In February 2015, Google and Twitter reached a deal that would make tweets indexable in Google search results. This week, we began to see this integration take shape, as tweets began to show up in certain Google searches on mobile devices. It appears that this month marks the beginning of the Google/Twitter integration in the United States, though we cannot confirm whether or not this had rolled out globally. Tweets are currently only showing in searches on mobile devices, but it appears that desktop integration will follow.
I was able to get the tweets to show in the search results by searching for my name (I was not logged into Google or Twitter):
I was also able to get a few large brands to show tweet carousels in the search results, and interestingly in this case it was not tweets from the brand, but tweets about the brand. In this case I searched “delta airlines” and got a a carousel showing 8 scrolling tweets, with a “more tweets for delta airlines” button that takes me to mobile Twitter.
What Does This Mean To You?
While our data is currently limited on this integration, the implications of how we can use it is exciting. By being able to show real time tweets in search results, we are given an opportunity to give live, up to date information to web users, regardless of whether or not they have a twitter account.
What does this mean for SEO?
A Google / Twitter partnership could mean new ranking signals for search results based on Twitter data. While we don’t know the full details of the partnership yet, it would be wise for brands and public figures to stay active on Twitter and monitor results for their branded searches.
