Rel=”ugc” Attributes Should be Used on Links that Exist on UGC Pages, Not Links Pointing to UGC Pages
The rel=ugc attribute is meant to only be used on links that are contained within a page that has user-generated content on it. You don’t need to add this attribute to links from other pages that point to a page that contains user-generated content.
Prevent Search Engines From Crawling Low Quality UGC
When working with user-generated content, John recommends filtering out high quality pages to ensure search engines are able to see this rather than the lower quality content.
Google Doesn’t Differentiate Between UGC & Other Content
Google doesn’t differentiate between UGC and the other content on a website, so it is important to control how low-quality UGC is dealt with.
Google Ignores Links from User-generated Content
Google is able to identify and ignore links pointing to other websites within user-generated or auto-generated content.
Comments Can Be an Indirect Ranking Factor
Article comments sometimes contain useful, relevant text content which match user intent, so the page they’re included could be more likely to be shown in search. There is not a direct correlation between comments and rankings, however.
High-quality Comments Can Add Value to a Page
Comments on blog posts and articles are viewed as page content, and should only be disabled if posts are attracting a large number of low-quality comments that can’t be managed. Comments are also valuable for community building.
Google Ignores Links from User-generated Content
Google is able to identify and ignore links pointing to other websites within user-generated or auto-generated content.
Index User-Generated Content if it Provides Value
It is fine to index user-generated content, such as comments, but it is up to webmasters if they think that it is valuable content that should be visible to search engines. In the case of comments, it might make sense to block them from being crawled and indexed.
Sites Reliant on UGC Should be Mindful of Content Quality Across Site
Sites with a strong focus on user-generated content can struggle to maintain a high quality of content across the site.