What does Google want?! That’s the question of the year decade, my friend. With Google’s constantly changing algorithms, it’s hard to really know what they’re looking for in terms of search rankings. Do we want better meta keywords? Nah, a thing of the past. How about if we just add MORE pages to our site? … Whoa, slow your horses. Well then what about just linkbaiting?! Oh no. Just stop.
Everyone has their own idea about what might work best but there is a trend, a solution that almost everyone agrees on – keeping your site up to date with fresh content. Fresh content makes the world go round. At least, that’s what Google is telling us to believe these days so don’t ask questions. Seriously, they’re ~watching.
Sure, sure. We know you’re busy and generating new content for your site is probably low on your priority list. Ain’t nobody got time for that. So let’s think about this. What is the easiest and cheapest way to gather new content?
User-generated content (UGC), hands-down. User-generated content is exactly what it sounds like – content (blogs, photos, tweets, podcasts, digital images, video, audio, etc.) that is created by the users of an online platform.
Successful companies have been utilizing UGC for years. One of the most notable recent examples of how UGC helped drive business is Coca Cola. Everyone knows those Coke bottles with the names printed on them.
When Coke first rolled out those bottles, they asked people to “Share a Coke” – a genius move to get people to upload images of Coca Cola products to social media. According to Wall Street Journal, after 11 years of declining sales, total revenue raised 2% in 2011. Pretty huge when we’re talking billions.
With Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and more recently, Snapchat, user-generated content has never been easier to gather. If a consumer has the opportunity to engage with a product, they are more likely to identify with it and find the value in it. Cha ching.