Why User-Generated Content is Often Neglected in Ecommerce SEO

User-generated content is often neglected as an SEO strategy simply because not many recognize its value. With so many factors affecting search rankings, website owners are easily overwhelmed with the many things they need to optimize, giving them a much harder time determining the best website elements to leverage.

If you follow algorithm updates religiously, it is easier to determine which techniques to focus on and which strategies you should abandon or use more sparingly in order to help your pages rank better. One of the most recent algorithm updates introduced by Google, for instance, focuses more on conversational searches, thus encouraging website owners to generate and produce more original content through genuine authorship, social channels, and user-generated content. All these help identify users or websites as authentic resources for credible information.

Because SEO is all about relevancy, generating relevance and authenticity in the right places matters, and this should be at the forefront of your optimization strategy if you want to stay ahead of the game. User-generated content is the newest way to optimize websites for searches. Encouraging consumers to speak more about your company or brand offers a two-fold advantage, as you increase brand awareness and enhance your rankings in search results. Your new SEO strategies should therefore focus on improving your customer service and making your business more social.

Just the same, users are not SEO-experts, which means it is your job to educate them on optimization. This doesn’t necessarily mean begging them to use your keywords on their reviews and comments, but rather, making a habit of using them in your copies so that consumers will be encouraged to use them organically. There are many creative ways to make users generate relevant and keyword-rich content for your business, ranging from creating unique hash tags with keywords when sharing brand experiences, to running contests, and promoting user-generated content on your social ads.