Updated July 5, 2023
Twitter is beginning to recover.
According to data According to Sistrix, Twitter’s visibility in Google search results has increased by 18% over the past day. The rebound came immediately after Twitter stopped forcing people to log in to see tweets.
According to TechCrunch, Twitter has quietly removed the login requirement. Now people can click Twitter links in their browsers without having an account. Tweet previews have resurfaced in apps like Slack, WhatsApp, and iMessage.
CEO Elon Musk temporarily introduced the login rule to stop data scraping. However, the rule unintentionally blocked Google’s search crawlers and Twitter’s search visibility went down.
While the situation could change, Twitter’s recent moves suggest the company is on the road to recovery.
The original story continues below.
According to several data analysis companies, Twitter is seeing a significant drop in visibility on Google.
Data from Sistrix shows that Twitter’s search visibility in the US dropped by 32% in one day.
Newzdash reported that Twitter lost between 12% and 14% of its visibility in Google search results for all news queries in the US and UK.
The drop follows recent action by new Twitter owner and CEO Elon Musk to limit the number of tweets users can see to address data scraping issues.
The situation is still evolving and Twitter may have a chance to recover if it takes swift action to resolve the current issues.
Many experts are calling this one of the biggest self-inflicted SEO missteps in recent memory.
What happened?
To reduce data scraping, Musk announced a temporary cap on the number of tweets users can read per day.
Originally, the limits were set at 6,000 posts for verified accounts, 600 for unverified accounts, and 300 for new unverified accounts.
However, these limits were soon raised twice, ending at 10,000, 1,000, and 500 posts.
“Our intent is to address the issue of data scraping that has impacted actual user experience,” Musk said in one opinion. “Several hundred organizations have accessed Twitter’s data and we believe these actions are necessary.”
Unintended Consequences
While Musk’s actions were aimed at improving the user experience on Twitter, they impacted the operation of Google’s search crawlers.
Data scraping and crawling is fundamental to how Google determines search rankings.
Google reads data from many URLs every day to keep its index up to date. The restrictions imposed by Musk impede Google’s access to Twitter, leading to a deterioration in search visibility.
As a result, many keywords are less likely to appear in Google Search for Twitter content.
A knockout blow to keyword ranking
Ongoing analysis shows that according to preliminary data from the US market, Twitter has lost almost 60,000 keyword rankings from the top 10 positions of Google search results.
Sistrix reports that Twitter has lost important keywords such as “ralphs”, “metropcs”, “roblox”, “reddit”, “indeed”, “white house”, “britney spears”, “steak n shake”, “kanye west”. . “gm”, “lakers”, “pink”, “krispy kreme”, “colts”, “gmc”, “tennis”, “compass”, “lady”, “patriots” and “transformers”.
Twitter lost its third spot for the search term “Yankees,” which has 1.8 million monthly click volume in the US. The keyword, which brings in around 168,000 clicks per month, has now been hijacked by espn.com.
After the decline in search presence on Twitter, the competitors were able to gain ground.
Domains like theguardian.com, cbssports.com, usnews.com, instagram.com, facebook.com, rottentomatoes.com, LinkedIn.com, spotify.com and espn.com have improved search rankings,
In a July 4 update, Sistrix noted that the losses are continuing, with new data suggesting that Twitter’s ranking for the keyword “Trump” has slipped out of the top 10.
Impact on Users
For a platform like Twitter, intertwined with real-time news and discussions, their standing on Google directly impacts their ability to attract users and retain casual visitors.
If immediate action is not taken, the current situation could have a long-term impact on Twitter’s growth and user engagement metrics.
Although users can access Twitter directly, the decline in search visibility can affect how new content is discovered.
Users who rely on Google to find tweets on specific topics, particularly those related to the lost keywords, may go elsewhere.
Potential users who come across Twitter content through search engines sometimes join the platform. The reduced visibility could make Twitter seem less relevant, potentially impacting its growth.
The magnitude of the consequences of this sudden drop in search visibility is yet to be understood. We can expect more data to shed light on this event in the coming days and weeks.
For now, it serves as a powerful reminder of the relationship between search engines and social media platforms and how quickly things can go wrong.
Can Twitter recover?
How Twitter and Google handle this situation will determine how well the social media site recovers.
Google uses complex algorithms that take into account the history of a website. As such, even after the issues are resolved, Twitter could find it harder to regain lost rankings due to continued visibility degradation.
However, the internet ecosystem is dynamic and resilient. If Twitter solves the problems affecting Google’s search crawlers, the company could gradually get back to where it was.
In total
The sharp decline in Google Search visibility on Twitter shows how interdependent major technology platforms have become and how quickly unintended consequences can arise from a company’s changes.
Remember that the situation is ongoing and fluid. If Twitter and Google can address the root issues promptly, Twitter could regain much of its lost search exposure and limit the impact on its business and users.
However, longer visibility issues could pose greater challenges.
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