Help FORUM ( User generated content ) SEO best practices

[ydesjardins200]

Hello Moz folks !

For the very first time im dealing with a massive community who rely on UGC ( user generated content ). Their forum is finding a great deal of duplicate content/broken link/ duplicate title and on-site issue. I have Advance SEO knowledge related to ecommerce or blogging but new to forum and UGC.

I would really love to learn or get ressources links that would allow me to see/understand the best practices in term of SEO. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Best,

Yan

[Ray-pp]

do logged in-user and anonymous user should have the same behavior ?

For the most part, yes, however it depends on the forum you are running. The important piece to understand is that whatever is hidden behind a login wall, remains hidden to the search engines. So, you have to weigh that factor when deciding which content to display to everyone versus the content to display to only logged in users.

How do you suggest handling canonical in a UGC world ?

Canonicalization isn't too hard to manage. Your forum software should include canonical URLs, but if not you will want those implemented into the template as soon as possible. The use of the rel=prev and rel=next tags are highly recommended. This allows you to keep the main forum thread as the canonical URL and Google understands that the subsequent pages are related to the main page and how they add value.

Do you have specific editorial guidelines enforced on UGC ?

Again, that's up to you and your community. What work editorially for one forum may not be the most desirable for another (e.g. the use of profanity). As long as the content being added is of value, then I consider it good content. With forums, you can be a lot more loose with the guidelines and allow users to interact as they desire.

Don't let your forum become infested with Spam, obvious self-promoting threads, and make sure all links are nofollow. Many forums implement restrictions on users in regards to links and only when they prove themselves can they add links to their posts. Link and Spam management are very important for forums.

[ydesjardins200]

Thanks Ray-PP,

Is there any specific ? Exemple , do logged in-user and anonymous user should have the same behavior ? How do you suggest handling canonical in a UGC world ? Do you have specific editorial guidelines enforced on UGC ? Exemple should we noindex a post with a 3 word question and an image ?

Cheers,

Yan

[Ray-pp]

Hello Yan,

Fortunately, the on-site SEO for UGC is not very different from the on-site SEO of other forms of content. We can still apply those best-practices to the forums and UGC you're experiencing in forums.

Duplicate content / on-page factors

• Make sure the forum is using proper canonicalization
• use of rel=prev/next for paginated threads
• Semantic SEO where appropriate
• Make sure to have all on-page SEO factors optimized (title, headings, images optimized, ect)

Broken links

• Use Moz or a tool like Screaming Frog SEO Spider to identify 404 pages. Redirect any important pages with a 301 to its nearest related page (save SEO authority for the important dead pages).

Are there more specific issues you are experiencing with the forum?