Approved forums and social platforms can send content and interaction signals through a separate pipeline. Here's who can apply and how it compares to crawling.

For most websites, crawling is still how you get into Google Search. Googlebot finds a URL and retrieves the page; then, independently, Google’s systems determine if they want to add this page to their index.

On Oct. 8, Google added Search Central documentation describing how approved forums and social platforms can submit user-generated content directly to Google.

The UGC Fresh Data Program allows approved platforms to submit content and interaction signals through a “dedicated data ingestion pipeline” that accepts data submission from those platforms. Google states that the pipeline is separate from both traditional crawlers and the Indexing API. According to Google, participation in the UGC Fresh Data Program does not ensure your content will be included in Google Search.

Google has partnered with individual social platforms before, including Twitter in 2009 and Reddit in 2024. This time the criteria are posted and there’s an application form, so you can check most of Google’s requirements against a platform’s own pages before applying. The form asks how many monthly active users the platform has and when it launched.

The Search Central documentation changelog links to the page under the entry for Oct. 8: “Added documentation on the UGC Fresh Data Program.” Google wrote that the page is meant to explain the program’s purpose and help applicants “understand the eligibility criteria and how to participate.”

The UGC Fresh Data Program is an initiative designed to help platforms display fresh, high quality, and authentic user-generated content (UGC) across various features on Search.

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