That’s ok. Quora isn’t talked about much in the digital marketing community but it’s one of those little heard of and underrated websites that could genuinely make a huge difference to your link building, search rankings and overall marketing efforts.
What is Quora?
(I didn’t actually know that Ask Jeeves was still around today until I just did a quick Google search for it!)
Quora is similar, in that:
“Quora is a place to gain and share knowledge. It’s a platform to ask questions and connect with people who contribute unique insights and quality answers.”
Essentially, it’s a website where anyone can create an account, ask a question and receive hundreds of answers from people knowledgeable about that subject.
The great thing about Quora is that people literally ask questions about anything, so you can be sure that your target audience are on there no matter what you do or sell. And yes, that does mean there are some bizzare and nonsense questions asked, perhaps. Is there such a thing as a stupid question? But if they’re not relevant questions to you, you don’t even need to think about them so just focus on your area of expertise.
Why do people use Quora?
To get the information they need to solve their problem.
Essentially, the same reason they’ll be coming to your blog, website and other online content.
When you need the answer to something, chances are that you’ll hop over to Google and tap it into their search box (and a lot of answers do come from Quora when you search).
Quora users know that they can skip Google, go straight to Quora and see if their question has already been asked and answered, and if they need to, ask again and request experts to respond (just this morning I’ve had a request to answer “How do you perform a content marketing audit?”) then they do that.
I think what makes it stand out for me is that you can see the credentials of the people answering the questions. If you’re asking a question about content writing and I reply, you can see that I’m an SEO consultant and know what I’m talking about, rather than Jane Doe from down the road that might not know a thing!
The well written answers are like mini essays in that they have numerous links per answer acting as citations or references for what’s being said, and that’s where the benefits to your business comes in. By writing answers with links to your existing content to reinforce what you’re saying – driving traffic to your website of people that have a problem you know how to solve.
It’s one of the best link building strategies out there because it’s free, using Quora is like writing mini blogs on topics you already know about (and in many cases, you can adjust a blog you’ve already written to suit the question being asked, and it’ll help you understand what your audience are looking for in terms of information and content.
So let’s discover how Quora can help you improve your search engine optimization and marketing efforts today.
1 – Quora is a great source of content marketing ideas
I’m often asked where I find the inspiration to come up with blog post ideas and other forms of content.
Let’s take “content writing” as an example.
After typing it into the search box, the following questions appear:
- How can I write SEO-based content?
- What is content strategy?
- What are some of the best tools to use in freelance content writing?
- What is the relationship between SEO and content marketing?
There are four blog post ideas ready to go that can easily be re-purposed into how to guides, videos, tips and tricks articles, etc.
Not bad for a few minutes work!
Quora is actually an important stage of the keyword research I do for SEO clients regardless of whether I write content for them or even perform a link building campaign because it’s these questions and how they’re worded that help you to discover the long-tail keywords the target audience are searching for to find your products or services.
If I’m ever stuck for keyword ideas, Quora usually helps me out!
2 – Improve your authority by answering questions
When you want to be established as an expert in your field, answering questions about topics you’re knowledgeable about is a simple way to go about this (and you can even share your answers on Twitter or Facebook when you submit them!) The best bit about providing relevant answers to questions like these is that you can drop links to your blogs and web content, encouraging your target audience who want to find out more to visit your website and maybe even hire you or buy your products.
Links aside, being able to provide a detailed and well thought out response to a question will instantly add bonus points to your reputation as an expert (most answers are just a very basic sentence or two), and you can gain a deeper understanding of what your target audience want to hear from you as you write more and more answers.
Quality content on your website is key to both higher Google rankings and better conversion rates. The more detailed you can be the better, and it’s the same principle at play here with Quora. You might be concerned that having content on a third party website is counting against you, but the referral traffic Quora can send your way to the blogs that fills in the content gaps you’ve left on your Quora answer (by not going into as much detail) makes it an effective strategy.
If you’re wondering how this helps your target audience that don’t use Quora to learn about you and your expertise, don’t worry! Quora answers often appear in Google search results, so they’ll end up at your answer anyway.
3 – Quora is fantastic for boosting your SEO
One of my favourite reasons for using Quora is the SEO boost it gives you (honestly, my two favourite websites for content-led SEO are Pinterest and Quora). It’s one of my favourite SEO strategies to use, especially with clients that have a limited budget.
Writing answers enables you to drop links to your own content that hopefully people will follow and interact with the other content you have available to them on your website. It can be a great way to direct people to your lead magnet/mailing list too.
Aside from that, the links themselves are important.
Link building is crucial for getting a website to rank well but it’s one of the toughest tasks to do for SEO. Guest posts, link exchanges, etc take time and effort, often a lot more than writing an answer for Quora.
Links provide your website with authority and there are three types – internal, inbound and outbound. When you create content, you should be aiming to include an internal link to another relevant piece of content and one or two outbound links to reputable sources that back up what you’re saying. When it comes to Quora, you can link back as much as you need to as long as the content you’re linking to from your own website is relevant to your answer.
By using relevant keywords in your Quora response (just like you would in a piece of content for your own website), you can create some high quality content away from your website that drives organic traffic to your website. Just be careful that you’re not using a keyword list and stuffing what you write with keywords, they need to be naturally included within the response.
You do need to keep a balance between outbound links and inbound links though, if you have tons of outbound and not many links coming in, it can be seen as trying to piggyback on the authority of other websites, something Google isn’t a fan of.
While you can use social media to create inbound links, it’s how often they’re clicked on and the content read that really matters for increasing your authority rather than creating the links themselves.
Social media links can disappear quite quickly which is why evergreen websites like Pinterest and Quora, where the content can be found years into the future, are great for creating high-value and long-lasting inbound links.
4 – You can discover influencers and industry leaders through Quora
When you want to collaborate with other leaders in your industry or use influencer marketing to further your products and services, Quora can be a fantastic way to identify the people you need to be talking to.
Take a look at the “Most viewed writers” after a keyword search and delve into their answers. If they sound like a good fit for you and what you do, respond to their answers with upvotes (basically a like and moving their answer up the page above people’s responses) and comments – you can say thanks, ask further questions about points they’ve made, maybe offer an alternate point of view, etc.
You can list your website(s), etc on Quora so it’s easy to find the details you need to contact them and ask if they’re interested in being interviewed for an article, featured on your website or if they’d like to collaborate on a project.
Think of it as using Facebook or Twitter for your business – your aim is to make a connection. Once that’s been achieved you can introduce the topic of collaborating together, most people are open to new business opportunities so don’t be afraid to do this just don’t be too spammy about it!
5 – Quora is great for scoping out the competition
You can search for your own brand and your competitors on Quora. This is a useful way to see what people are saying about you, services you provide or products you offer and can give you a real insight into how your competitors are handling things.
This is also useful for reputation management, particularly if you sell unique products that your audience may be asking questions about. If you can directly respond to their questions in a non-salesy and informative way, you can nudge them further down the sales funnel or provide customer support where needed.
Keeping a close eye on the competition can help you keep on top of emerging trends, their marketing tactics and even how they go about delivering what they do, such as talking about their content writing process.
Are you ready to get started with Quora?
I tend to log in once a day and check for popular questions people have asked (make sure you select topics you’re able to answer about in your profile to get notifications) and aim to write one or two answers each day, making sure I link it back to my own content. Checking popular topics is a good thing to do each day too as you can spot emerging trends and what your audience might be talking about more generally.
I then check the notifications for any comments I might need to respond to, have a quick look around at what people are generally asking and thinking about, and maybe pose a question of my own.
And that’s it!
Yes, it’s maybe 30 – 40 minutes a day but the boost to my website traffic, authority and generating new leads for my business makes it more than worth it. By using a website with real people responding to niche topics that are relevant to your industry, you really can stay on top of your marketing efforts.
This is how content-led and value-based content marketing and SEO can work for your business, and if you need some help to get started don’t hestiate to get in touch.
