User-generated content (UGC) is content that users create instead of the site owner, such as reviews, forum posts, comments, photos and videos. In marketing the term also covers posts by customers about a brand. For search engines, UGC can add useful text and attract spam.
What does UGC mean for SEO?
On a site, UGC often adds text in the words customers actually use, for example questions and phrasings in reviews. The owner did not write it and can only influence its quality through moderation and clear rules.
Google addresses UGC in two places. First, it recommends marking links in user-generated content, such as comments and forum posts, with rel="ugc". Values can be combined, for example rel="ugc nofollow". Google says links marked this way will generally not be followed. Second, its spam policies list user-generated spam: spammy content added through channels meant for users, such as comment spam on blogs or spammy accounts on hosting services, often without the owner’s knowledge.
Reviews have extra rules. In its review snippet guidelines, Google does not allow reviews that are not based on a genuine experience, nor incentivized reviews that are not clearly disclosed.
Example
<a href="https://example.org/" rel="ugc nofollow">My website</a>
A comment form that outputs links with this attribute tells Google the owner does not editorially endorse those links.
Common mistakes
- Comments and profiles without moderation collect spam and link drops.
- Links in user posts without
rel="ugc"ornofollow. - Thin pages that consist almost only of unedited user posts (opinion).
FAQ
What does UGC stand for? User-generated content.
Is UGC good for SEO? It can add relevant text, but quality varies and spam is a risk. Moderation and link attributes address both.
Sources
- Qualify your outbound links to Google – Google Search Centraldevelopers.google.com
- Spam policies for Google web search (user-generated spam) – Google Search Centraldevelopers.google.com
- Review snippet structured data – Google Search Centraldevelopers.google.com
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