Google’s Twitter rankings plummeted in the wake of Elon Musk’s actions [UPDATED]

Updated July 5, 2023

Twitter is starting to recover.

According to the data From Sistrix, Twitter’s visibility in Google search results increased by 18% over the past day. The boost happened right after Twitter stopped forcing people to log in to view tweets.

Techcrunch He says Twitter quietly removed the login requirement. Now people can click on Twitter links in their browsers without having an account. Tweet previews have reappeared in apps like Slack, WhatsApp, and iMessage.

CEO Elon Musk temporarily implemented the sign-in rule to stop data scraping. However, the rule inadvertently blocked Google search crawlers, and Twitter’s search visibility decreased.

While the situation may change, Twitter’s recent moves suggest that it is on the road to recovery.

The original story continues below.

According to several data analytics companies, Twitter is seeing a significant decrease in its visibility on Google.

information from sisterix It shows that Twitter search impressions dropped 32% in the US in a single day.

Newsdash It reported that Twitter lost between 12-14% of its visibility within Google search results across all news queries in the US and UK.

The decline follows recent actions by Twitter’s new owner and CEO, Elon Musk, to limit the number of tweets users can view in an effort to address issues with data scraping.

The situation is still unfolding, and Twitter may be able to recover if it takes quick action to resolve the current issues.

Many experts call this one of the biggest SEO mistakes in recent times.

What happened?

To reduce data scraping, Musk announced a temporary limit on the number of tweets users can read per day.

Initially, the limits were set at 6,000 messages 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 entries.

Musk said statement. “Several hundred organizations have accessed Twitter data, and we believe these actions are necessary.”

Unintended consequences

While Musk’s actions are intended to improve the user experience on Twitter, they have affected the operations of Google’s search crawlers.

Data scraping and crawling are central to how Google determines search rankings.

Google reads data from many URLs daily to keep its index up to date. Musk’s restrictions impede Google’s ability to access Twitter, resulting in lower search visibility.

As a result, Twitter content is less likely to appear in a Google search for many keywords.

Knockout for keyword rankings

Ongoing analysis reveals that Twitter has lost nearly 60,000 keyword rankings from the top 10 of Google’s search results, based on raw data from the US market.

Sistrix reported that Twitter was missing important keywords including “ralphs,” “metropcs,” “roblox,” “reddit,” “actually,” “White house,” “britney spears,” “steak n shake,” and “kanye west” “gm”, “lakers”, “pink”, “krispy kreme”, “colts”, “gmc”, “tennis”, “compass”, “lady”, “patriots” and “transformers”.

Twitter lost third place to the search term “yankees,” which sees monthly click volume of 1.8 million in the US. The keyword, worth about 168k clicks per month, is now disabled by espn.com.

After Twitter’s search visibility declined, its competitors made gains.

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 continue, with new data indicating that Twitter’s ranking for the keyword “trump” has disappeared from the top 10.

Impact on users

For a platform like Twitter, which is intertwined with real-time news and discussions, its standing in Google directly affects its ability to attract users and retain regular visitors.

If not addressed immediately, the current situation could have a long-term impact on Twitter’s growth metrics and user engagement.

Although users will be able to access Twitter directly, the decrease in search visibility can affect how new content is discovered.

Users who rely on Google to find tweets about certain topics, especially those related to missing keywords, may go elsewhere.

Potential users who encounter Twitter content through search engines sometimes join the platform. Low visibility could make Twitter seem less important, which could affect its growth.

The extent of the implications of this sudden drop in research visibility is not yet fully understood. We can expect more data to shed light on this event in the coming days and weeks.

For now, it’s a stark 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 successful the social networking site is in recovery.

Google uses complex algorithms that take into account the site’s history. Therefore, a prolonged decline in visibility could make it difficult for Twitter to regain lost rankings even after the issues are resolved.

However, the Internet ecosystem is dynamic and flexible. If Twitter can fix the issues affecting Google’s search crawlers, it may gradually return to where it was.

In summary

The sharp drop in Twitter’s visibility in Google search shows how interconnected major technology platforms have become and how quickly unintended consequences can arise from any company’s changes.

Keep in mind that the situation is continuous and fluid. If Twitter and Google can address the root issues right away, Twitter could regain much of the lost search visibility and limit the impact on its business and its users.

However, prolonged vision issues can pose greater challenges.

Featured image: rafapress/Shutterstock