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Aside from being a high-quality question and answer site, Quora is an underrated source of traffic to your blog. In today’s post, you’ll learn how to get traffic from Quora. First, we’ll look at what it is and why you should be on it. I’ll also give you a step-by-step guide to setting up your Quora account for success. Then, you’ll learn Quora best practices to attract traffic to your blog.
Traffic is a blogger’s best friend.
Want to venture in affiliate marketing? You need traffic. Want to sell your products? Traffic. Want to level up to a membership site? Yup, still need traffic.
Aside from the usual methods like social media, you should always be on the lookout for new, creative ways to get traffic.
Quora is one of the many overlooked sources of traffic that can help you grow your audience and drive traffic to your blog.
Let’s explore Quora and how to use it to drive traffic to your blog.
In case you haven’t encountered Quora, it’s a question-and-answer site where its community of users ask questions, answer them, and decide which answers are the most helpful so other users can find them quickly.
Quora’s mission, according to their About page, is to provide a platform for people to share their valuable knowledge with everyone.
What makes Quora unique is that they aim to be the place where people look for answers to any questions they may have. Their algorithms, rules, and policies all reflect and work toward this objective. Quora has answers to questions ranging from “How does the core principle of the double entry system work?” to “Can Iran’s leaders be trusted?” (which was answered by none other than former President Barack Obama himself).
Yes, it’s really him.
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Here are some more features of Quora that you’ll find important:
So you know a bit about Quora, and now you’re probably thinking, “That’s great, but is it any use to me as a blogger?”
The answer, of course, is A LOT. Here are some of the reasons why every blogger should be on Quora.
Hopefully, you’re now convinced that you need Quora in your blogging journey. Here are some best practices to boost traffic to your blog using Quora.
Having a profile that inspires trust and credibility is the first step in your Quora strategy. Users clicking on your profile photo from answers you post will see your description first, so it’s crucial that you do this right. Here are some guidelines for you to write a description that builds trust.
Maximize your visibility inside and outside Quora by adjusting your privacy settings. First, access your privacy settings via Settings > Privacy.
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You want to be found on search engines, and the best way to do that is to allow search engines to index your name, so make sure that box is checked. At this point, you want anyone who sees your answer and thus your profile to be able to get in touch with you, so select “Allow any person on Quora to send me messages.”
The same principle applies to anyone who wants to comment on your answers and posts, so check the box for “Allow other people to comment on your answers and posts.”
The simple way to find questions to answer is to click on Answers on the top bar, then scroll through the questions.
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You’ll want to answer questions that are relevant to your blog topic so you can show your expertise. The ideal scenario is that you already have a blog post answering that question so you can add a link to your blog post in your answer as additional information or reference. If the list of questions that comes up doesn’t turn up anything good, you can find relevant questions another way.
Search for a topic that you know a great deal about and find the relevant topic page.
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On the right-hand side of the page, beneath the “About” section, there’s a section for Questions that you can click to find questions related to the given topic. This way, you narrow down your search to only include questions that are relevant to your topic of interest.
Some questions will be more useful to you than others. You’ll want to choose the questions that will give you the most exposure to other Quora users.
The first thing to look at is how high the question is on the feed. Popular questions and answers are found near the top of the feed. Next thing to look at is how many followers the question has. More followers means more people get to read answers to this question.
Once you’ve selected a popular question with lots of followers, the next thing is to read through the answers to the question and see if you can do better. If you think you can, go for it. If you succeed in giving a better answer than anyone else, that’s more upvotes for you and great visibility for your answer.
Your Quora answers are content. Thus, the techniques to make great content apply here, too. Make sure you write useful, factual, relevant, and unique content, and don’t hesitate to include images if they improve your answer.
Here are some more things to keep in mind when composing answers on Quora.
When answering questions that you know a lot about or already have blog posts about, it’s tempting to just answer with a link to a blog post you made about that topic.
DON’T. Unless you want to get booted out of Quora.
I know it seems like a waste of effort to type an answer again when you already have a comprehensive 2,500-word blog post about the topic. The thing is, Quora values users who answer questions and not those who are merely posting links to their own blogs.
The primary goal of being on Quora is to provide value. This means you always need to prioritize answering users’ questions. Building your reputation as a trustworthy source comes first and increasing traffic to your blog comes second.
Post a substantial answer to the question and then include a link to a relevant blog post at the end of your answer. You can also invite them to comment on your answer if they have follow-up questions.
If you know the answer to the question, but you know other bloggers who’ve answered the question in a more comprehensive manner in their own blogs, link to their blog posts. This way, you’re perceived as being genuinely helpful and humble enough to accept that even though you know a lot, you don’t know it all.
Want to know what your target audience is having difficulty with? Ask them! Asking the right questions on Quora can give you amazing insight into what your target audience wants, what they value, and what they think is important.
Always wanted to ask an influencer in your niche but never had the guts to contact them? Ask them! Connecting with influencers who can give you helpful advice is invaluable.
Also, if you already have a connection on Quora, that gives you something to build on when you reach out to them in the future to ask if they can guest post, or to help you promote your products if you decide to sell your own products someday.
When asking questions, be mindful of Quora’s policies and guidelines for questions.
You can have questions and answers for particular topics sent directly to your inbox. This way, you’re always updated on the most recent questions in your niche and you can have a head start in answering these questions.
When you answer questions in different topics, you’ll want to show your expertise in that particular topic before users even read your answer. If you post answers to questions in wildly different topics, topic-specific credentials will be a big help. After all, if your profile credentials say that you blog about food, they won’t take your answer to a fashion-related question seriously, even though you know a great deal about it.
To add a topic-specific credential, click on your profile page. Go to the Credentials & Highlights section then click Edit.
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A modal window will appear. Click on Add a credential and then select Topic from the dropdown menu.
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Select a topic (the most relevant ones will appear while you’re typing), describe your experience in that topic, then click Save.
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When you answer a question in that particular topic, this topic-based credential will appear beside your name.
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Quora allows you to automatically share your answers on your connected Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn accounts. Doing this lets your social media followers know that you’re on Quora. Also, it’s another type of content that your followers can share, building up your presence further.
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The more questions you answer (and ask), the more visible your content gets, enabling you to build a stronger presence on Quora. If you’re consistently active on Quora, you become a familiar sight to users, and when you’re familiar, they eventually become curious and want to know more about you and read more of your content on your blog.
I would also recommend upvoting answers you found helpful, as well as commenting with additional information if an answer can benefit from it. You’re on Quora to contribute to the discussion and provide value.
It seems like a pain to maintain another blog, but your Quora blog can be quite useful in building your brand and your reputation for quality content. It’s yet another way to put your content in front of people who wouldn’t have seen it otherwise.
A Quora blog that covers the same topic as your blog is a good supplement to the great content already on your actual blog, although it shouldn’t be a replacement. Think of it like a free taste to get these users curious enough to visit your blog. You might want to write a detailed, useful summary of a blog post, post it on your Quora blog, and then include a link at the end, “Click here to read the entire blog post for more details.”
If you do this approach, make sure that the Quora blog post is complete and can stand alone without having to click to your blog post. Otherwise, it’s just a bait and switch tactic that users will quickly see right through and they’ll never trust your content again.
Your Quora blog is also a way you can repurpose your old content. However, be careful when posting duplicate content because that might wreak havoc on your search engine rankings. A solution is to include a “rel=canonical” tag in the URL so that Google knows where the original content is housed. You can read this article by Google to get more information.
Here’s how to create a blog in Quora. First, go to the main menu, then click on Blogs.
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On your Blogs page, click on Create Blog.
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Fill out the required information. I recommend having the same blog name as your self-hosted blog, but if you don’t want any confusion then you can append “Quora” at the end of the name. I would also recommend having the same blog URL as your self-hosted blog. So if you have “yourblogname.com” as the URL for your blog, use “yourblogname.quora.com” as your Quora blog URL.
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Now, the point of having a blog on Quora is to reach a new audience. Make sure your description contains keywords that your target audience would likely search for so they can find your Quora blog.
Note: You can also create a Quora blog for a topic that doesn’t have anything to do with your blog topic, but I won’t discuss that further here as it’s not going to get you traffic for your blog.
Being an active participant on Quora is a great way to establish your expertise and connect with your target audience. Here are some final thoughts regarding Quora.
You should already be monitoring your website analytics to know if your Quora strategy is working. However, Quora offers its own analytics from which you can get some information.
You can access your Stats by going to your main menu and then clicking on Stats.
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A line graph of the number of views all of your answers have gotten on a given day. You can also click on the individual questions you answered on the left and see how they performed.
Image by Imran Esmail via SmartBlogger
From here you can quickly see which answers are performing the best so you can plan around that. Maybe ask similar questions to those that have a high number of views and ask less questions similar to those that have a lower number of views. You can even broaden your strategy to look at which topics are performing well and which ones aren’t, so you can focus on answering questions in topics that bring you more answer views.
Most of us started a blog aiming to help our readers with problems they’re struggling with. It should be the same way with Quora. Be light-handed with the self-promotion and go heavy on spreading knowledge and building rapport with other users. The trust and goodwill you gather on Quora will help you with your goal of boosting traffic.
Being active on Quora doesn’t have to be a chore. You’re allowed to have fun while scanning questions and answers. There’s much knowledge and learning to be had on Quora, and it’s insanely addictive (I should know, I’ve been pulled into a Quora vacuum more times than I can count!). That said, be careful that you don’t neglect creating content while you’re in Quora.
Have you ever used Quora to drive traffic to your blog? Were you happy with the results? Leave a comment and let me know what you think!
JoAnne is your average, everyday, sane stay-at-home mom who believes in the power of the internet to make dreams come true. She has an insatiable appetite for chocolate, as well as all things internet marketing. She keeps up with the latest trends in blogging, affiliate marketing, e-commerce, and more.
