6 Reasons Why You Need User-Generated Content
November 26, 2007 - Written by Gyutae Park
User generated content is basically anything on your site that enables visitors to publish something publicly. This can come in the form of blog and forum posts, comments, and multimedia uploads.
Why you need user-generated content
Many times you may feel that you want complete control over the content of your site, and in some instances this is totally appropriate. Controversial sales pages come to mind. However, in most cases, user-generated content can be beneficial in a variety of ways. We’ll go into the advantages below:
- More activity
With user generated content, there is more activity on your site. Frequent updates lead to visitors constantly coming back for more. - Builds community
A community builds a loyal user base which is fantastic as a long term site strategy. - Less work
User-generated content means less work for you, the webmaster or publisher. With visitors contributing their own thoughts and ideas, this frees you up to focus on marketing and promotion. - Fresh perspectives
If you’re running a blog, comment gives readers the ability to disagree or add points that you may have missed in the post. This allows for a big picture outlook and a more comprehensive site or blog. - SEO value for content and misspellings
With user-generated content comes different styles of writing (including misspellings) which are great from an SEO perspective. This is an effective and safe method to help your site rank for keywords that you may not have been able to rank for if user-generated content did not exist. - Feedback for improvement
Finally, user-generated content also allows for collaborative feedback from visitors of your site. This will help you to see what’s working and what’s not and to improve your site by increasing traffic and revenue.
How are you using user generated content to improve your site?
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User generated content is great for improving the website- I think mine is ace, but without the views of a few commentators, I wouldn’t change a thing
Number 4 is important to me. I like to hear my audiences opinions so that I can attempt to create more relevant articles in the future. It also lets me know that my posts are actually being read.
Yep, new perspectives are always important. Sometimes we get caught up with our own views and beliefs that we sometimes forget why we do things. Same goes for blogging.
Great posts. I also agree that fresh perspectives are very important for blogs, maybe the most important part. I get stuck in a rut every once and a while, so it would help me.
I think user generated content is HUGE for any blog…it helps to keep things fresh especially when someone’s criticisms causes you to work hard to be better!