It seems like every Internet marketer under the sun has been turning to Twitter over the past few years. Of course, just because you have made the leap and have started to use the versatile platform, it does not mean that you have been using it to its full potential.

When properly unleashed, your Twitter page can be an SEO goldmine, enabling you to turn up prominently in the results pages of Google and the other search engines.

You’ll be driving more traffic to your Twitter page and the websites and resources you point to, and you’ll be gaining a great deal of exposure.

Use the following tips and guidelines to get you going in the right direction, taking your Twitter page from average to a perfectly tuned SEO machine.

• Start with the name: Of course it all starts with your username, which is how people will come to know you and ultimately what your shortened Twitter URL is going to be.

You want your name to be recognizable and memorable, and it should also include one of your primary keywords for maximum search engine impact.

• Upgrade your profile: Your profile is a perfect place to really kick up the SEO for your Twitter account. Your bio is limited in length but is a great place to put a few carefully chosen keywords.

You can link back to your homepage, and make sure that visitors can see what the link is and what it’s about. You can also ensure that your profile image sends some SEO love in your direction by naming the file with appropriate keywords before you upload it.

• Tweet with keywords: This one might seem like a no-brainer but many people are not yet doing it because they don’t realize how highly recent Tweets can rank. With such limited space, it’s imperative that you get right to the point (as you need to do anyway) with your keywords, including them as early as possible in the tweet.

Practice finding ways to start all of your Tweets leading with important keywords and key phrases.

In the short Twitter format, one mention of a phrase along with potentially other related terms is all you need to be aligned with those in the results pages.

• Become active and findable: Twitter is still largely a community for other Twitter uses. Make sure you stay active and findable in that community, by reTweeting what others have to say, using # tags, creating lists and so forth.

You’ll become a more prominent member of the community and you’ll be easier to find. Your Twitter profile page will also grow in importance and value, and hopefully things will start to snowball from there.

• Link shorten: Hopefully you’re already using link shortening services, but it’s especially important that you do so when you’re shooting for top SEO. With Bit.ly you’ll be able to track plenty of clicking statistics while ensuring your link takes up as little space as possible in your tweet.

Of course, you can also be building links to your content elsewhere and your website.

• Track your results: Finally don’t forget to track your results and your progress. Experiment with the keywords you target, the way you write your Tweets, your placement of keywords around your profile and in your Tweets and so forth.

This is still a new ballgame, which means you really need to take the time to carefully discern what really works best for you and your market.

• Promote: Most people think of Twitter as a tool for promotion, but forget that you should be promoting your Twitter page and Tweets as well.

Bookmark your page using popular services, link to it and mention it on forums, in directories and on your own website and hook it up with FeedBurner to get the RSS feed out there as well.

As you can see, there are many ways you can optimize your Twitter page in accordance with SEO. Now that Twitter results show up in typical search engine result pages, it’s certainly a huge opportunity that you don’t want to let pass you by.

Remember that SEO is always changing and SEO for Twitter is still largely unknown, so start with these basics and continue experimenting to see the best results.

There’s a lot of room to grow with Twitter and SEO and with just simple, quick and basic steps you can make some huge strides and start seeing big results.