What Is Quora? Everything You Need to Know About the Platform

Have you ever wondered how many questions you ask in a day? I don’t know about you, but I ask a lot. In the last 24 hours, I’ve searched the following:

• How should you relax and prepare the night before your wedding day?
• How many calories should women eat in a day?
• How to keep your dog cool?

Random questions like this have fuelled the popularity of Quora. In January 2020, Quora boasted around 200 million monthly unique visitors and over 150 million active users.

So what is Quora exactly? For the uninitiated, Quora is a user-generated question and answer platform, boasting a few unique features distinguishing it from traditional search engines.

For instance, users can follow topics that interest them, access a newsfeed populated with subjects they’re interested in, and upvote answers they like. All of this gives Quora more of a social vibe.

So, now that we’ve covered the basics let’s take a closer look at what Quora is and everything it offers…

How To Use Quora

Following on from what we’ve just said in the intro if you want to start using Quora, here’s how:

Create A Quora Account

Firstly, you’ll need to head to www.quora.com, where you’ll be prompted to either log in or sign up.

You can sign up for a Quora account via Google, Facebook, or email. Select your preferred sign-up method, follow the on-screen prompts, click the checkbox labeled “I’m Not a Robot,” and finally, select ‘finish.’

Quora then asks which topics interest you. With this info, Quora’s better positioned to populate your newsfeed with content you’ll actually engage with.

Just select a topic you like the look of (a green checkmark should materialize). As you start doing this, extra sub-topics may also appear. When you’re done, click ‘Continue’ in the bottom right-hand corner.

You can now identify the topics you’re an expert in. First, head to your profile and then click the ‘Add Topics’ button. This brings up a search bar where you can type in subjects you know about. For instance, hobbies, things you’ve studied at school, the line of work you’re in, etc. This prompts Quora to populate a list of relevant suggestions, which you can add to your ‘list of known topics.’

NB: You don’t have to make a list of topics you’re an expert in.

How to Ask Questions

To ask a question on Quora, navigate to Quora’s home page, click “What is your question?” and start typing your query. Once you’re done, Quora distributes your question to its users and updates you when answers begin streaming in.

How to Answer Questions

Once you’ve signed up to Quora, you’ll soon find that your feed is brimming with questions about the topics you’re following. Upon reading a question, if you feel you have a solid answer, click on the question and select the “Answer” button. Then, write your answer and submit it – simple, right?

How to Upvote and Downvote

As we’ve already hinted at, Quora adopts an upvote and downvote system.

If you come across an answer on Quora that you think is excellent, you can upvote it. Similarly, if you see a spammy or incorrect response, you can downvote it.

As you may have already guessed, the voting system impacts the comment’s visibility. I.e., the more upvotes an answer gets, the higher Quora places it in the response list so that it’s more likely to be seen by users.

You’ll find the upvote and downvote buttons to the left, as highlighted in the screenshot below.

Different Things You Can Use Quora for

Other than just asking questions and giving answers, there are a few different ways you can utilize Quora to your advantage:

Link to Your Website

If you’re looking to use Quora to build backlinks to your website, you can do that!

However, you should only ever drop links to your website that enrich the answers you’re providing.

Low-quality posts that don’t serve any purpose other than trying to drive traffic to your website will look spammy and will likely be downvoted.

The bottom line: Whenever you paste a link to your website on Quora, the focus must be on providing a high-quality response.

Discover Fresh Headlines for Your Content

Suppose you’re looking for fresh inspiration for your blog or social media content. In that case, a bit of headline research never goes a miss. Fortunately, Quora is an excellent resource for glimpsing the kinds of questions people in your niche have and, conversely, what people have to say in response to these queries.

To use Quora for your content research, start by searching for a keyword relevant to your niche in the search bar. Then filter the results so that you can only see questions. These results should give you a clearer idea of the kinds of queries people ask about your keyword; take note of these. Then, at a later date, you can reflect on them and use these questions to fuel your next piece of content.

Up Your Customer Service Game

If you’ve already established a bit of a name for yourself and have a solid customer base, your consumers might be turning to Quora to ask questions about your products and/or services.

If that’s the case, it’s time to start using Quora to deliver next-level customer support and positively influence dialogues about your product, service, brand, etc.

For instance, if customers explicitly inquire about your product, it’s time to swoop in. After all, what better person to answer their question than someone who actually works for the product’s company? Needless to say, the effort you’ve gone to reach shoppers where they’re at and the personal nature of such a response will be a colossal hit with customers. Plus, it showcases to prospective buyers the emphasis you put on high-quality customer support, which can only be a good thing!

Launch a Quora Blog

When we think about Quora, blogging probably isn’t the first thing that springs to mind. However, besides using Quora as a Q&A platform, you can also create and publish blog posts. If you already have a blog elsewhere, you may find that Quora is the perfect place to repurpose your existing content.

If you’re familiar with LinkedIn’s blogging functionality, you’ll be pleased to hear that Quora’s blogging engine is pretty similar. Like on LinkedIn, blog posts are easily broadcasted around Quora’s network. It’s also easy to share these posts on your social accounts to garner more attention.

If this is something you think could benefit your brand, click on your Quora profile and head to ‘Blogs.’ From here, you can start creating your blog, including customizing your blog’s name, URL, and description. Once you’ve done that, you can begin populating your Quora blog with content.

Boost Your Visibility On Search Engines

Like any other website, search engines crawl Quora’s content and displays it in its search results accordingly. For example, you might have noticed Bing lists Quora results in its social sidebar. In contrast, Google showcases Quora content in its regular listings.

The key takeaway: Answers you provide to questions on Quora could be ranked in a premium spot for keywords you’re looking to get traction on.

This is just another reason why every answer you provide on Quora should be laced with value. Not only are high-quality responses more likely to gain more visibility on Quora, but it’s also more probable that they’ll appear higher in Google’s search results too.

To boost the likelihood of your Quora answers appearing on Google’s search results, it’s wise to naturally insert a few keywords into your reply. But whatever you do, don’t keyword stuff your answers because this will have the opposite effect!

Are You Ready to Start Using Quora?

Having read this post, we hope you now have a better idea of what Quora is, how to use it, and how to utilize it to your advantage.

But, before we leave you, below, we’ll list a couple of final tips for making the most out of everything Quora has to offer:

Make sure you fill out your Quora profile as in-depth as possible, including your website and social accounts. This is the perfect place to let people know more about who you are and what you do.

Lastly, you may have already guessed this, but to utilize everything Quora offers to the fullest, you must be active within the topics you follow. This means providing valuable answers to establish yourself as an authority within the Quora community.

Are you ready to start using Quora? Don’t forget to tell us about your experience in the comments box below!