Yahoo Answers: Backlinks

[redstanford]

has anyone figured out how to get backlinks from Yahoo Answers without leaving your site’s URL in the comment like you see with a lot of spam replies.

[jacked]

You can leave it in the resource box, but I wouldn't use Yahoo Answers too much. They are nofollow links.

[redstanford]

would you still get a backlink off of it though?

[JSProjects]

Yahoo Answers for backlinks is pretty worthless.

But if you've got a level 2 answers account your links will be clickable. There's some "grey hat" methods that can be used with a level 2 account, since questions @ Yahoo Answers tend to rank pretty high in Google.

[cka233]

You main aim of using Yahoo answers should be for direct traffic, because the links they provide are nofollow

[rain21]

links in yahoo answers are nofollow, so it doesn't help for SEO. Just good to get some traffic

[masterjani]

Links from yahoo answers helps in getting high quality traffic.Sure helps only when your level1 account moves to level2

[BenJackson]

Just because they are "nofollow" doesn't mean they are worthless links. Yahoo Answers is moderated: don't you think that Search Engines would see a level of trust coming from links that are on a well moderated site?

Don't dismiss the links simply because they are nofollow. Answering a question on yahoo answers (answering effectively NOT spam) takes all of about 1-2 minutes and can get you targeted traffic. People in yahoo answers will see your answer AND on occasion your answers will show up for long-tail keywords in the SERPs.

You're doing SEO because you're trying to get targeted traffic eventually from ranking highly. Why wouldn't you want targeted traffic right now as well?

[NoFluorescentLights]

not only do many people who seem to be succesful at SEO talk about having a balanced backlink profile/portfolio which would naturally include no follow links (even though the vast majority of links on the internet are do follow according to matt cutts), what makes you think a do follow link from a PR N/A or PR0 site would be any better? what is that going to bleed to you in terms of link juice? ive seen some consistent trickling traffic from my links there, but i do wish i could get some anchor text on them. would love a trick for that but have never seen it on any answers...

[netw6000]

Hello:

I beg to differ on the nofollow thing. I just checked my stats in Google Webmaster tools and Yahoo Answers is listed right there in the "links to your site" section. Whether they count much or not is another question. But they definitely are seeing the links you put on Yahoo Answers and aparently not ignoring them.

What I do is try to use my keywords in the answer. I only search for open questions first. I also put my keyword right before my URL like this...
keyword phrase - your domain here with http in front

Google does look at surrounding text for keywords.

It's even better if your keywords are in your domain name then your anchor text is built in.

[Kurt Abel]

Don't shy away from backlinks just because they are no follow. Google wants to see a natural link profile, and it doesn't look very natural for a popular site to have all do follow links pointed at it... just my 2 cents.

[paulgl]

Originally Posted by kwaaea

Don't shy away from backlinks just because they are no follow. Google wants to see a natural link profile, and it doesn't look very natural for a popular site to have all do follow links pointed at it... just my 2 cents.

That makes no sense, but explains how bad advice sounds so good, people go
for it.

Getting nofollow links to balance anything to look like "natural" to google
is crazy. You get the nofollow links. I'll concentrate on ones that matter.

Natural? I'd sure like to find the person that came up with that nonsense.

My gosh people we are debating yahoo answers! That alone is crazy.

The first answer should have been, "Do something else that matters."
And let the thread die. If you are new, yahoo answers does not even
give you a link. They have really cut down on the spam.

Paul

[lexilexi]

I wrote an entire section on link building from Q&A sites (such as Yahoo answers) in my Link Building black book. I thought 'what the heck' and decided to post it here, it's some useful info. There are lots of Q&A sites out there and some of them are not nofollow.

Q&A sites

Let's say you have a free resource of some kind available. There are a growing
number of "Question and answer" sites out there where there may be people
seeking exactly what you have to offer!

Can send very targeted traffic - and in some cases PR. I think this tactic is
better suited for traffic than PR - but be warned, looking at some of the scary
questions on certain of these sites, I occasionally wonder if I even want their
traffic! However, looking at the audience demographics of these sites using
Quantcast (great research tool by the way) shows that these sites often have a
broad, balanced audience demographic. The audience, in short, consists of all
kinds of people asking all kinds of questions.

I have read that on some of these sites it is possible to subscribe to certain
keywords and receive an email when such a question is asked - but I haven't
discovered that feature yet; anyway, something to look out for.

Yahoo! Answers - Home (links are nofollow as of Jan 2009) This is the
big one. According to http://www.marketingvox.com/draft-qu...leader-037442/ (2008) they had 74% market share for Q&A
sites. Use their "advanced search" feature to find unanswered questions related
to your keywords - nice.

Answers.com: Wiki Q&A combined with free online dictionary, thesaurus, and encyclopedias - was apparently still dofollow as of Apr 29th
2008, but when I tested it (Jan 2009) , neither the regular http://www. nor an
<a href=> tag created a clickable link out from a posted answer. Here's their
Advanced search - Answers.com - Question Search
also Answers.com - Help Center: Asking a Question on WikiAnswers - gives another
way to find questions. Hugely popular site – global Alexa rank 134 (Feb 2010).

GoFTP :: Home :: Fast, Free FTP Client - new site that has exploded in popularity in Q4 of
2009.

Help.com - I looked at this one but most of the questions are
pretty random and their search doesn't seem to be working. Not so highly
recommended (but maybe it will be fixed by the time you read this).

AOL Answers. Ask Us Anything - profile links are do-follow, links in answers are nofollow,
in questions are do-follow (Jan 2009)

Unasked.com : The Only Stupid Questions Are The Ones Left Unasked - only profile links are dofollow.

Even more to investigate:
Ask questions, Find answers - Askville
Ask Questions, Get Free Answers - Blurtit – global Alexa rank 1749 (Feb 2010).
Answerbag.com | Ask Questions, Get Answers, Find Information – global Alexa rank 1295 (Feb 2010).
Fluther: Tap the Collective
LinkedIn Answers - Home | LinkedIn
Lycos
Google Groups
AnybodyOutThere - Talk about it
Mahalo Answers
LinkedIn Answers - Home | LinkedIn
Ask Me Help Desk – global Alexa rank 6542 (Feb 2010).
http://www.qna.rediff.com
Ask Questions, Get Answers from Experts ASAP | JustAnswer
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/question_and_answer_sites.php

There are a growing mountain of these sites! Obviously the biggest ones will
send the best traffic – but the good news is that your answers on any of them
may be picked up by future search engine queries.

[1234nasir]

But mate...... this process is lengthy and time taking.

Originally Posted by BenJackson

Just because they are "nofollow" doesn't mean they are worthless links. Yahoo Answers is moderated: don't you think that Search Engines would see a level of trust coming from links that are on a well moderated site?

Don't dismiss the links simply because they are nofollow. Answering a question on yahoo answers (answering effectively NOT spam) takes all of about 1-2 minutes and can get you targeted traffic. People in yahoo answers will see your answer AND on occasion your answers will show up for long-tail keywords in the SERPs.

You're doing SEO because you're trying to get targeted traffic eventually from ranking highly. Why wouldn't you want targeted traffic right now as well?

[BenJackson]

Originally Posted by 1234nasir

But mate...... this process is lengthy and time taking.

It really isn't though. Yahoo Answers is far from a primary method of promotion for me, but I still use it and it takes very little time. I get on about once or twice a week and bang out some answers in a few minutes.

Is 5 minutes of your time worth a new subscriber or two? What's the lifetime-value of a subscriber or customer for your site? I'm guessing it's worth more than 5 mins of time.

That being said, I don't think any method of link building should be ignored: D-I-V-E-R-S-I-F-Y

[somenathsen1]

i think yahoo answers is nofollow.......you use some dofollow site to get backlink and improve SEO rank......

[jacked]

Originally Posted by rain21

links in yahoo answers are nofollow, so it doesn't help for SEO. Just good to get some traffic

Yes this, they will not help your rankings, but they will drive traffic if you can leverage them nicely.

[Enzo Ewens]

I would say Ask Yahoo answers with Targeted Keywords in mind as they rank faster in the search engines. Although it is no follow it doesn't mean it can't help with your site getting traffic.

What google says about no follow is that it doesn't PASS pagerank, but my tests reveals that no follows "might" be one of the ranking factors of Google so I wouldn't devalue it much.

Also it is more "natural" if you have nofollow links in your whole linkbuilding profile. Right?

[heshan]

i think now yahoo answers does not allow ppl to post links and dont misuse it for spamming coz ur yahoo account can get deleted

[Victor Edson]

The links are "nofollow" but that doesn't mean you shouldn't use the site.

If you're asking about it, chances are that you don't have a huge list with loads of push button traffic. So you could use it for free, easy traffic.

Just don't use it as a way to get your site to move up in the serps, or you'll be spinning your wheels for a long time.

[lexilexi]

Agreed; seeking relevant links directly for the traffic that can come of them is a great link building practice and the traffic is independent of search engine whims!

[olakh]

Yahoo answers help us to get backlinks.I also do yahoo answers to get good result.

[theseowork]

From Yahoo answers you get traffic or no follow backlinks as well as..

[pilaruk]

The great thing about Yahoo Answers is that you are building your reputation and that by helping people you could attract people to your business.

[jonnyhardbaked]

Yahoo answers can generate good traffic. And getting traffic for me is part of link building campaign.

[jacked]

Yea exactly jonny. I have had some amazing success before while using Yahoo Answers to generate traffic to my money site.

[sane1]

So great for traffic and useless for links?

[HorseStall]

Write regular good quality answers and link to additional information on the site.