Practice
User-generated content (UGC)
User-generated content is any content about a business created by its customers rather than by the business — reviews, photos, tips, and social posts.
Reviews are the highest-value form because they are indexed, attributed, and read at the decision point. Customer photos on a Google profile are the second, and often outnumber owner photos on active listings.
UGC is also the training data AI assistants draw on when summarising a business, which makes its accuracy a distribution issue rather than only a reputation one.
In practice
Encourage photos as well as text, and reply to photo reviews specifically — they get outsized impressions on Maps.
Common questions
- Can I use customer reviews on my website?
- Yes, with attribution and without editing the substance. If you display them as testimonials, FTC rules on truthful representation apply.