How can you best leverage user generated content? In this entertaining talk, Richard Falconer draws on his experience working with leading user generated solution providers BazaarVoice, as well as household names such as Boots, Tesco, Play.com and Skype, to provide the inside track on how to use user generated content effectively for SEO and conversions. The session will include little known facts about how user generated content affects search results, as well as previously unpublished data and recommendations about how it impacts the way users interact with a site. Case studies from major brands will also back up the presentation.

1. Richard Falconer
@rich_falconer

2. Do you want to increase conversion
rates, improve customer loyalty and build
visibility in search while your customers
do the hard work...and enjoy it?

3. Use UGC to provide a layer of emotion to
the online retail experience.

4. The UK’s Top Sites
The top 18 non-search engine sites
in the UK according to Alexa.com

6. Allowing users to create
or curate content as well
as respond to and share
their own content and
that of others.

7. “Very good if you want to write on paper.”

8. Thanks, Daniel

10. Social Commerce

11. Customers trust...
Source: Fly Research Online Survey, March 2011

12. 90% of users trust 70% of users trust 32% of users trust
recommendations opinions posted online banner ads.
from people they online.
know.
Source: Nielsenwire

13. Who trusts consumer reviews?
Source: Fly Research Online Survey, March 2011

14. Worried?
Some common reasons for hesitancy:
• Negative reviews
• Worry about removing control from the marketing
team
• Cost of managing and monitoring the content

15. Don’t worry, embrace it...
• Marketing should be involved more than ever, UGC is
just another tool
• 88% of product ratings are 4 or 5 stars out of 5
• Products with lower scores still sell better
• ROI on reviews (and UGC in general) is high

16. • 83% of all holiday shoppers are influenced by
customer reviews
ChannelAdvisor "Consumer Shopping Habits Survey", August 2010
• Availability of user-generated or consumer product
reviews was a factor for 57% of UK shoppers
eConsultancy Survey, July 2010
• Bazaarvoice - 26% increase in conversion rates
• Reevoo - Sales uplift average 18%

18. SEO
ENGAGEMENT CONTENT

19. SEO Benefits
• Improved on-page optimisation
• Increased long-tail traffic
• Increased traffic for “review” terms
• Improved clickthrough rates from
Rich Snippets
• More Likes / Tweets etc.

20. Review Rich Snippets

21. Traffic increase as a result of
review Rich Snippets
Best Buy – 30%
Bazaarvoice – 15%
bigmouthmedia – 12%

22. Reviews SEO Investigation
Does having reviews on a site increase unpaid
referrals from search engines?
This question is more difficult to answer than you
might think.
• Reviews sit on microsites which are not linked
from the main sites
• No deliberate link development had taken place

23. Case Study 1
• > 4.5 million visits
• 82% non-paid search traffic
• 15% conversion rate increase
• No link development used

24. Case Study 2
• > 700,000 visits
• 82% non-paid search traffic
• 12% higher conversion rate
• No link development used

25. Case Study 3
• > 1 million visits
• 81% non-paid search traffic
• 18% higher conversion rate
• No link development used

26. Uniqueness
Data from

27. Google’s Panda Updates
Shopzilla.co.uk: 77%
Dooyoo.co.uk: 80%
Based on a dataset of one million keywords before and after
Panda was introduced internationally.
Stats: http://www.sistrix.com/blog/990-google-panda-on-its-way-to-europe.html
Photo: http://marksecology.blogspot.com/2011/01/angry-panda.html

28. Reviews SEO Tips
• Get unique reviews
• Display directly on your pages
• Link it correctly
• Use structured markup
• Encourage users to share externally

29. Transforming your site

30. Tip #1
You don’t need to be sexy and fun to be engaging

31. Tip #2
Request reviews from customers. Send requests
on Tuesday or Wednesday between 10am and 4pm.
Tip #2A
If you run an office, the best time to catch your staff
skiving is Tuesday or Wednesday between 10am and
4pm

32. Which would you pick?
A B
% of reviews
Number of stars

33. The reviews are from the same product.
Active Passive
% of reviews
Number of stars

34. TIP #3
Don’t host a Microsoft Party
Understand what motivates your users

35. • enjoyment of creating content
• social status
• rewards for achieving status
• self promotion
• social gratification

36. Look after your power users
Make life easy for your casual users
Love all your users
Jakob Neilsen http://www.useit.com/alertbox/participation_inequality.html

37. Wikipedia vs Knol
• Wikipedia allows you to add information
easily then editors tidy it up
• Wikipedia appeals to two
complementary types (geeks and edit
freaks)
• Knol expected you to do everything

38. TIP #4
Be different. Innovate

39. Allows users to curate and share their own style collections

40. Polyvore.com
http://www.google.com/insights/search/

41. Tip #5
Build a camera-phone not a camera & a phone

42. Encouragement to participate
should be integral to a site
• 3 Types of users
• Design the site for all three
• Incentives for power users
• Product features that make contribution easy
• One-time contribution without registration or other hassles
for “casual contributors”
• Non-contributors are great too, they make you money

44. Texts From Last Night

45. Clients From Hell

48. “A brand is no longer what
a marketer says. The
consumers now have the
power to decide what that
brand represents.”
Graham Jackson, Bazaarvoice

49. slideshare.net/a4uexpo