Twitter search results for SEO. Very relevant, aren’t they?
Last week the new Twitter search “ranking popular tweets on top” went live. It’s a huge disappointment. It only shows two or three seemingly popular tweets on top of the latest tweets not ordered in any manner, just like hitherto.
Also the “popular tweets” seem to stem from some form of limited static white list of websites. Recently our hugely popular Google Analytics list didn’t even show up while other less popular but more reputable sources did on the same day.
Two weeks ago I suggested to use Topsy as a Twitter search alternative in our weekly Twitter column. That’s just one option though. Last and this week’s column post has been merged to offer you 30 Twitter search alternatives & tools to enable you to search for
- tweets
- URLs
- users
- your website performance on Twitter
using the Twitter search, third party Twitter search tools as well as make the actual Twitter search more usable. Take note that I have only included those tools I actually use myself or I’ve used in the past and can recommend.
Twitter search alternatives
- Topsy – Full fledged Twitter search engine as well as popular tweets and links interface. Good results and clean usable interface.
- CrowdEye – A bit cluttered but very powerful Twitter search engine
- Backtweets – Similar to Topsy and Tweetmeme but focsuing on finding the tweets for a particular page or site.
- Social Mention – Searching Twitter and beyond in real time but a bit slow sometimes though. Many advanced search options but often poor quality resuklts despite this.
- Collecta – Search messages, photos, videos etc. on and beyond Twitter
- OneRiot – Searches for currently popular tweets for a given keywords as well as showing latest tweets.
- Tweetmi – A simple Twitter search and analysis tool for the latest tweets.
Twitter search desktop tools
- Yahoo Sideline – Adode Air based standalone Twitter search client.
- Tweetdeck – Adobe Air based standalone Twitter client with Twitter search support built in.
- Seesmic – Both Adobe Air client and web app. You can search for your keyword on a regular basis automatically. They don’t have a privacy policy though so be careful with your data.
- Pluggio (formerly Tweetminer) – Professional web based Twitter client with advanced Twitter search capabilities. They call it “search and browse”.
What’s popular on Twitter
- Tweetmeme – Most retweeted links. Also check out Topsy and Backtweets (mentioned above in the search category).
- Favstar – Most favorited tweets.
- Tweetply – Most replied to tweets.
- Trendistic – Search popular topics and Twitter trends right now and in the past.
- Tweetvolume – Compare the sheer search volume for up to three keywords. Great for keyword research.
- Twopular – This tool shows a portal like overview of popular terms and hashtags on Twitter right now as well as in the past.
- Trendsmap – Local Twitter trends mash up on a map. Very good for a quick overview.
- Oneforty – Most popular Twitter apps.
- Hashtags.org – Trending topics by so called #hashtags users add to their tweets.
Twitter user search
- Twerp Scan – Search and manage your followers. Very useful tool.
- My Tweeple – Search your followers on the basis on several criteria like “most followers”.
- Friend or Follow – Find out who does not follow you back on Twitter.
- Doesfollow – Find out whether a given user is following you.
- Tweet Reach – This excellent tools lets you find out who your real friends are, at least recently. It shows the exposure they provide you.
- MyTwitterCloud – Find users from your area and sharing your interests.
Twitter search hacks and other tools
- Power Twitter – A Firefox/Safari/Chrome add on that enhances your Twitter Web interface. Among others you can search in your tweets or of any user.
- Subscribe to your search query via RSS.
- Add Twitter search to Google via Greasemonkey.
- Add Twitter search to the Firefox search box.
- Google custom search engine searching Twitter.com with often surprisingly relevant results
- TweetBeep – Like Google Alerts but for Twitter.
You may have noticed that I didn’t mention Google and Bing real time search. Both major search engines offer real time search that indexes tweets but the results of both are of low quality if you ask me. So I don’t recommend using them. Especially the random inclusion of real time results in Google search makes them useless. You simply never know whether you’ll see Twitter results or not.
- How do you search Twitter?
- Any suggestions you haven’t found on this list?
- Do you agree with my suggestions?
Have your say in the comment section!
Warren Knight thanks http://www.seoptimise.com