Tutorial Q&A Link Building for DA & Referral Traffic

Hey all!

I've been a long-time lurker on this forum so I wanted to share some super powerful SEO link building tactics that I've used that I think might benefit a lot of folks here. This community has actually helped me a TON with some of the local SEO things we've run into so I want to give back so to speak and share a tutorial about the kinds of links we see driving a lot of results.

I've seen a lot of misinformation out there, ESPECIALLY with local SEO and backlinks in general, so I'm hoping this will help (no sales pitch or website links, just a nice tutorial ).

One of the biggest, easiest wins I can recommend is to build some killer Q&A links. This is how I do it for my projects:

Step 1: I Set Up The Accounts

The first thing I do is set up an account for each of the websites I’m trying to rank on 10 different major Q&A sites (like Quora, Fluther, etc.). I then personalize the page as much as possible by creating a custom description, adding my social media accounts, and uploading my logo.

Step 2: I Choose Some Targeted, Relevant Questions

The next thing I do is choose 10 different questions related to my business niche. For example, if you were building links for an insurance website, you might choose questions like “what is the best type of life insurance” - you get the picture! I’ve found it helps to get inside the head of my target market and try to think about what questions they might ask.

Step 3: I Write a Detailed, Relevant Answer

Finally, I do a little research on each question so that I can write an accurate answer. The answer should be of as much value to the reader as possible. The aim is to get upvotes so your answer commands more authority. I also include any target keywords that I want to rank for in each answer (as naturally as possible) and a natural, contextual backlink. I tend to vary between branded, naked, and generic anchor text for each answer. Once I’ve written the 10 questions and answers, I post them to 10 different Q&A sites from the accounts I built in step 1.

The Results

The best thing about this strategy for me is that it lets me leverage the ranking power of authoritative Q&A sites. Q&A sites tend to rank on the first page of the SERPs for tons of search queries. By having a link in some of those pages, I can generate lots of referral traffic. I also get the added bonus of having 10 powerful, highly-relevant backlinks from high DA websites.

The biggest problem with this strategy for me is the amount of time I need to invest in researching and answering different questions. Those that don't have the time or the content writing ability are usually the types of clients that my company works with, but if you've never done any link building, this is an easy DIY strategy you can start with to bolster some quick wins.

Has anyone used any other link building strategies that they’d recommend? Let me know! Let's get a discussion started.

Cheers,

Joost

 

[JoyHawkins]

Do you post the original question from a different account then so it doesn't look like you're talking to yourself?

 

[Joozed]

Do you post the original question from a different account then so it doesn't look like you're talking to yourself?

Hey Joy,

So maybe the wording was a bit ambiguous, but we're not typically writing the question and answer portions. There can be exceptional circumstances, but usually we're looking for threads that are seemingly about to have a big uptick in traffic (thus able to rank more easily), already have lots of views but maybe some garbage answers we can do better than, etc.

This might seem like trying to throw crap at the wall and see what sticks, but there are a lot of quality metrics we use on our end to look for promising results, and the big thing is that we'll typically be writing anywhere from 200-800 word answers depending on the project, niche, etc.

So the short story is this:
A really good long-tail/question phrase is found on a site, the thread is new, isn't one of many duplicates, and/or doesn't have great quality answers yet, we go and write an excellent post on that thread.

My advice to you doing this is to worry mostly about finding threads where you can stick out the most and that will have a lot of engagement (even if the niche is small, 10k qualified is always better than 1 million unqualified, right?).

Please feel free to reply again or PM if you have any specific questions, I'd be genuinely happy to guide you some more if you give it a shot.