SEO How-To: Enable DoFollow on Twitter to pass link juice

There are lots of articles about Twitter and its benefits for SEO. I recommend reading econsultancy.com, mashable.com and sitepoint.com.
But in all those articles, I didn’t see the key element that makes Twitter updates even more valuable from a SEO perspective: The DoFollow link.

twitternofollow

Twitter NoFollow policy

As most of you must know, all the links posted in your twitter updates have a NoFollow attribute. (see example on the left)
The guys at Twitter aren’t stupid, they knew everyone would have abused the status updates for their SEO needs.
As a result, Search Engine do read and index your status updates but don’t bother following and  indexing the links in it, making them less useful for SEO.
That’s where Black Hat SEO enter the game!

How to use DoFollow links in Twitter
There’s only one link you can use in Twitter that does not have the NoFollow attribute.
It’s the link to the website of the Twitter client you used to post your Status update.
Most of the time it reads Tweetdeck, Seesmic, Tweetie, web or one of the hundred of Twitter client out there.
As you can see in the picture at the end of this post, I changed mine to link to my Blog and so can you!

If you are using WordPress, just install Tweetable and follow the configuration steps (you need php 5).

If you are not using WordPress and want to advertise your website or blog follow the instructions below:
1. Download the Twitter Seo Tool script (created by www.seoblackout.com) and unzip it on your server (you need php 5)
2. Log in your Twitter account and go to http://twitter.com/oauth_clients/new
3. Fill in the form:
– Application name: Enter the link anchor you want
– Description: Enter whatever you want
– Application Website: This is the URL you want to optimize. It can be your domain name or a deeplink to a content page
– Organization: Enter whatever you want
– Website:  Enter whatever you want
– Application Type: Check Browser
– Callback URL: Enter the Twitter SEO Tool script URL. For Example: http://www.mydomain.com/twitterseotool_EN/index.php
– Default Access type: Check Read & Write
– Use Twitter for login: Check Yes, use Twitter for login
4. Click Save
5. Click Edit Application Settings and check “Yes, use Twitter for login” since it has probably not been taken into account due to a technical issue from Twitter
6. Copy and paste your Consumerkey and Consumersecret to a text file
7. On your server, open the index.php file in the twitterseotool_EN folder with a text editor and enter the required information: Twitter username, script URL, Application name, consumerkey and consumersecret
8. Save the file on your server
9. Enter the script URL in your browser, open it and follow the last steps.

That’s it! As you can see in the example below, there is no Nofollow attribute in the link to my blog

twitterfollow

Now you can update your status and receive link juice to your website from your twitter.com page.
Of course this is kind of a Twitter exploit and I doubt it will work for ages but as long as it works, you should definitely use it.

Application name: vous mettez l’ancre du lien que vous désirez
– Description: vous mettez ce que vous voulez
– Application Website: url de la page à linker, ça peut-être une page interne, pas forcément la home, histoire d’avoir du bl vers des pages internes facilement
– Organization: ce que vous voulez
– Website: ce que vous voulez
– Application Type: vous cochez Browser si ce n’est pas déjà fait
– Callback URL: url du script, si par exemple, le script se trouve dans le dossier TwitterSeoTool, indiquez alors :
-http://www.votresiteweb.com/twitterseotool/index.php
– Default Access type: cochez : Read & Write
– Use Twitter for login: cochez : Yes, use Twitter for login

About the Author

Gaetan Bertin, Digital Media Strategist evolving in the web industry since 2000. Expert in Media, Search Marketing and Web Analytics