Quora: How to Boost Your SEO, Traffic, and Brand, 17 Ways

Quora answers.

Why compose them?

Too many benefits exist for you not to compose Quora answers.

When you provide Quora answers:

You extend your reach across social media channels.

Your posts won’t get rusty and dusty in your archives when you can breathe new life into them by posting them in your answers at Quora.

You boost your SEO with a strong link from Quora.

You boost your blog traffic.

You increase your authority in your niche.

You discover helpful content to use as a reference for your blog post articles.

You have the opportunity to be a Quora Top Writer.

After reading this post, you’ll know how to get all these benefits, strategy for boosting your success on Quora, and you’ll be rushing to provide Quora answers.

What is Quora.com?

Quora is a popular question and answer site. Anyone with knowledge can provide Quora answers. You don’t need a blog or website. You need expertise.

The name “Quora” is an acronym standing for “Question, Observation, Research, and Answer.”*

The people who use Quora are called Quorans.

Reasons You Should Use Quora

This is not my first go-round with Quora. I first published a Quora review in 2015. I’ve learned to appreciate the value of giving Quora answers so much more since then that I am writing another Quora review.

Here are the benefits of providing Quora answers:

1. You can get Twitter and Facebook traffic when you post your answers. 

Your blog traffic and sign-ups increase. In order to get people to subscribe to your blog, you have to know where to find people who need your tips. They are at Quora. Everyone goes to Quora to get answers. Peter Nyiri explains in order to get traffic to your blog, you need to know where to find your target reader. Your blogging niche is irrelevant. Your target reader is at Quora asking questions about your topic. This screenshot shows my social traffic for the month of October. As you can see, Quora came in 3rd. More than 14% of my traffic in October came from Quora. The top 3! This means Quora referred more traffic to me than Pinterest, LinkedIn, and other social media sites.

2. Providing Quora answers establishes you as an authority in your field.

3. You could be named “Top Writer” and have that on your Quora profile. Look what message greeted me when I went to the site in February: “Congratulations! You’ve been named as a Quora Top Writer for 2018 in recognition of your highly valued contributions to Quora over the last year.”

4. Use Quora answers as a reference for blog posts.

The powers that be at Quora know the topics you’re interested in based on the questions you’ve answered and make recommendations for you.

5. Your exposure grows. Can you tell my exposure has grown through my use of this site? Compare what happened in just one week: The Week of August 15, 2017, my answers were viewed 473 times. Just one week later, six people requested my knowledge and my answers were viewed almost 1,000 more times! Ryan Biddulph reports receiving over 100,000 views of his answer at Quora! Talk about increased exposure!

Look at the notification I received one year later on August 15, 2018:

Note: I’m not as active on Quora as others. I read advice to answer 10 questions a day. I don’t normally answer 10 questions a week. You can imagine how amplified my exposure would be if I went more often. Did you notice my answers were viewed 2169 times in a week? Impressive!

Look at my stats for October 2017:

June:

January 2019:

Quora felt my answer would help 22,000 people and sent them my answer in their email, the Quora Digest.

6. President Obama went to Quora.

7. Blogging guru Neil Patel recommends using Quora.

8. Blogging guru Rand Fishkin also uses Quora.

9. You can blog at Quora if you don’t feel like writing at your website.

10. Potential for blog traffic is enormous if you do the following: Share a link to your post in each answer you give. Under your answer, it gives the reader a chance to see other answers you’ve shared. 

On July 5, I spent time at Quora. When I went to bed on July 6, this is what I saw in my WordPress stats.

All the articles with red boxes I shared on July 5 in my answers at Quora. In just one day, I picked up 51 page views I wouldn’t have otherwise had. This is on a day I didn’t publish. I was grateful for this traffic boost.

People recommend you go into Quora daily. If I picked up an additional 51 hits from Quora every day, my traffic would be 1,530 page views higher at the end of the month. Pretty good considering I was there for under an hour.

In addition, I got new traffic to older posts. Google might give my pages a boost if it sees my older posts are still generating interest. Naturally, this new traffic gives you the potential for new subscribers.

11. You can share links to other people’s blogs as well if those posts will help you answer the questions.

12. Quora has a new community called Spaces based around common interests. 

13. Using Quora boosts your SEO in several ways. Linking to your blog from Quora is a form of off-site SEO. First, when you provide a relevant link to one of your blog posts, you get a link from Quora, a site with a Domain Authority Rank of 92. A link from a blog with a strong DA boosts your SEO. Also, when you provide Quora answers, your answers get indexed on Google.  

14. Answering questions on Quora is a way of repurposing your blog posts. Don’t just copy-paste your article. Reword the information and then link to your post if it will provide additional, relevant details.

15. Quora is also for relationship building. I often see my blogging friends here, other bloggers in my niche. Quora is a great place to see people off the blog.

16. You can boost your subscriber list when you provide Quora answers. People have followed me to my blog after reading my answers on Quora. 

17. Quora recently started a Partner Program. This gives you the opportunity to monetize by using Quora. 

More information about the advantages of blogging with Quora can be found here:

How to Be a Better Blogger with Quora

 Effects of Upvotes When You Provide Quora Answers:

When Quora users like your answer, they can upvote by clicking the arrow pointing up. Upvoting increases the visibility of your answer. You can not downvote at Quora.

I asked the people at Quora if upvoting increases visibility. A social media specialist responded. Downvoting definitely obscures the visibility of your response. When it comes to upvoting she responded, “You should be more concerned about people’s lack of upvoting answers as this players a greater role in content non-distribution than downvotes do.” I am drawing a conclusion that upvotes help from this remark. 

Quora Strategy*

Provide Quora Answers: Hack 1

“Quora. It is one of the best places to get ideas for the post that attracts backlinks. In Quora’s search field, enter your niche keyword, observe the results. The one which has a high number of followers is the best topic to pick.

Now, start answering that question and leave your blog post link at the end of the answer. It will encourage readers to visit your blog, link back to their blog if it’s really helpful information.” Source

Provide Quora Answers: Hack 2

Have a detailed answer.

In the past, people wrote helpful but succinct answers. Quora felt they were too succinct and asked the writer to improve the answer.

On the other hand, people who just wrote and wrote answers about how “lame” the question was, passed inspection.

Provide Quora Answers: Hack 3

Spend a great deal of time at Quora providing answers. How much time is a great deal?

You should provide 10 Quora answers a day, 10 minutes each answer or less. Since this is admittedly time-consuming, you can spread out giving your 10 answers throughout the day. This strategy creates more visibility.

Provide Quora Answers: Hack 4

Do NOT be niche specific. Even if your niche is blogging tips, like mine, you don’t have to limit your answers to providing Quora answers solely about blogging tips. You can pick life experiences as topics you’re knowledgeable about. For example, I chose my city Santa Clarita and my college as topics I’m knowledgeable about. 

Try to think broadly when telling Quora what you’re knowledgeable about. For example, I shouldn’t limit my expertise to blogging tips. Because of my blogging tips knowledge, I also know about related topics like Entrepreneurship and Google.

Provide Quora Answers: Hack 5

Make your answer actionable.

This goes along with Hack 2. You can make your answer detailed by providing actionable steps for the Quora user to take. 

Provide Quora Answers: Hack 6

Follow someone who goes viral on Quora so you can see what they do. Example, you can follow Griffin Wagner who has 26,000 followers.

Provide Quora Answers: Hack 7

Try to boost your Quora followers. Getting more followers will drive traction to the answers you want to rank for. How can you increase your Quora followers? Simple. Ask people to follow you on Quora. At the end of your answer, write “If I helped you today, I hope you’ll follow me on Quora” and then provide your profile link.

Note: Try not to give too many CTA’s. It can be confusing and look spammy. For example, if you tell people to click the link you provide to get more information and then you tell them to click your profile link to follow you on Quora, the Quora user could be confused or worse feel spammed.  The powers-that-be at Quora like you to keep people on their site. Include “Follow me on Quora” and a link to your profile in your answers.

Provide Quora Answers: Hack 8

This goes along with Hack 7. Don’t provide a link to your article in each of your Quora answers. Your main goal should be there to help people. If you consistently link back to your articles, it may become clear to the powers that be at Quora your true motives are helping yourself and not others. I recommend this ratio: Link to your posts in a third of your Quora answers, link to your profile in a third of your Quora answers, don’t link at all in a third of your Quora answers or link to other people’s posts. Break up your answers this way.

Provide Quora Answers: Hack 9

Try to have different looking answers. For example, attach images, use listicles. Lists are actionable. I heard people who share videos get a great deal of exposure at Quora. Since so few people share videos, the answers are more noticeable than others. 

Provide Quora Answers: Hack 10

Follow topics so you can get sent the questions you have expertise in.

Provide Quora Answers: Hack 11

Use the Quora app with notifications turned on.

Provide Quora Answers: Hack 12

Search keywords in your industry. This way you can answer questions people in your industry are answering. You’ll gain attention in your niche and you can grow your popularity and brand.

Also, you can follow the 10X Rule. Find the most popular content in your niche on Quora using the search bar. Then, improve the answer. Make the content ten times better and link to your site.

Warnings about Using Quora

In this article, I have used the word “spam” seven times. Clearly, a section offering warnings about providing Quora answers is warranted.

The people at Quora are sticklers for making sure their users are not spammed.

Have I ever been flagged for spam?

Yes. I have appealed and won my appeals as often as I’ve lost.

Once you lose your appeal, there’s nothing more you can do.

During one of these incidents, I questioned the folks at Quora about their policies regarding spam violations.

They responded with these criteria:

Users are allowed to promote businesses in answers as long as the promotion is directly relevant to the question and the user discloses his or her affiliation with the business. However, to avoid being reported for spam:

• Do not post the same answer (or a slightly-modified answer) to many questions.
• Do not apply incorrect topics to a question in order to receive higher visibility on your answer.
• Do not modify questions for the purpose of making them relevant to a promotional answer you wish to post.

Wrapping Up: Quora Answers

In closing, my appreciation for Quora has grown tremendously in the years I’ve been using the site.

Now you know the reasons for the overwhelming popularity of this Question and Answer site and strategies to help you succeed.

Readers, please share so other bloggers and content creators discover the many reasons to provide Quora answers and how to have a successful experience.

Sources*

Quora.com

Many of the Quora strategies I learned in a webinar provided by Andy Crestodina.

Update: October 2019

Look at the power of Quora!

Earlier in this post, I showed my answers surpassed 75,000 views. Fast forward to October 2019. My answers have passed 250,000 views! What exposure! Can you believe Quora is free?

Also, Quora now has Spaces. You can share articles with like-minded content curators who use Quora for the space to post their content.

I’ve extended my reach by using Quora in this capacity. Also, by interacting with members, I use Quora as a social media site.