Twitter Reputation: Key Factors in Real Time Search
Posted on | January 25, 2010 | No Comments
Since the introduction of Google’s Real Time search results, it’s been interesting to see what subjects are deemed worthy of receiving an embedded search box and whose tweets are included. While I haven’t deciphered all of the details, I recently found Econsultancy’s Google’s Real Time SEO Ranking Factors for Twitter, which discusses the subject as some length. So, I thought I’d touch on this and offer my opinion – for whatever it’s worth.
Essentially, Google has adopted its PageRank algorithm to evaluate the reputation of Twitter users for inclusion in real time search results. Although it’s still early, there are a number of factors that may affect the ability of a given tweet to show up in real time search results and the Econsultancy article presents a brain dump on some of the most likely factors. Here, I offer a few brief comments:
Presence of Hashtags – This one seems a bit grey. Inclusion of hashtags in a trending topic suggests spam. How we define “trending” is a big part of this one. I don’t know.
Presence of Keywords – I think this is common sense. ‘Nuff said.
Unique content – While real time search filters information quickly, it’s more likely that Google will use a reputation score before the order of publication.
Recency – Of course tweets from dormant or seldom used accounts will be less likely to be included in real time search.
User Name – I’m not sure on this one; 15 characters is enough to include keywords but I think that keywords in the bio is more likely to matter.
Age of Account – Naturally, recently opened accounts could be spammers so I would think that this could be significant.
Keyword Focused Accounts – I suppose that if every tweet is about sofas the user may know a lot about the subject, but it seems pretty manufactured. Kinda like all the links with the same anchor text…
External Links from Non-Social Sites – Seems likely. Echoing the use of “link diversity”…
Quantity Helps – I think general activity is more likely to create authority than specific types of activity, like retweets… just my guess.
Ratios – This seems to make sense. Generally, users with greater authority probably have more followers than those that don’t. Could this mean that auto-following is spammy & bad?
Lists – Something I never thought of; presence on other users’ lists implies quality and value. I learned something here.
These are just my thoughts and are not based on any objective data. What do you think affects a Twitter user’s tweets in Google’s real time search?
Bill Rowland
Tags: google > online marketing > real time search > social media marketing
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