Key Highlights
- WordPress handles UGC through a mix of built-in features, your theme or page builder, and plugins, depending on the type.
- Choose the type of UGC that best fits your business, whether it's testimonials, reviews, communities, comments, guest posts, videos or FAQs.
- Review every submission before publishing to ensure it is accurate, relevant and aligned with your brand.
- Look beyond your website. Customer feedback from Google, social media, emails and newsletters can all be repurposed into valuable website content.
Keeping a WordPress website active takes time. Between publishing blog posts, updating service pages and creating social content, there's always something new to work on.
The good news is that your customers are already creating valuable content about your business: reviews, testimonials, comments, questions, videos and social posts. That's called user-generated content (UGC), and with the right process, it can become a valuable addition to your content strategy.
But UGC isn't one thing. Each type works differently and needs its own way of adding it to your WordPress site. In this article, we'll explore the different types of user-generated content, how they benefit your business and the best ways to add each one to your WordPress site.
What is User-generated content (UGC)
User-generated content (UGC) is any content your customers create instead of you. Reviews, testimonials, comments, forum posts, videos and FAQ answers all count as UGC.
It comes with a few clear benefits for your WordPress site:
- It looks fresh: New content lands on your site without you writing it.
- It's affordable: You are not paying a writer or spending hours planning topics.
- It saves you the content grind: Your customers give you the material, so you do not have to keep coming up with new ideas.
- It builds trust: A real review from a real customer carries more weight than anything you write about yourself.
- It helps your SEO: Since you keep the content fresh and different people are vouching for you through various content, search engines will trust your website and rank it higher.
For example, imagine a customer leaves a detailed comment explaining how they used your product to solve a problem. Instead of letting that insight sit in your reviews, you could ask if they'd like to share more about their experience. With their permission, that feedback could become a customer story, case study or guest article on your WordPress site, to give future customers practical examples of how your product is used.
Which Type of User-Generated Content Is Right for Your Business?
Not every type of user-generated content is right for every business. The right type of UGC depends on your business, your audience and how customers interact with your brand.
WordPress offers several ways to collect, manage and display user-generated content using built-in features and plugins. Below are seven of the most effective types of UGC and how you can add each one to your WordPress site.
1. Testimonials
Testimonials are comments from customers about their experience with your business. They can be a short quote, a few paragraphs explaining the results they achieved, or even a detailed customer story. They're one of the strongest trust signals you can add to your website because they show potential customers that real people have used and recommend your business.
The easiest way to collect testimonials is to ask for them after completing a project, delivering a service or selling a product. You can send a follow-up email, include a feedback form on your website or ask satisfied customers if you can use a review they've already written. If someone shares a detailed success story, ask if they'd be happy for you to turn it into a case study or customer story.
How to add testimonials to WordPress
Adding testimonials is straightforward, but the exact steps depend on your WordPress theme and builder.
- If you use the WordPress block patterns, some themes include a testimonial pattern under Patterns in the block inserter. You can drop this onto any page and edit the text, name and photo directly.
- If your theme doesn't include one, a plugin gives you more control. Plugins like PublishPress Blocks or Easy Testimonial Blocks add a dedicated testimonial block to the editor, and some also let you collect submissions through a front-end form for approval before publishing.
- If you're using a page builder such as Elementor or Divi, check for a built-in testimonial widget first. Most major builders include one by default, so you may not need a separate plugin at all.
2. Reviews
Reviews are open feedback from customers, usually attached to a star rating and linked to a specific product or service. Unlike a testimonial, a review typically shows every rating, good and bad, which is part of what makes it credible to a new visitor.
How to add reviews to WordPress
If you run a WooCommerce store, you can enable product reviews from your store settings, allowing customers to leave ratings and comments on product pages.
For service-based businesses, you can display reviews from platforms such as Google using a WordPress plugin. Many plugins automatically sync your latest reviews, while others let you manually select and display reviews on your homepage, service pages or a dedicated reviews page.
3. Communities
In the age of Reddit, Facebook Groups and Discord, you don't need convincing that communities work. A single discussion thread can produce dozens of points of view, real customer questions and even people willing to write for you, all content you didn't have to create yourself.
However, a successful community doesn't happen simply because you install a forum on your website. People join communities because they receive ongoing value, whether that's expert advice, exclusive resources, networking opportunities or a place to learn from others.
Give members a reason to keep returning. Award points or badges for participating, active discussion, answering another member's question, and let members see their own progress. This kind of visible reward keeps a community active instead of going quiet after the first week.
How to add communities to WordPress
Once you have a plan, WordPress makes the technical setup much easier. A full community usually needs more than one plugin working together: a forum plugin such as bbPress for discussion threads, paired with BuddyPress for member profiles and activity feeds.
Most community plugins come with the basics you need day to day: user profiles, discussion groups, private messaging, notifications, a member directory and moderation tools to remove posts that don't belong. Some also add badges or achievements, so members get recognised for showing up and taking part.
The plugin provides the platform, but it's the value you deliver and the conversations you encourage that turn it into a thriving community.
4. Comments
Comments are one of the easiest ways to add user-generated content to your WordPress site. Every question, opinion or suggestion left by a visitor adds fresh content to your pages and encourages further discussion
Comments work best on your WordPress blogs, news articles and educational content where readers are likely to ask questions or share their own experiences. To encourage meaningful discussions, end your articles with a question or invite readers to share their thoughts in the comments.
How to add comments to WordPress
WordPress includes a built-in commenting system, so you don't need to install a plugin to get started. To enable comments your wordpress:
- Go to Settings → Discussion and turn on commenting for your website.
You can also choose whether comments require approval before they're published. Approvals help you filter out spam and inappropriate content.
Once comments are enabled, remember to moderate them regularly. Replying to genuine questions, removing spam and encouraging helpful discussions will create a better experience for your readers and keep your comment section valuable.
5. Users' Posts
Some of your customers are writers, or want to be. Letting them submit blog posts gets you real content without paying for it, and gives the writer exposure, often with a link back to their own site or work.
How to add user-submitted posts to WordPress
Don't give contributors access to your WordPress dashboard. Instead, use a front-end submission form where users can upload their article and images. Their submission is saved as a draft, allowing you to review, edit and approve it before publishing.
Tip: With AI tools making content creation easier than ever, review every submission before publishing. Check that it's accurate, original, relevant to your audience and reflects your brand.
6. Users' Videos
Video works the same way as user posts, but it goes further. A short video from a customer gives you free content, and video tends to convert better than a written review since it shows the product or service in real use, not just describes it. The customer gets exposure for their video in return.
How to add user-submitted posts to WordPress
Paste a YouTube link directly into a post or page. WordPress recognises the link automatically and embeds the video, no plugin or extra step needed.
7. Customer questions and FAQs
Every question a customer asks is a valuable piece of user-generated content. If several people ask the same question about your products or services, there's a good chance future customers will want the answer too. Instead of replying each time individually, turn those questions into a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page.
Review enquiries from your contact form, emails, live chat, blog comments and sales conversations to identify common questions.
How to add FAQs to WordPress
You can create a dedicated FAQ page or add FAQs to relevant product and service pages using the WordPress Block Editor.
Many themes also include accordion blocks that let visitors expand and collapse answers, making long FAQ sections easier to navigate. If you manage a large number of questions, a dedicated FAQ plugin can help you organise and update them more efficiently.
The Next Step: Put UGC to Work
Your customers are already talking about you. YouTube comments, Instagram tags, Reddit threads, LinkedIn posts, replies to your newsletter- all of it is UGC waiting to be used. Keep a record of what comes in and where, and build it into a simple content calendar so it turns into testimonials, FAQ entries, guest posts and blog content on a regular basis, not just when you remember to check.
If you need help building a WordPress website that attracts, manages and showcases user-generated content, Digital Treasury can help. We've helped businesses create websites that stay active with meaningful content and deliver a better experience for both customers and search engines. Contact us today.
