I have been asked many times by various clients as to how can they get lots of traffic and lots of backlinks to their website? The answer although looks difficult is really simple- have user generated content on the site. But sadly enough, not many of my clients have implemented this suggestion but those who did simply raised the traffic and conversions on their site.
Having user generated content on your site is an added responsibility. The biggest problem that you will face is SPAM. Most of the time, user generated content contributes to a lot of spam so additional measures and filters needs to be applied before you can start experiencing the benefits of this set up.
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| Leverage the power of user generated content (Image credit: silvercreativegroup.com) |
Why Should I Allow Users to Post Content On My Site?
The World Wide Web and search engines lives on content. The more quality content you have on your site, the better is the chances of your website ranking for a wide range of queries thereby increasing traffic and conversions. Also, people who will add content on your site will simply link back to it from their social media profiles, blogs or any other resources which they might own. The result is lots of FREE content and natural backlinks.
How Should I Allow Users to Add Content on My Site?
There are various ways through which you can allow the users to add content on your site. You can start a Forum/QA/Articles section and let the user register and submit content.
What Precautions Should I Take?
SPAM is the biggest problem behind user generated stuff. So, have a better spam prevention system in place that will restrict the users from submitting spam. Some of the measures you can use are given below:
1- Allow moderator approved article submission.
2- Add Captcha in the user registration form.
3- Allow users to submit a real photo and their Google Plus profile link.
4- Track the IP address etc.
The Content Approval Strategy
Your content approval strategy should be of high quality. The editor must approve only high quality and spam free posts, answers or articles. Neglecting this approval process and having lots of spammy or low quality/thin content articles can damage the reputation of your site doing more harm than benefit.
It is true that having user generated content is one of the easiest and best ways to increase your brand value, trust, backlinks, content etc. But, keep the above best practices in mind before you start accepting content from unknown authors.
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