What is User Generated Content

There are many different types of content on the average website, content that is not directly created by you or your team. But from the users of the website itself, can be referred to as user generated content. This content can be of additional use for many purposes, but it creates extra work and is often annoying. Let's take a look at how to deal with user generated content and what forms it can take.

User-generated content makes up a large portion of the content on some websites, and social media naturally relies on this content. But should you allow user-generated content on your website? And how can you deal with it if you do allow it? That's what we're going to find out in this article.

User-generated content in the form of comments or messages.

User-generated content can come in a variety of forms, the most visible on the web are often news stories, reactions, or comments on news stories. These comments can be a response to a question in an article, a complaint, or a compliment. And they can be appreciated by other visitors who want to see a second opinion or confirmation of an opinion, for example. This can often be interpreted positively or negatively, but as always with these things, people are more inclined to formulate a negative opinion. This is exactly how it works.

Comments and messages are already possible in most content management systems, and you can choose whether and how to display them on your site. We always recommend that you put every incoming message online, and not have them automatically put online without further control. And not to put them online automatically without further control. Also, sometimes the messages pose a security risk to your other visitors. A common way to spread malware is to simply link to it on other websites. If this is posted online immediately without further moderation, it is possible that your valuable visitors will come into contact with malware indirectly through your website. Unwanted, of course.

The positive side of posts and comments on your blog posts or articles is the interaction that occurs between your visitors and yourself. This in turn creates a more emotional and personal connection that you wouldn't have without the comments. For example, in a skate review, you can say that you bought the skates after reading the review and that they are perfect. You can also be asked for other information that you may have forgotten. This way, your post can grow naturally and thus have more content and responses than before. Something that is also positive.

Other user generated content

There are also entire websites that rely on user-generated content, such as review websites, forums, and community websites like social media. All of this content is valuable in various forms and can be used for your website as well. For example, businesses often set up a support forum on a subdomain. And often let customers help each other. This often has less value than an individual, high-quality comments page.

Maintaining and controlling this

Maintaining and moderating user-generated content is a must for any form of it, because once you release user-generated content, taboo content will quickly take its place. Either deliberately by malicious people or unknowingly by bots spreading harmful content. It is therefore important that you take some precautions to prevent this from happening. You do this by adding protection against bots to forms and comments, reviewing each form of content yourself, and consulting various sources before posting any content.

You do this by setting different rules for publishing this content and already filtering out much of the spam. A good way to avoid this is to immediately filter out any content with a link and move it to the trash. This way you can better gauge the current messages and give them a little more time to respond. Once the responses increase and you can't handle it alone, you can also ask regular people in that community to become moderators. This way, any small community will grow and the most engaged visitors will be rewarded.

Is user-generated content good in the eyes of Google?

User generated content should always be marked as such in the eyes of Google by adding the necessary meta tags. And taking some precautions. With a few technical changes, you can ensure that this doesn't lead to a negative result. The benefits of user-generated content explained earlier in this article also apply to Google. The interaction seen in an article can lead to a small advantage in organic search results.

You also need to make sure that the content is of high quality. Once your user-generated content contains spelling errors, incites violence, or does other unpleasant things, Google AdSense may also think negatively of it. You are ultimately responsible for what is displayed on your website. Always keep this in mind when giving third parties access to edit and publish content on your site.

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