Quora is a leading question and answer platform with 200 million monthly users, and it can be a terrific source of free traffic for your website.
In fact, it’s used extensively by businesses and marketers to drive targeted traffic to their websites.
Top Quora answer people can get thousands of visitors to their websites, Facebook Groups and so forth with each answer they give.
By focusing efforts on Quora, you can build your email list, establish leadership in your niche, receive more and more traffic as you gain followers, drive people to your own online communities or websites and possibly even get syndicated to major publications.
Here are 17 tips for doing all of that and more:
Answer the most relevant questions. You want to answer the questions that are most directly tied to your own niche. They should be related to your business offering or lead magnet.
Optimize your profile. Write your profile attributes and tagline according to your niche, including a detailed “about me” section, your areas of expertise, your interests and experience. Remember to connect your other social media accounts, too.
Optimize your bio. All that time spent answering questions will be wasted if you’re not generating leads. Try designing your bio like a website homepage, with elements such as a relevant offer, testimonials or some sort of social validation, an eye-catching and relevant picture and links to your other content.
Optimize your tagline. Your tagline will appear at the top of every answer you give. It’s customizable for the different topics you write about and includes fifty characters.
To customize it, click the dots at the bottom right of your answer, and then click ‘Edit Credential.’ It’s generally best to stick to one tagline to create a strong brand recognition among the answers you’ll be giving.
Test your niches. Not sure which niche is the best one for you? Write for two weeks in one niche, using a relevant offer in your bio. Then do the same for another niche and compare traffic week-by-week by looking at the stats section of your bio.
NOTE: higher traffic is not necessarily better. You want TARGETED traffic, so also check to see which gives you the higher percentage of website visits, opt-ins and so forth.
Controversy gets traction. If you can find the questions in your niche that are controversial, or provide an answer that not everyone agrees with, you’ll likely get more traffic.
The key is to give a solid answer backed by facts – an answer that you believe. Don’t write crazy things just to stir the pot.
High organic traffic means more views. Use Ahrefs https://ahrefs.com/ to identify the questions that are receiving high organic traffic. These are often the best questions to answer.
What to look for in a question. You don’t want to waste your time answering the wrong questions that don’t send you leads. But if you know what to look for, your time will be well-spent.
Here are a few attributes to look for in a question – your niche may vary slightly but these will generally be what you’re looking for:
- 7:1 (or better) ratio of followers to the number of answers provided.
- Lots of followers with lots of bad answers.
- A question with poor answers that you know you can improve upon.
- A question that gives you the opportunity to use a personal image.
- Anything in your niche with emotional pull. These questions will be easier to answer and you’ll be able to use personal stories.
- Anything relevant to the offer in your bio.
How to identify bad answers. If an answer is poorly written, or it focuses on self-promotion, or it provides little value; then you can do better.
How to search questions. When you join Quora, it asks you to choose your topics. Naturally you’ll choose topics directly related to your niche. Go to those individual topics and find the best questions. When you locate one you want to answer, click the three dots next to it, and select, “answer later.”
Spend maybe 30 minutes finding and saving questions. When you’re ready to access these bookmarked questions, click on ‘Answer’ at the top right of your screen. Then click ‘answer later’ on the left side. You’ll see a list of all the questions you’ve saved.
How to outsource your searching. Searching for good questions is something you can easily outsource to your virtual assistant.
Have them go through a list of perhaps 100 topics to find the best questions, giving them the criteria you want. Ask them to create a spreadsheet with hyperlinks to the Quora questions, the follower ratio, topic name, and a rating of how good the other answers are.
You’re never too late to answer a question. If a question has a few thousand followers but over 100 answers, it can still be a good idea to answer the question.
And even if the question is old, you can still answer it and get traffic. That’s because Quora places a strong emphasis on promoting new answers, similar to how Google promotes more recent blog posts.
Using images. In every answer you give, use a relevant, interesting image. A study by Skyword found a 94% increase in viewership if a published article contains a relevant photo or infographic compared to articles without images.
Did you know that images release oxytocin in our brains, increasing trust and likeability? In one case study, participants under the effects of oxytocin gave more money to charity than those who weren’t.
Make sure your images are entirely RELEVANT to your answer. You might be tempted to use images simply because they’re eye-catching, but if the image doesn’t relate to your answer, the Quora community will leave some nasty comments for you because they think you’re click baiting.
Use personal stories whenever possible. Open your answer with your story, and then segue into the rest of your answer, such as giving advice or knowledge. People LOVE stories.
Are you stuck for a story that fits the question? Start with the word, “Imagine,” and then put the reader right into the action. The story will almost write itself.
Write like you speak. You’re not writing to impress your English teacher, you’re writing to communicate with a friend.
Okay, maybe it’s 100,000 friends that you haven’t met yet, but if you think of your audience as one person – maybe your best friend or your goofy neighbor – and write just to that person, you’ll find your voice.
Make your writing interesting. Use short paragraphs so it’s easy to read. Bold the first sentence and important points. Make it personal and don’t be afraid to talk about your mistakes or troubles if they’re relevant.
And always end on a high note, with a positive call to action for the reader.
And perhaps the most important tip of all is this: Don’t get overly promotional.
Telling them to ‘click here to learn more,’ or to ‘start their free trial,’ is too promotional for Quora.
But letting them know where they can go to learn more works well.
For example, “If this subject interests you, I’ve written several articles about it here: [insert link]. I hope they help you with [pain point].”
Instead of sending readers to your website, you might send them to a Facebook Group or similar community because it’s perceived to be less promotional than sending people directly to your site.
Remember, don’t be over the top with promotions on Quora, answer plenty of questions that are relevant to your business, tell stories and write as though speaking to a friend and you’ll do fine.
