In this day and age, customers want to be more than just consumers. They want to be involved with brands and websites in order to be a part of the production of what they buy. These new types of consumers are known as prosumers. Collaboration has changed the face of marketing, which has come to include what is referred to as user generated content (UGC). By taking advantage of UGC, websites can improve search results and conversion rates.

The Benefits of User Generated Content for Your Company

UGC benefits companies with an online presence in a variety of ways. For one, UGC supplies your website with tons of relevant, great content. People can look through the content to get information about a product or service from real customers rather than marketers. UGC also allows you to get valuable feedback from your customers and provide better customer service. When you provide UGC on your website, it makes your customers feel as if they are stakeholders in your company and brings them back again and again because it creates a sense of community.

One of the pioneers of User Generated Content is Amazon.com. Amazon introduced ratings, customer reviews, discussion forums, tags, and many other forms of UGC. The reviews that users contribute certainly help to sell products and many people rely heavily on reviews from trusted, established Amazon UGC contributors. The Vine program is a new program from Amazon that offers regular UGC contributors the opportunity to choose merchandise to review and keep it for free. The Vine program is a clear indication of Amazon’s dedication to providing top-notch UGC.

The Downside of User Generated Content

The problem with UGC is that a company loses control of all that is published on their site. As a result, you run the risk of being attacked by unscrupulous competitors on your own site. To prevent this from happening, your best bet is to establish UGC guidelines for members to follow and actively moderate any UGC on your site. You can see an example of great UGC guidelines on the BBC website.

How to Evaluate your User Generated Content

The same types of metrics you use to measure your SEO efforts are what you would use to evaluate your UGC. The most important areas to focus on are the quality and linkability of the content as well as brand awareness and conversations website users are having about your company. If your website looks abandoned or is lacking contributions, you need to find a way to encourage more people to participate. Tags on your User Generated Content make it easier for spiders and humans to navigate your website and find related content. You also need to target keywords in your content. It is essential to monitor what customers are saying about your company via UGC because you can measure whether they are satisfied or not with your product/service.

UGC can be a very powerful way for you to improve your site’s SEO and conversions. An increasing number of websites are utilizing UGC in order to boost revenue and more and more consumers are turning to User Generated Content as a way to get involved with the products and services they purchase. Use metrics to measure the effectiveness of your UGC campaign and ultimately improve your conversion rate as well as the overall user experience on your site.