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20 July 2020
Gemius Report E-commerce in Poland" reports that 62% of Poles already shop online. On the Internet, Internet users also look for knowledge and opinions about the products they plan to purchase. Making an online purchase is determined not only by convenience, lower price and transaction security, but also to a large extent by the position, i.e. the visibility of the store in the Google search engine. It has long been known thathaving unique content on a website is a very important factor in the positioning of websites by the search engine.
The competition on the e-commerce market is very high, and the fight for a high position in Google is constant. At the same time, it is difficult for online stores to generate a large amount of unique and valuable content. Hundreds of pages contain duplicate descriptions of the products offered, often borrowed from manufacturers. Often the same description appears not only on competing websites, but also within the same store, e.g. in different color versions of the same product. Google treats such descriptions as duplicate content, which may reduce the chances of appearing high in organic search results for many queries.
The solution to this problem is User Generated Content, i.e. putting content creation in the hands of the user.
Example of the same description appearing on multiple pages for the product PHILIPS SERIES 5000 S5420/06
source: allegro.pl/oferta/golarka-philips-s5050-04-aquatouch-sucho-i-mokro-9024114259
source: mediaexpert.pl/agd-male/zdrowie-i-uroda/golarki/golarka-philips-s5420-06
source: morele.net/shaver-philips-s5420-06-1006234/
User Generated Content (UGC) is all content created and posted on the Internet by users. These include: photos, posts, videos, blog articles, reviews, comments, ratings and tests. It is not difficult to guess that UGC has great potential as a marketing tool that builds trust in the brand and its products. The use of UGC in the form of product opinions, comments and reviews is also an opportunity for many smaller e-commerce market players to fight for a higher position in search results.
The advantages of using UGC are many. So let's focus only on the advantages of activities that are particularly important from the point of view of the e-commerce industry, i.e. opinions and comments regarding products.
UGC benefits SEO because:
This is confirmed by data from a report by TINT, a provider of a platform for acquiring and managing UGC content “User Generated Content Marketing Report”. The experiences of surveyed marketing specialists show that UGC:
A quick look at several dozen top search results for product phrases from the cosmetics and consumer electronics/household appliances categories, e.g. Remington Your Style D5219 hair dryer or OLD SPICE Od antiperspirantor Blocker Fresh.
The analysis of 10 selected phrases shows that in the TOP 10 search results:
Of course, the analysis of 10 phrases does not in any way confirm the clickbait headline? but it shows that e-commerce sites that appear high in search results think about UGC.
Like any activity, in addition to the benefits, it carries some risks. When deciding to use opinions and comments, it is worth being aware of the partial loss of control over the content that appears on the website. Any loophole that gives users the opportunity to publish also leaves an open door to spam and duplicate content, which, if left unchecked, can seriously damage the site's reputation.
The solution to the problem is, of course, moderation of published content, but this cannot go too far. Examples of sites that, despite the presence of UGC, have significantly lost their importance are online forums and classifieds sites. Short descriptions, perfunctory answers, and the presence of comments considered spam mean that this type of content added by users is perceived by search engines as low-quality content.
If after reading the article you are still wondering whether UGC is for you, let me tell you that definitely YES. The use of UGC in the form of product opinions, comments and reviews is undoubtedly an opportunity to improve the position of e-commerce websites in search results.
When you decide to implement the ability for users to add opinions on the website, remember to:
Finally, an example of using UGC to support SEO activities and at the same time build the authenticity of the store.
empik — Become an expert and add a review!
The activities used by empik as part of the UGC strategy are:
On the empik.com website, users can add their opinions about products. Each opinion requires approval by the moderator before publication. The website allows you to filter products based on the ratings they have received, and visitors can assess whether another user's review was helpful and adequate. Additionally, empik uses mailings to encourage users who have made transactions to review the purchased products.
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