People are not only surfing on the internet, they are intentionally using it to find the appropriate answer. In simple words, it has become the most common habit of most people for searing answers on Google. And, marketers are taking advantage of this mindset. Building and maintaining an active presence on Q&A sites would be a big plus for your business. It helps greatly in building backlinks for a website. Want to know how? Scroll down and you will get your answer.
What are Q&A sites?
- The general rule of the question and answers site should include;
- Helps users to find the right information
- build relationships
- Smartly push your products or services
Here’s the list of the most common Q&A sites which has a relatively greater number of users;
- Quora
- Yahoo! Answers
- Answerbag
- Blurt it
- FunAdvice
- Anybody Out There.
- WikiAnswers
- Askville, etc.
Among all these sites, Quora is the most popular. Hence, marketers are using this opportunity wisely to promote a business product or service. Quora marketing has secured its place in the marketing strategies of most businesses.
Besides, providing quality answers with the right link helps to generate web traffic for your site. Hence, while answering the questions or queries Q&A sites do not forget to direct customers with accurate information about your product. Marketers mainly use the answering sites or forum for many reasons that incorporate;
Find and convert new customers.
- Get backlinks
- Improve SEO score
- Drive traffic directly on a specific web page
Now, let’s understand the optimal ways to build links using Q&A sites.
#1. Develop a content strategy
Developing the most usable content strategy is the foremost step to get backlinks using the Q&A sites. The content should be simple, intuitive, and user-friendly so that the users can engage and interact with it. Often, complex and professional content resists the users to visit a link. So, make sure to have unique and simple to comprehend content while you are answering the question on any platform.
Moreover, performing keyword research will help to optimize content strategy. This will guide you to identify the phrases that are trending, and what customers are searching online. With this knowledge, it will be much easier to find the right questions to answer.
#2. Optimize profile on QA site
Another important way is to build and maintain a professional profile on the answering sites. Whether you use the company’s profile or your profile, it needs to be well-organized. The profile should indicate what you are offering and other key information about your business or yourself (achievements, experience, etc.)
The relevant information on a profile creates credibility and entices users to trust what you are saying. All in all, whether you use professional or individual profiles on Q&A sites, you must optimize it with the correct, valid information.
#3. Create questions bank
Creating questions banks is the smartest way to only answer the questions which have been asked by your potential customers. Users ask numerous questions on various topics on the question and answer platform. It is crucial to narrow down the list that you need to answer. As mentioned earlier, keywords are playing a vital role in finding the right questions to answers.
Hence, depending on the business niche collect the possible questions that you would think will be beneficial to answer with a link. And, always keep a record of answered and unanswered questions to track the results.
#4. Craft Answer carefully
Once you have collected the list of questions to answer, you should be careful while writing your comments. If the q&A platform finds it exclusively promotional they might remove your answer or in the worst case, they might ban a profile.
Also, you need to write answers that stand out among others, hence, use the specific strategy such as;
- Smartly use format options
- Use bullet points where needed
- Include image
- Add value to your answer
- Follow the certain guidelines for the site
This practice will help in forming the simple, yet structured answer which increases the chances of getting read. The more valuable is your comment, the more engagement you will get from the prospective users.
#5. Appropriate profile maintenance
Last but not least, profile maintenance is also a significant element while building links via Q&A sites. Regularly update your profile. You can add blogs, achievements to your profile. Also, sites like Quora offer a great opportunity to repurpose your existing content. Additionally, whenever you get a chance to emphasize on increasing engagement with other users. For instance, vote, like, or share their answers. This will surely boost interactions.
Once you have followed the above-mentioned ways to build links using the Q&A sites, keep a track record of analytics of the activities including numbers of answers, traffic from the Q&A site, conversion rate, etc. This record will indicate whether you have achieved the intended results or you need to modify strategies to achieve the results.
As customers have leaned towards search engines to find the answer to their questions, marketers are using question and answer platforms for link building and generating leads. Q&A sites are a great way to generate backlinks for a website, but you should follow certain tactics such as content strategy, profile creation and maintenance, questions bank creation, and crafting answers systematically. These practices will improve the chances of getting backlinks from their respective platforms.
