User-Generated Content: Do You Need It?

There are a lot of pros when it comes to user-generated content. Google loves it, people love it, and it can be very beneficial for SEO. And yet there are quite a few pitfalls as well. Should you risk it?

User-generated content for SEO and everything else

Every website depends on content. Good design is important, and yet you can’t win users over just with your good looks. When people search for something, they search for quality content; the more — the better. And while generating your own content is great, a lot of websites “employ” their users to create content. It’s fast, free, and can greatly help bring in even more visitors

But let’s not forget that not every user will bring in quality content. Even worse, a lot will share harmful things that can hurt your website. That’s why you’ll have to moderate every single thing your users post. It can be exhausting, and you won’t be able to do it alone as your site grows. And if you plan to make user-generated content the crux of your content, you have to think about cultivating the quality and weeding out all the bad stuff. And knowing the Internet, there’ll be a lot of bad stuff. Do you need the hassle? It’s up to you.

There are pre-moderation and automatic moderation, but they are far from perfect. It’s your choice what to use, but moderation is necessary because when users submit false and unverified info, it can damage your website’s reputation and even permanently hurt its SERP ranking. Negativity and hostility in comments can also be harmful, so be on guard.