User-generated content (UGC) is a powerful SEO tool, and you don’t even have to create it. Users do. Studies have found that more than half of web users have reviewed or rated products and services online. And that figure is even higher among “millenials,” the 18- to 25-year-old demographic. More than 71 percent of them share their opinions on a wide variety of sites.
We’re talking a wide variety of shopping sites, such as epinions, Yahoo! Shopping, BizRate, PriceGrabber, CNET, Bazaarvoice, virtually every travel-related site (such as TripAdvisor.com)...the list goes on and on. Local city guides (Yelp, Citysearch, Yahoo!, and Google Local) are literally filled with user reviews of butchers, bakers, candlestick makers, sushi bars, nightclubs, dentists, and dog groomers. Amazon even encourages its customers not only to rate the products they sell, but also to post their own product photos.
Why so much UGC out there? UGC makes it easy for the owners of shopping, guide, travel, and other product and services-oriented websites to constantly add fresh new content. And users trust it. In study after study, web users who are researching and buying online say they trust the opinions of their peers more than they trust merchants or manufacturers to point their dollars in the right direction. In fact, a UGC Nielsen study found online ratings and reviews are the third most trusted source of marketing, period, following direct word-of-mouth and newspaper ads.
UGC doesn’t only exist on review and merchant sites, of course. Wikipedia, Mahalo, and Knol are user-constructed knowledge resources. Flickr, Picasa, and Photobucket accept photos from anyone; YouTube does likewise with video. Any (or all) of these could contain information about your brand, products, or services...and even link back to your site.
Within the context of SEO, it’s important to consider a number of factors when it comes to user-generated content, as follows:
• Consider adding UGC to your own site. UGC creates trust and loyalty. It offers visitors deeper information. And it offers you, the site owner, a constantly updated source of fresh content (think spider bait!). You can create community and at the same time boost search engine visibility. There’s an extra keyword-related benefit to this type of UGC, too. Users are likely to make spelling mistakes, and even misspell brand and product names. Let them! Common misspellings will help a searcher who’s made the same error in a search query land on your site.
• If you go the user-generated content route, make sure the structure of this site section’s URLs and templates adhere to basic SEO best practices. Predefine keyword-rich categories, topics, and tags. An additional benefit of UGC is the opportunity to “listen” to consumers discussing you in their terms, which can go far when it comes to keyword strategy. It’s also a good idea to come up with ideas to encourage people to post. Contests are always popular (best travel photo, or most unusual place you used this product, for example).
• A drawback of UGC is that it can attract spam or create a need for moderation. The good news is you needn’t do it all yourself over time. Reward your most loyal posters with special status. Throw a few perks their way, and confer upon them powers to help keep the community in order.
• Create UGC elsewhere. With sites out there offering user reviews of everything from wine to accountants and college professors, it’s likely your product or service has been reviewed somewhere, too. Moreover, there’s absolutely nothing stopping you from creating UGC yourself and posting it on relevant sites. Don’t go overboard with complimenting yourself, for heaven’s sake, but use UGC opportunities to get your name, keywords, optimized images, and multimedia material—and don’t forget those all-important links—out there. If users can do it, you can, too.
• Ask your customers and clients to help, too. There are plenty of polite ways to do this, such as a gentle nudge in an e-mail with a link to the appropriate review channel. A hair salon in my neighborhood has a small sign next to the cash register encouraging its clients to review its services on Citysearch, if they’re satisfied.
• Of course, asking customers and clients to review your services or products cuts both ways. Customers aren’t satisfied 100 percent of the time, and certainly, reviews can be negative. But bear in mind that unbiased reviews are what lends the review process so much credibility. No one and nothing is perfect for everyone. Users trust reviews precisely because they offer frank and unvarnished opinions. But don’t lose too much sleep over a potential negative mention or two. First, it would happen anyway. And second, according to review software provider Bazaarvoice, some 80 percent of all consumer reviews garner 4 or 5 stars. Those numbers alone indicate that the benefits far outweigh the advantages—and that’s before SEO even enters the picture.