I would like a complete explanation of how Yahoo! Answers works from an SEO standpoint

[dminorfmajor]

I searched on here for this very topic but all I could find were mentions of it in other posts and services. I've always heard great things about it but I don't really know how it works.

I just tried it for the first time and the link I used wasn't live at all so I can tell this requires some work. I just would like a a complete explanation on how an SEO person can use it to it's full potential.

Thanks a ton in advance, I'm quite eager to try something new...

[satrap]

Originally Posted by dminorfmajor

I searched on here for this very topic but all I could find were mentions of it in other posts and services. I've always heard great things about it but I don't really know how it works.

I just tried it for the first time and the link I used wasn't live at all so I can tell this requires some work. I just would like a a complete explanation on how an SEO person can use it to it's full potential.

Thanks a ton in advance, I'm quite eager to try something new...

The reason your link wasn't live when you tried, is because in order to have live links you have to be a level 2 (I am not sure its 2 or more) member on yahoo answers. You get to higher levels by answering more questions and getting your answers to be voted the best answer.

Its point based. So each answer you give, gives you a set amount of points. Each best answer you give, gives a little more points and so on.

Now as far as SEO goes, when you get to that level where you can leave live links in your answers, those live links basically count as your backlinks (assuming those links are links back to your own site).

I do believe however, that links in yahooanswers are nofollow, which means not much value as far as SEO is concerned.

However, with yahoo answers its not much about the SEO part , but its more about direct traffic. If the question you answered (with your link in it) ranks high in the search engines for that term 9whcih a lot of time they do), you get some traffic to your own site, from people who may click on your link in your answer.

Hope that answered your question.

[retsek]

The Yahoo answers links are nofollow, but they are valuable. I use them to backlink deep pages. If you find the right service, your links will look very natural.

Of course Yahoo Answers should only be small % of your link building efforts.