With rumors of Google buying Twitter I thought, is a connection emanate?.  So after thinking about this I wanted to share my opinion on this issue. 

How using Twitter will affect search?. Well know one really knows but I can say the Google bot does crawl Twitter. It shows in my stats. So if you have a link back to your website the bot will make a connection between a Twitter account and a website.

So if search engines make a connection then they can use updates on Twitter to rank web pages. It only makes sense.

With the connection made we need to think about how our updates are used. If you spam twitter your site could get tagged as spam. No? Sure it can. In Google webmaster guidelines it’s said to stay away from bad neighborhoods. So if a twitter account that is sending out affiliate links get mark as spam then it is likely that black mark will carry to the URL in the profile.

Twitter is going to have a profound affect on search. Twitter trends can show search engine what web 2.0 users are searching for, whats becoming viral and how people connect.

Search Engine Marketers and SEO Marketers need to watch their step. Twitter has been around since 2006, but has grown by %50 a month since the 2008 US Presidential election. With that amount of growth the site will become a major indicator for search.

What marketers need to look for: Don’t be a twitter spammer. It could come back to bit you in the butt. If you want to use the site for making money off sending out links use separate accounts. In other word don’t use accounts connected to your content driven sites for mass updates and fast follows.

Try not to annoy Twitter users with advertisements from your established websites. Keep tweets fresh, relevant and informative for your sites topic.

Keep your Twitter account natural as you build a following. Twitter has a %10 guideline for following and followers.  So if you have a 30 followers then you can follow 300 people.

Vet your followers. Don’t just automatically follow anyone. Use a tool like TweetLater to weed out spammy looking followers. Keep the Google train of thoughts when vetting followers. Fresh, Relevant, original and Authoritative should be used as a criteria when vetting users. TweetLater shows how long someone has been using Twitter and the amount of followers & Following stats.

Identify spam accounts. When vetting followers look for signs of spam. If someone has only been using Twitter for a week and following a 1000′s of people that account is more than likely a spam account. Also look for Avatars. Someone with a photo of themselves on their profile. They are more likely to be using Twitter as a Web 2.0 tool. Make sure your followers are building useful communities. Follow strong twitterers. What I Mean by this is follow people who follow back and participate in the twitter world.

Since none of us really know how Twitter is going to affect ranking of sites I believe its better to be safe than sorry. If we all start out using twitter as a social networking community and not a spam tool our future with Twitter as a powerful tool should be insured. Just follow the guideline you would for building a high ranking website.

If a strong fresh, relevant, original and authoritative presence is presented to Twitter that should carry over to the site the account is associated with.

As twitter grows and gather search statistics look for twitter to start connecting users buy geographic areas, topic and categories.

Always keep in mind how fast and fluent the site is and be ready to adapted in order to get the most out of your tweets