If you’re after backlinks, you have nothing if not choices. One choice that many people seem to miss however is Quora.com. Often billed as Yahoo Answers on steroids, Quora is a Q&A site/social network that’s grown increasingly popular in recent years.
Quora backlinks might be no follow but that doesn’t stop them being highly reputable. And more importantly, the Q&A nature of the website often makes them an excellent source of highly targeted direct traffic.
If you’d like to increase your website or blogs exposure with Quora, here are eight simple tips for doing just that.
Create a Winning Profile
First off, if you’re new to Quora, you’re going to want to invest some time in your profile. Special care should be taken when choosing both your avatar and tagline. Both will be displayed every time you post something. You should also include a few personal details together with any niche relevant professional experience. The better your profile, the more people will visit your website to learn more about you.
Follow the Right Topics and Users
Quora allows you to select the kind of questions that you’re most interested in by choosing both topics and users to follow. Take the time to choose topics that are relevant to your niche and users who are actively discussing it. Once you’ve done this, you’ll be greeted with relevant questions every time you log in to Quora. This is one of the things that makes Quora so valuable, not only for traffic, but also for new content ideas.
Quality Matters
If you’ve built backlinks on Yahoo Answers, you’re likely to have noticed that the amount of traffic you get is largely dependent on the quality of your answers. On Quora, quality is even more important. The best answers get up voted to the top of the page, the worst answers get down voted to the bottom. If you want results on Quora, taking the time to craft answers that people actually value is therefore crucial.
Learn What Makes a Popular Answer
If you’re not sure what constitutes a good answer on Quora, the easiest way to educate yourself on the matter is to simply spend time browsing the site. You’re likely to find that the best answers are typically:
Written by somebody who’s well qualified to answer
Very detailed, with references where applicable.
Written in easy to understand, non-technical language.
Entertaining and enjoyable to read.
Answer the Right Questions
Unlike Yahoo Answers, being the first to answer a question on Quora offers no real advantage. When choosing questions to answer, you should instead focus on both the number and type of followers. Are they people who are actually likely to visit your website? You should also look at the existing answers and ask yourself whether or not you’re capable of writing something better.
Ask Your Own Questions
If you want to make the most of your time on Quora, don’t limit yourself to other peoples conversations, start your own. Here are a few tips for asking questions that get attention:
Don’t ask questions that have already been asked.
Ask questions that genuinely make people think.
Ask questions that are relevant to your website but don’t be obvious.
Include long tail keywords to get your questions ranked in Google.
Be Tactful
While there’s certainly nothing wrong with joining Quora solely for promotional purposes, if you want your content to stick, excessive self promotion needs to be avoided.
Don’t link to your blog unless it actually contains relevant information. Don’t talk yourself up, let your answers speak for themselves. Focus on providing a quality answer first, and building a backlink second.
Connect with People
Finally, while there’s no denying the value of Quora for driving traffic, don’t forget that it can also be a powerful tool for connecting with other people in your niche. Quora is, after all, a social network. And if you want to truly harness its power, it’s important to actually be social.
Take the time to engage with the community. Be helpful and don’t be afraid to discuss topics that are not directly associated with your niche. Engage with the Quora community and you’ll be rewarded with more than just traffic.
This post has been contributed by Jake Cornwall, an employee at Vayu Media, an internet marketing firm. He is very passionate about photography and he shares his ideas, as well as suggestions, through blogging.
