Yahoo! Answers Link Relevance Trick

13 replies
I've started testing Yahoo! Answers to get traffic to my squeeze page and came up with an idea in bed last night.

This is a solution to *my* problem but hopefully some others can benefit from it too.

Here's the scenario...

I have a squeeze page set up at www.mydomain.com that basically offers a free report in exchange for signing up to my list

When answering questions and providing the my URL, it's harder only being able to provide a link that's relevant to their question as I only want to direct them to the squeeze page.

So here's what I've done.

When I link back to my site, instead of just linking to the homepage, I add the keywords at the end of the domain, so that it appears as if it were a contextually relevant page.

Consider an example where I'm responding to a question about strawberry flavoured milkshakes, I would format my url in the following way:

Code:
http://www.mydomain.com/index.php/amazing-strawberry-flavoured-milkshake-secrets
The way that the apache web server works (which most unix/linux servers run) means that if the server can't find the page or directory it's looking for, it goes back along the URL until it finds a location that it *can* find. In this case, the index.php page (the home page)

I've not tested to see if this does actually increase clickthroughs, but I figure it can never hurt to make the page you are offering them more contextually relevant.

You can take this one step further with a tweak to the htaccess file and remove the "index.php" file from the URL too.

Then the url you provide would be:

Code:
http://www.mydomain.com/amazing-strawberry-flavoured-milkshake-secrets
I hope that someone finds this useful and if you've got any questions about the technique, go ahead an ask

Cheers

Jon
#answers #link #relevance #trick #yahoo
  • Profile picture of the author Monetize
    Hello Jon,

    I must say that's a super great idea and you are fantabulous for sharing it.

    Besides Yahoo Answers, this can be used in so many different ways.

    Thanks

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    • Profile picture of the author Solidsnake
      Banned
      Tell us the result then so that we can try..

      Thanks
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      • Profile picture of the author jonparker83
        Tell us the result then so that we can try..
        Unfortunately, I don't think there is a way of testing this so I'm working on the basis that more relevant is better than less relevant

        Thanks to a PM, I realised I didn't quite give enough information either.

        If your website doesn't use absolute URLS (one's including the http:// and everything) then you need to add the following code just after your <head> tag:

        Code:
        <base href="http://www.yourdomain.com/" />
        Cheers

        Jon
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        • Profile picture of the author jpuppy
          cool little trick!
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          • Profile picture of the author ExRat
            Hi,

            If you wanted to track which keywords sent the visitors, you could either -

            a) use a tracking/cloaking script like gotrythis (which allows you to add phrases to the end of urls 'on the fly')

            b) create a redirect page on your hosting under the domain

            For either it would be yourdomain.com/strawberry-milk-shakes(.html for b)

            and then a) check your stats in gotrythis or b) check your page view stats in your stats program

            You might find that 90% of your successful sign ups came from posting about 'stawberry flavoured milkshake' rather than 'chocolate flavoured milkshake' in which case you would then look at expanding your efforts for that particular niche.

            So for a) you would just create a new link in gotry this (EG yourdomain.com/go/bananamilkshakes)

            or for b) you would already have a html page set up with redirect to the main url code in it, and simply give it a new name (banana-milkshakes) and upload it.
            Signature


            Roger Davis

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          • Profile picture of the author grumpyjacksa
            howzat 4 a loophole.......

            thanx, man !
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            Ex-ghostwriter now writing exclusive PLR ebooks - Limited PLR Club
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  • Profile picture of the author WinsonYeung
    Yes, that how i advertise from yahoo answer too.
    Even you know how about the solution, just do a search on ehow.com and you can find it
    Signature
    [WSO of The Day] Discount How To Generate 172.56% Positive Return OR build your List for FREE!

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    • Profile picture of the author jonparker83
      @exrat

      I already have tracking set up on my site, but what I meant was that there is no way of tracking how effective the contextually relevant link compares to the regular domain name link

      There should be no need for the extra work associated with using a tracking/cloaking script or a separate html page, as the redirect location is always the same place (the homepage)

      Any half-decent analytics software should track the different URLs used to request your site too

      I had no idea this technique was already talked about elsewhere - I didn't steal it.. honest!!
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      • Profile picture of the author Chris_Willow
        Thanks for sharing!
        Simple and genius, I bet it would increase the CTR, but when the user lands on the page and it is not as revelant as he thought, he will quickly click back... Unless you catch him with a good headline

        Chris
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        • Profile picture of the author Bruce NewMedia
          Jon, interesting, but I may not understand: You're saying they click a link that has "strawberry milkshake" in the url. Presumably your Yahoo Answer had something to do with STRAWBERRY MILKSHAKE, right? .... then they hit your squeeze page and see what?

          It seems to me if it what they see has nothing to do with 'strawberry milkshakes' or at least 'milkshakes' in general - - - -They're gone. Is there something you're adding to this I'm missing?

          _________
          Bruce
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          • Profile picture of the author jonparker83
            ok... an example

            Your main website is www.howtoloseweight.com

            You are answering a question like "Can I lose weight by eating only cakes" on Y!A

            So you write your bit on Y!A and provide the following link:

            Code:
            www.howtoloseweight.com/lose-weight-by-eating-cakes
            Granted, the homepage isn't going to be relevant to their exact question, but hopefully they will still be interested in your free report on how to lose weight.

            Maybe they won't find your squeeze page relevant and therefore not chose to sign up, but they definitely won't be joining your list if they never make it to your site in the first place

            Hope that clears things up

            Cheers

            Jon
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            • Profile picture of the author Frank Bruno
              The issue that I see with the use of the 404 redirect to the homepage in this instance is that once they get to the landing page they're going to discover that it's not what they wanted.

              So essentially in the end you're giving them a irrelevant information that's not targeted.

              Sure your getting the initial click through but by the time they get to your site, its a good probability its not what they are looking for even though your keyword rich URL indicates that they will.

              Frank Bruno
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