What Is Real-Time Content and Can I Make It SEO-Friendly?

Reprinted from the Marketwire blog

There's been some confusion as to what real-time content really is, so let me help clarify: Real-time content happens when there is no delay between the time you type/write and the time you publish. It's an immediate response to a comment or question. Think Twitter. What is not real-time content are blogs. A blogger usually ponders, writes, then posts; therefore, the response time is not as immediate or instantaneous.

That said, how is real-time content optimized for search engines? Because of its instantaneous nature, is it even possible? Definitely! Here are a few tips to make sure your real-time content is SEO-friendly and searchable:

1. Add keywords to your tweets and updates. As search engines continue to tweak their algorithms to incorporate real-time content, it's important to support your updates with keywords.
2. Keep the content relevant. Nothing beats posting content that is relevant to your audience and chances are, this content will stick around much longer than if you were to just focus on the trending topics.
3. Republish the content. Take note of how popular or how well received a particular update is and then repurpose it to create a blog post. Expand the content and republish.
4. Collect your content and post on your blog. Similar to "republishing content," take note of the popularity for a group of tweets, then incorporate your collected tweets into your blog.
5. Use hashtags strategically. If you are going to use hashtags (#) on Twitter, don't spam your followers by adding a trending topic hashtag at the end of every tweet. The purpose of a hashtag is to organize your tweets into groups. If you are posting a link about SEO or involved in a conversation about SEO, then use the hashtag #seo.

Whatever content you publish—whether it's through Twitter or your blog—you want people to find it, in which case it should always be SEO-friendly or searchable on search engines. It's safe to presume that posts on your blog will be indexed in search engines as most content management system platforms like WordPress are built to do just that.

How has real-time content affected the way your company markets? What are your thoughts on real-time SEO?

Nick Shin, Marketwire
© 2010, Marketwire. Reprinted from the Marketwire blog, July 12, 2010; reprinted with permission.

Nick Shin is the search marketing and social media specialist at Marketwire, a leading newswire and communications work-flow provider.

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