We all know that Twitter links are NoFollow and that until recently most SEOs have agreed that Twitter activity wasn’t a ranking factor. Yet, it seems that Twitter data influences the SERPs and thus might have a direct impact on search engine visibility.

Regardless of whether Twitter influences the SERPs directly I want to show you an effective way how Twitter in combination with content syndication can be utilized for link building.

We all know how tough link building can be and that creativity is extremely important when it comes to generating high quality links, especially for commercial websites.

During the process of finding link building opportunities you are facing two main questions:

1) Why would someone link to your website?

2) What do they get from you in return?

There is a creative way how you can answer these questions by utilizing Twitter. The tactic I will show you in this article works very well especially for websites in tough industries like online retail, travel, classifieds or car hire, just to name a few.

The only thing you need is an official Twitter page, ideally with a lot of followers, e.g. Zappos (1,7 million), JetBlue (1,5 million), ASOS (40,000+), Hertz (12,000+), lastminute.com (8,000+) or Trulia (8,000+). The more the better, as you will see later.

Article creation and engagement with the Blogosphere

The creation of high-quality content and articles is a very effective link building tactic. But it should go beyond the submission of content to article and press release websites, on which you get quick but rather low-quality links. For high-quality links it is essential to engage with bloggers in your industry. By pitching relevant (and exclusive) content to them in order to get a link back to your website.

This way of content syndication is an excellent mechanism for accomplishing high-quality links:

• Dofollow
• Use of (targeted) anchor text
• Position of the link on the page in content
• Topical relevance of linking site

The problem

Engaging with bloggers can be difficult, especially if your website is of commercial nature. If you are not an NGO or non-commercial website or you already have established partnerships with blogs, you will quickly face the problem that they want either a monetary gratification and/or require a link from your website in return.

The solution

You can create a benefit for the blog that publishes your content and links to you by generating some immense social media buzz in return. As mentioned before you should have a Twitter account with a big followership, e.g. @asos:

Let’s assume ASOS has created a brilliant piece of content about some fashion trends for 2011/12 including some pictures from a big fashion show. After having identified a relevant blog, ASOS pitches the story to it. In return for publishing the article ASOS will guarantee some great social media exposure through their Twitter page. After the article has been published (of course including the link back to ASOS using the targeted anchor text) ASOS will tweet something like: “An insider look into the fashion trends for 2011/12, exclusive pictures from the catwalk @FashionBlog http://bit.ly/1a2b3c!”

Et voilà: Who doesn´t want to be featured on Twitter by someone like @asos with more than 40,000 followers? I think this argument speaks for itself.

Win-win situation for both sides

The best thing is that both parties will benefit from this link building tactic:

• Your tweet will generate great social media buzz about the blog and its Twitter page.
• Due to your huge followership the post will be re-tweeted and the blog’s Twitter page will get more followers.
• Your website will get a high-quality back link from the published blog article.
• You provide your followers with some useful and interesting information by tweeting about the article.
• There is no reciprocal linking or monetary gratification needed.

Quickly summarized

1) Why would someone link to your website?

Because you provide a blog with a useful and relevant piece of content.

2) What do they get from you?

You will feature the published article via your official Twitter account and generate great social media exposure for this blog and its Twitter page.

If you have any additional tips and ideas please add them in the comments. You can also catch me on Twitter!