After nailing fifth-place in online visits for retail sites last June, Wal-Mart has finally decided to loosen a bit of corporate tie and let consumer reviews stream in.

Advertising Age reports (via Peter Hershberg of Reprise Media) that Wal-Mart's plan to allow user-generated reviews on its site may significantly increase search engine traffic.

The reviews alone will give the retail Goliath thousands of new pages of content for search engines to spider, then index. In particular, spiders look favorably upon unique content, making user-generated fare savory for those who can garner the traffic.

In June Wal-Mart fell behind eBay, Amazon, Apple and its sexy big-box rival Target in terms of unique visits for retail sites, according to comScore. Target is smaller, with only a slight online lead, but its traffic is also growing rapidly.