There is a fuel source for ecommerce that is infinite and expansive: user-generated content. Unlike the finite oil resources, user-generated content or UGC is available for free by the barrel and it’s not going to melt the polar ice caps.
UGC represents a regular flow of fresh content for your site. Depending on the site traffic, users could be uploading fresh, product-relevant content every day for you. Not only would they be supplying content, but they would also be representing the customer perspective for your brand. Having customers write reviews and product content, as well as asking/answering questions, can do a lot to bolster your site for search engine marketing.
Can customer reviews boost my site’s SEO credentials?
Done intelligently, of course they can! User-generated content is something I’m asked about most often through Little Big Voice because people are unsure of this variable. And of course…Google loves regularly updated and unique content…and lots of it.
Customer reviews can have huge benefits for search and click-through-rates. Think about it; when someone wants to buy something and they’re unsure about it, they’ll ask their friends. Online shopping works slightly differently but on the same principle.
When a customer is looking for reasons to buy, they will search for product X plus review
- Macbook Pro review
- Samsung Galaxy S2 review
- iPhone 4S review
Having terms your product name plus review incorporated into your product pages and keywords will give you a huge boost for SEO. Look at the following Amazon customer review format for the Macbook Pro:
5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome!, 5 Mar 2011
By Midnight – See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)
This review is from: New Apple Macbook Pro 13 inch Notebook (Intel Core i5 Dual Core 2.3GHz, 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD, Up to 7 hrs battery life) – Launched February 2011 (Personal Computers)
The format of this review puts the product name into every review on its page. Customers can access a vast resource of customer reviews on Amazon to give them better information to make their purchase.
Trust me, I’m a salesman…
Building trust online can be a difficult thing to do. Users on an ecommerce site are usually in a rush to buy and don’t want to mess around. It’s important to establish trust straight away to build relationships with your customers; building trust and furthering it will lead your customers to click through and ultimately convert.
User reviews are the equivalent of positive word of mouth. If a customer can see reviews from other people who purchased your site’s products, they can accurately gauge their experiences to weigh them positively or negatively. Using these reviews as a reference, they can then make a more informed and trust-based purchase.
Reevoo data suggests that having 50 or more customer reviews can increase conversion rates by 4.6 per cent; this shows the power of user-generated content for any ecommerce site looking to increase both its SERP, CTR and conversion rates.
Little Big Voice can give you advice on the best ways to mine the customer content resource and best practices for indexing your information correctly for maximum effectiveness.
Paul
