Q& A section - SEO perspective

[rbai]

We have a software in our website where customers can ask questions and it will send questions to people who already bought it to get answers. The answers are there in each item page. So each item page has item description , reviews, and Q&A sections. We get lot of questions and answers and software is great but we don't know if it really is helping us for the huge price we are paying them. In an SEO perspective will it help due to content or will it dilute main keywords due to the Q&A content?

Thanks

RB

[OlegKorneitchouk]

Could go both ways. If the questions are relevant and well written, it should improve your SEO (and more importantly, conversions). You can search for "ugc seo" to see many analysis and perspectives on the topic.

Is it worth the price? Depends on how much you are paying and the ROI you get from it. I could see this paying off on an ecommerce site.

[Toddfoster]

Hello RB,

In short, the technical SEO value of this product/service is relatively small. You are working with dynamic content which "should" be no-followed, meaning you won't be generating much link value from it. If you do not take this precaution, you risk having irrelevant spam on your site, especially if you are not moderating it. Even if you are, this process can become very time intensive as your user base increases.

On the flip side, your CRO and user interaction metrics may improve as a result of providing this to your users. Oleg is on the money when he says the conversion rate is likely to improve as a result of this kind of product on your website. It is all about implementation and how users interact with your site.

If they are inclined towards helping out their fellow community members and providing quality analysis and feedback, you are golden. If not, it may not be worth the price (especially if you are asking questions like this).

I would consider implementing A/B testing using some pages with this service and some pages without - ideally on pages that have similar metrics. Run this test for a few months (or as long as you think it will take to get decent analysis) and determine whether your conversion rates are better with or without the software. If they are better, consider how much better they are, and determine whether those increases in sales validate the need for the product.

At this point, it's all about conversions and ROI rather than technical SEO.

[Guest]

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[ronell-smith]

The key question here, which Josh nailed with his response, isn't simply about SEO. It's about whether or not the audience finds the information useful. That's the best information for ordering your steps.

The more pages - deep, rich (valuable) content is part of the goal - the better, assuming your topics are varied enough to provide needed depth AND retain overall value on the topic.

But, back to the main issue: How is your brand benefitting from this information? It could be in innumerable ways to boost all of your online marketing efforts. For example, based on the questions being asked, you could discern which new products to create, which current products should be updated and which features are likely to be met with the highest approval.

I'd suggest gathering the team and brainstorming around the questions and answers being asked to develop (a) content ideas, (b) ways in which you could better serve existing customers and (c) how the brand could do a better job of attracting customers who might be interested about your products or services.

RS