the top tweeters are in an industry (by figuring out who is retweeted the most, or has the most followers, etc…), and just listen. The more information you gain about a particular niche, the more opportunities your creative mind can develop for link building.

Build Links With Twitter

And last but certainly not least are the manual link building benefits one can achieve with tweets. Links are nofollowed, and shortened, but by building up your following, building up the PR of your Twitter profile, and utilizing your connections you can get some pretty good backlinks using Twitter.

How? Well think of it like this: search engines can obviously see individual tweets, they too can see popular tweets (those that are regularly tweeted/retweeted), therefore one can only assume that some sort of metric or preference is given to those particular tweets (and the links contained therein). One can optimize their tweets a few ways to get the most bang for your buck: integrating keywords into a tweet, customizing your short URL with keywords, using a URL shortener that 301 redirects, making tweets retweetable, and scheduling tweets at the most retweetable time of day. Another way to build links with Twitter is to have your tweets seen by others who might blog about your site, and may link to it as well.

As you can see, Twitter can certainly offer the traditional link builder an alternative method for searching out, contacting, and acquiring link opportunities. Have you used Twitter to obtain a link before? Tell us your story in the comments below.

About the Author

Kaila is a social media and link building internet marketer at Vertical Measures, based in Phoenix, AZ. The company specializes in link building services, social media marketing, and onsite SEO. She’s also an avid tweeter, @cliquekaila.