The Definitive Guide To Yahoo Answers Marketing

Editor notes: This post was published in 2011, so the information and links it may have may be out of date, or this post was made to try to predict an outcome that no longer the reality; please view at your own discretion.

If you’re into social media, you should have definitely heard of Yahoo Answers. While it’s not really talked about, it can be the traffic powerhouse of just about any website. Yahoo Answers is essentially a Q&A based social network. It’s a knowledge-sharing community and, according to Yahoo staff, there are over 200,000,000 users! Whether or not those statistics are accurate, there are over 15 million daily users.

So why use Yahoo Answers? Well, 3 reasons…

1. Establishing Yourself As An Expert Within Your Niche
2. Get Traffic From Yahoo Answers Users & Search Engines
3. Gain Backlinks

As a user, you can both ask and answer questions. When you ask a question, the Yahoo Answers community will then answer, as you can see above. Within the next couple of days, the asker must choose a best answer. When a best answer is chosen, it’s displayed right under the question for maximum exposure.

By using the categories, you can answer relevant questions and drive targeted visitors to your website. While it’s great for building your credibility and establishing yourself as an expert in your niche, I use it solely for the purpose of generating traffic, sales, and gaining backlinks.

When you click on answer question, you’ll be brought to a form where you can input your answer, plus there’s a resource box. The resource box is there for links, as long as they are relevant to the question and helpful to the asker. Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of answers being reported as spam just because they link to a website in their answer. So it’s best to keep links to the resource boxes.

Once you’ve submitted an answer, it will instantly go live on the question’s page. Then the asker will read it along with the other answers and choose a best. If your answer is chosen as best, it will be displayed at the top and get a ton of exposure. You’ll generally get a small surge of traffic as soon as you answer a few questions. Yahoo Answers isn’t just a quick fix or anything… When your answer is chosen as best, it will continue to be seen by all other users. Plus, they rank extremely well in the search engines.

Meaning if the asker unknowingly placed a keyword in the question’s title, it may well rank and receive “residual traffic” for years to come. Like almost instantly. I’ve actually never seen anything rank as quickly as a Yahoo question. I used to do some sneaky top-secret marketing where I’d rank questions on page 1 of Google for semi-competitive keywords in under 5 minutes! I’m not kidding, but more on that in a minute.

Just a few guidelines, as I’d hate to see even more people abusing Yahoo Answers. The trouble is that a ton of marketers have latched onto spamming links all over the place. Posting 1-sentence answers with a link to a totally irrelevant website at the bottom. Trust me, you’re not going to want to do that as not only will it get you banned, but you’ll also actually generate zero traffic so it’s pretty much a waste of time. So here are a few guidelines:

• Do not post links to websites with little value/content.
• Do not post affiliate links or you’ll just be banned.
• Do not ask & answer your own questions.
• Post answers with no links occasionally.
• Post links to resources with SOLID content and helpful information.
• Be helpful! Seriously, share your knowledge and the traffic will follow. Don’t be stingy by posting 2-sentence answers. For maximum results, your answers need to be chosen as best. A best answer is worth 20x the traffic of a normal answer. Meaning 1 200+ word answer will beat 20 10-word answers.

That pretty much sums up the guidelines I’ve followed to drive a tremendous amount of traffic using Yahoo Answers. So here’s the exact process:

1. Become a member of Yahoo Answers.
2. Find the most relevant category to your niche.
3. Check daily for new questions you can answer.
4. Use the search function to find questions from a list of keywords. (find keywords from the Google Keyword Tool). You’ll find a ton of open questions including plenty of highly searched keywords. These questions are likely to receive long-term search engine traffic meaning a lot of exposure if your answer is chosen as best.
5. Answer the questions and link to your websites and other authority sites when appropriate.
6. Engage in the community by adding friends, liking questions, and starring answers.
7. Repeat the process and answer 10-20 questions weekly.

That’s it, a blueprint to marketing on Yahoo Answers. Now there’s one last strategy I’ve used that’s the equivalent of black hat SEO. It’s actually against Yahoo guidelines and you’re not supposed to do it, but it’s not exactly breaking the law or anything. It’s what I told you not to do above.

“Asking And Answering Your Own Questions”

I can’t not teach you this as it’s pretty spectacular! It really does defeat every other Yahoo marketing technique. While this is technically against the rules, it works like crazy and you can get away with it. I’m not going to say whether or not I think this is morally right or anything. I’m just going to teach you how it works and you can choose whether or not you want to use it.

1. Find a keyword to target (easy-medium competition-500+ searches/month).
2. Create Yahoo account 1 (asker account) using a different IP address (use proxy).
3. Create Yahoo account 2 (answer account) using another IP address.
4. Change back to the first IP, login to your asker account, and ask the question (Include the keyword at the start of your question, and at least twice in the description).
5. Change IP, log in to answer account, search Yahoo for the question, write a quality answer, and include a link to your website in the resource box. Include a strong call to action.
6. Wait 4 hours.
7. Change IP again, log in to the other account and select your answer as best. When you choose the answer as best, you have to leave feedback. In the feedback box, write something like “Thanks man, appreciate your input and the link you gave me really helped”.
8. Take part in the community a little by answering a few other questions, just to make your “attack” look more natural.
9. Repeat.

Once done, your question will rise up in the search engines and most likely rank page 1 for your chosen keyword. As long as you chose a semi/low competitive keyword with 500+ searches a month, it’s quite normal to receive 10-20+ visitors a day per question. Really simple strategy, it’s sort of “gaming” the system a little. So if you want to take the risk of being banned, go ahead. Just make sure you create separate accounts for the ask & answer strategy. You don’t want to put your main account at risk.

A quick word on backlinks. Yeah, you can build links with Yahoo Answers. You should know that Yahoo Answers uses the no-follow attribute. There’s been some debate about whether or not building no-follow links is worthwhile. In theory, no-follow links “don’t count” because search engine spiders don’t follow them. In my opinion, I say build them. Even if they don’t “count” or contribute toward your rankings, they make your link profile look more natural. So in conclusion, Yahoo Answers rocks and can be used to generate a lot of traffic very quickly. I no longer spend time answering or asking questions, but if you’re looking to expand on traffic sources, it should be your go-to place!

In Prosperity,

David Wood

P.S. Please leave your comments, thoughts, and questions in the box below. I’ll be happy to reply to them!

Comments

Jason

Great article! I had no idea Yahoo Answers could be used for driving so much traffic. I’m definitely going to start using this strategy. Thanks for the tips!

Michelle

I’ve tried Yahoo Answers in the past but never thought of using it this way. Do you have any advice for getting your answers to rank higher?

Tom

This strategy seems pretty risky, especially the part about answering your own questions. Has anyone been banned for this?

Sarah

I’ve been using Yahoo Answers for a few months, and it’s been a great way to build backlinks. But I didn’t realize you could get long-term traffic from it. Thanks for the insights!

David

I’m curious about the “no-follow” links you mentioned. Do they still hold value for SEO purposes?

Comments

Elena

This guide is incredibly useful! I had no idea that Yahoo Answers could still be relevant in today’s digital marketing strategies. I’ll definitely be trying out your tips to boost my traffic. Thanks for sharing such valuable insights!

Greg

Honestly, I find it hard to believe that Yahoo Answers can generate that much traffic in 2024. Do you have any real examples or evidence of this working recently? I’d love to see some current case studies.

Melissa

This is fascinating! I have a question though—how often should I be answering questions to see consistent traffic from Yahoo Answers? Would answering 5-10 questions a week be enough?

Alan

While I appreciate the information, I’m a little skeptical about the long-term benefits of using Yahoo Answers for backlinks. With the no-follow tag in place, are we really seeing any significant SEO impact?

Natalie

This was a great read, David! It’s been a while since I last saw one of your posts. How have you been? Let’s catch up sometime soon. I’d love to hear more about your recent strategies.

Victor

I actually had a similar issue with trying to get traffic from social platforms. I never thought to use Yahoo Answers though. I’ve been struggling with finding a good Q&A platform, so I’ll give this a try. Thanks for the tip!

Alice

Another platform that has worked for me in a similar way is Quora. It’s great for answering questions and driving traffic. I would recommend checking it out alongside Yahoo Answers if you haven’t already!

Brian

I really learned a lot from this post! I had no idea you could get long-term traffic just by answering questions. I’m going to start implementing these strategies right away. Thanks for the detailed guide!