In the world of marketing, where content is king, user generated content (UGC) is above all. According to the stats, nearly 90% of the customers read online reviews before making the final purchase, UGC has become a need of the hour for the brand. It helps in increasing conversion rates and thereby, sales and traffic.
The list of benefits of UGC includes increased user engagement and interaction, improves the brand image, increase conversion rates and boost customer traffic and so on, but here is how UGC improves SEO strategy to boost sales and traffic in a simplified form.
1. User Generated Content (UGC) Benefits Search Engines by Providing New and Unique Content
SEO’s basic demand is a daily influx of fresh, relevant, and unique content, which also forms part of the content marketing strategy. To improve search engine rankings, a brand needs to provide authentic content that benefits the customers and users at large.
First, being able to create UGC and then aggregating it in the best possible manner is the best content any brand can come up with these days. As brand’s users create the content, the brand’s need to put such content out in front of other users to see and get them influenced.
UGC eliminates the tension among marketers to come up with new content ideas and acts as the most excellent tool for SEO experts to optimize the search engine results.
2. Helps in Creating Brand Awareness
The basic mediums through which a user can discover a brand is through search engines, social media networks, review sites, emails or through the brand’s online community. Once they get to know about your presence, the next thing they approach is Google.
The search engine results page (SERP) is the first thing that creates an image of your brand in the user’s mind. The higher your SERP’s position, the better that image would be. It’s a known fact, the majority of the users only look up at first-page search results, not even bothering to go beyond that to the next pages. It is the reason brands are constantly working upon bringing their content show up on the very first page.
They follow the latest SEO tactics to get them there anyhow by using specific keywords, try long-form content, snippet form content, and others. Not to forget, what they need to focus on is UGC to bring up their search engine rankings. Using UGC links that redirect them to Youtube videos showing user testimonials and reviews of products is one of the best ways to create your way up.
Brand awareness and SEO go hand in hand, and UGC helps a great deal in the attainment of the same. Social media channels are the prime contributors to UGC as well as creating brand awareness. Thus, these four elements can be interconnected to increase sales and traffic to your brand’s website.
3. Enlightens You on Long-tail Keywords
Long-tail keywords are such keywords that are most searched by users and are easy to be ranked higher for. Users use such keywords, but most brands are unaware of the same and hence not targeted by the brands.
Getting ranked higher in search results with such keywords is easy. For instance, it is common for beauty brands to use keywords like shampoos for hair, skin cleansers, makeup tutorials, and hence its highly difficult to rank high in such keywords.
On the other hand, if the brands resort to using long-tail keywords like shampoos for dry and frizzy hair, skin cleansers for dry skin, or makeup tutorials for beginners, there are higher chances of their product being shown up as these keywords are used less and thereby face less competition.
Any brand can hunt for such long-tail keywords in UGC. The words the user uses to communicate with its brands in the UGC can highlight their woes, wants, and needs, and such keywords can be incorporated for on-site SEO.
4. User Generated Content (UGC) in a Form of Reviews Helps in Increasing Sales and Leads
UGC helps convert your leads into sales. UGC, in the way of reviews, ratings given by peers, or other users of the brand, provides greater leverage than those provided by influencers/professionals or experts.
As customers tend to read online reviews before buying a product online, it’s essential for a brand not to lose an opportunity to get their products reviewed by its users. Also, coming up with customer success stories and case studies can help in creating a buzz about your brand and leads to increased sales.
UGC can also be used to support after-sale services by creating support content like FAQs, forum postings, knowledgebase articles, and such. These types of content are framed from UGC and help both users and brands in sorting out after-sale queries.
Also, according to the research organization, Nielsen, including FAQs, can help in improving SEO. As people search for queries and not for solutions, incorporating the right keywords and optimized correct answers to the answers in FAQs can take users to your website directly.
User Generated Content (UGC) in Summary
To conclude, using UGC in the right direction can prove to be a beneficial SEO strategy that can improve sales and traffic to your brand’s website. The online presence of your brand is highly beneficial for providing leverage toys with our brand’s success that starts from a user searching for your brand on Google.
Presenting the right image of your brand by placing positive UGC in search engine results is the way to go. However, UGC can also make things really ugly for any brand too. It would be best if you made sure no negative UGC tarnishes your brand image by hosting proper UGC and content marketing campaigns.
To find out more about content and how it can help your website, check out these articles:
- Why the Future of Content Will Be User Created & Controlled
- How Website Content Helps With SEO
- How to Reuse Content (And Save Time and Get More Traffic)
- Content Personalisation and Interactivity as Part of Your Digital Marketing Strategy
Amanda Morris
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- How User Generated Content Improves SEO, Traffic And Sales - July 13, 2020
