User-generated content, also known as UGC, refers to text, audio, video, or image crafted by your patrons. Not only does it indicate brand quality – 86% of millennials say so – but it can help boost your e-commerce SEO as well.
If you want to take advantage of this authentic and customer-centric opportunity, then you need to follow these 6 tips on how to use UGC to your advantage.
Present a Wide Array of Content
E-commerce SEO, as with other types of websites, capitalizes on good content. Nowadays, it’s more than just publishing good articles, as Google places importance on a wide array of media.
Should you find yourself lazy to create content – especially videos – remember this: it can help boost your e-commerce SEO. According to Bliss Drive SEO eCommerce, Google considers this as a determiner for rich media content.
For best results, you need to come up with a perfect balance between text, images, audio, and video.
Capitalize on Rich Snippets
When buyers use search engines, they are usually treated to a snippet – a single result that includes the page’s title, description, and URL. It helps put everything in a nutshell.
If you want to further improve your e-commerce SEO, then you should gun for a rich snippet. This shows your page’s star ratings. More than just making your store stand out, this space-consuming detail could increase your clickthrough rates by as much as 30%.
What’s great about a rich snippet is that it does not require a lot from your website. All you need is one review and a proper markup.
Having pertinent details such as price, product availability, reviews, and ratings will greatly assist Google in making a rich snippet for your business.
To ensure that your page is marked up correctly, make use of Google’s Structured Data Testing program.
Create a Reviews Page
A lot of users are now searching for the “best product” and “company reviews”. Consumers are no longer blind to ads and other marketing techniques. Now, they want products that fellow users have bought and loved.
That’s why you need to have a dedicated review page. This will help incorporate all review content, whether it refers to your brand or your products.
For best results, make use of this hyperlink: yourwebsite.com/reviews. This will help Google annex your reviews for your rich snippet, among many other things.
It’s best to make use of a carousel format as it shows user-uploaded photos and reviews all at one page.
Go for Google Seller Ratings
A paid search strategy can also help you use UGC for rankings. If you have Google Ads, make use of Google Store Ratings. This will show your site’s brand ratings, as well as the brand review aggregate scores.
To qualify, you need to have a star rating of at least 3.5. As for your brand review, it needs to detail the users’ site or shopping experience and the quality of customer service that they have received.
With the help of Google Seller Ratings, your Google ad can stand out from the crowd. As expected, this could lead to increased clickthrough rates for your campaigns.
Use UGC for Google Shopping
Google Shopping is something that you can maximize, especially if you work with a trusted partner. After all, it can generate a lot of traffic for brands, especially targeting customers who have defined search intent.
Like Google Seller ratings, Google Shopping can help improve your ads by placing ratings for each item.
To qualify for this feature, you need to have at least 50 reviews for all of your products. If there is a certain item that you wish to promote, it needs to have at least three reviews.
Most importantly, you need to add unique identifiers to send to Google. Such process is called Google Matching.
Focus on UGC for Social Optimization
70% of customers look up products on Facebook or Instagram before they buy them. There is no doubt that social media can greatly help with your business, so it’s but essential that you use UGC for this.
One of the ways to do this is to use specific terms instead of broad ones. This will help you seek out the customers that are actively looking for them. For example, using the term “floral dress” will be better than just “dress” alone.
You could also check your social media site comments, customer reviews, or customer service tickets for the terms clients use to describe your products.
Using any of these will help improve clickthrough rates, intent traffic, and conversions. More importantly, this could lead to lower product returns as well.
UGC is very useful to online store owners. For one, user reviews can give you snippets that attract more browsers. It could also make your Google Ads and Seller Ratings more visible to clients.
With these benefits, UGC is definitely something you could use to boost your e-commerce SEO.
Interesting related article: “What is Content Marketing?”