Tasha Harrison

It’s all very well building the links, but how does this fit in with your keywords and phrases?

Google uses links to find out how relevant your site is. Each link is like a thumbs up, which it then takes into account when ranking your site for each search. It judges each link based upon how relevant and important the linking site is.

The links also show Google what your site is about. It does this through the linking text:

The link text, ‘social media for theatre’, describes what the page that it links to is about. In this case it links to the play’s website, http://suchtweetsorrow.com.

For your own website, you want the link text to be either your chosen keywords or words that describe what your site is about. You can’t always control the link text and most often people link with simply the name of your company or site. However, if you have information on your site that people think is worth mentioning they are more likely to use descriptive text.

See ‘The Basics of SEO – Link Building‘ for more on link building.

The thing that makes Twitter so amazing isn’t Twitter itself, but the users. It is the users of Twitter that have made up many of the rules and multitude of applications.

Here are my top five applications:

1. Tweetdeck
   As a friend of mine put it, ‘So that’s what Twitter should look like’. It enables you to organise your followers into columns, so you no longer view everyone in one large stream. You can also manage multiple accounts, follow a particular hashtag and find and follow new Tweeps. It has the ability to integrate bit.ly, so you can monitor how many people are clicking on your links. (Also see Hootsuite, some people prefer it!)
2. Mr Tweet
   Discover new Tweeters and get new followers. This site sends you a regular update and helps build your network by recommending new people to follow. It also allows you to recommend your favourite Tweeps.
3. TweetEffect
   See your most effective Tweets, which helped you gain followers and which caused you to lose them.
4. WeFollow
   An excellently organised directory. Search by your industry or interest and find the most influencial Tweeps to follow.
5. Twitpic
   The easiest way to share pictures on Twitter. Upload your photo and it Tweets it to all your followers. It is also possible to integrate with Tweetdeck, so you only need to use one application.