Answer a question, get traffic

There’s a little thing called “social media”, which is really starting to get some traction online (!). You may have noticed Yahoo Answers, which has become a huge online hit. Basically anyone can ask pretty much any question they like, and before you know it, lots of people pile in to help them with an answer. 

Here’s an example:

But where it gets interesting is the “power” of these Yahoo Answers pages on two fronts.

There’s a huge community of people who turn to Yahoo Answers to ask for help and to also answer. So if someone asks about the best kind of digital camera to buy, and you own a digital camera store, there’s nothing to stop you from answering that question (and including a link to an appropriate, helpful page of your website).

The link will be “nofollow”ed (so technically there’s no SEO link-building benefit), however, it’s simply amazing how much traffic some of our clients receive from utilising this social media technique, and how many sales are generated from it.

Yahoo Answers ranks really well at search engines! The “power” of these pages is remarkable, and you’ll notice Yahoo Answer pages all over Google. It’s a genuine long term traffic driving strategy…

Unlike Wiki Answers (another site offering the same kind of service) where you can set up emailed alerts, Yahoo Answers doesn’t provide any kind of alert system. However, you can subscribe to the RSS feed and keyword search the feed to find questions you might like to help answer.

Remember to be helpful, not “salesy”. The minute you start “pushing” your products or services, the result will be the dreaded “thumbs down” from the community.

It’s a community – so play nice, and you will be rewarded.

Chris Thomas heads Reseo, a search engine optimisation company which specialises in creating and maintaining Google AdWords campaigns and Search Engine Optimisation campaigns for a range of corporate clients.

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