Mining Quora and Reddit for SEO content ideas
Most SEO content calendars start from a keyword tool, which shows what people search for but not how they actually phrase the question or what specifically confuses them. Quora and Reddit answer that second part directly — both platforms are full of people asking exact questions in their own words and getting corrected, argued with, or thanked in the replies.
Content idea mining from Quora and Reddit means turning a keyword into a specific, well-scoped article outline built from the actual questions people ask and the actual confusions that show up in the answers, instead of writing another generic "ultimate guide" from keyword volume alone.
Quick answer
Use Quora Search Scraper to find questions and existing answers related to a topic. Use Reddit Scraper to pull relevant subreddit discussions and Reddit Comment Scraper to capture the actual reply threads. Combine all three to build content outlines around the specific questions people ask and the specific confusions that come up in the answers.
The content research stack
The stack uses three CrawlerBros Actors:
- Quora Search Scraper for questions, answers, and engagement metrics.
- Reddit Scraper for entire subreddits with posts, titles, text, scores, and timestamps.
- Reddit Comment Scraper for comments on specific posts with text, scores, and timestamps.
The research loop:
\
Target topic or keyword
-> Quora Search Scraper (questions + top answers)
-> Reddit Scraper (relevant subreddit posts)
-> Reddit Comment Scraper (reply-thread detail on the best posts)
-> content outline backlog
\\
Key facts
- Question phrasing is a reusable asset. Quora question text is often close to how someone would actually search — closer than a paraphrased keyword-tool phrase.
- Comment threads reveal the real content gap. Where commenters correct or argue with a post is a stronger signal of what's missing than keyword volume alone.
- Run comment extraction selectively. Reddit Comment Scraper is worth running on the high-engagement posts Reddit Scraper already flagged, not on every post.
- Search multiple phrasings of the same topic. Quora questions rarely match keyword-tool phrasing exactly; two or three variations catch more relevant questions.
Actor configuration that matters
For Quora Search Scraper, search by the same phrase variations you'd use for keyword research — Quora questions are often phrased more conversationally than search queries, so running a few phrasings of the same topic surfaces more relevant questions than a single exact-match search.
\json
{
"searchQuery": "how to price a freelance web design project",
"maxItems": 50
}
\\
For Reddit Scraper, target subreddits where your topic's actual audience discusses it, rather than a generic keyword search across all of Reddit — a freelance-pricing topic belongs in freelancing and web-design subreddits, not a broad site-wide search. For Reddit Comment Scraper, run it against the specific posts Reddit Scraper flagged as high-engagement, since comment-level detail is only worth extracting for posts that already show real discussion.
What the output looks like
The Quora row needs question text, top answer text, answer author, and vote count — question phrasing is often the most reusable asset, since it's frequently close to how someone would actually search. The Reddit post row needs title, subreddit, score, comment count, and URL. The Reddit comment row needs comment text, score, and parent post URL, so a repeated objection or correction can be traced back to its source thread.
Use case 1: FAQ and "People Also Ask"-style content
Quora question phrasing translates almost directly into FAQ section headers — using the actual question text (rather than a paraphrased version) both matches searcher intent more closely and often matches long-tail search phrasing search engines already index well.
Use case 2: identifying content gaps in existing guides
Reading Reddit comment threads on a topic often surfaces the specific point where people get confused or where an existing popular guide is wrong or outdated — that's a stronger content-gap signal than keyword volume alone, since it shows exactly what existing content is failing to answer.
Use case 3: building content in the audience's actual language
The phrasing patterns that repeat across Quora answers and Reddit comments — the specific words practitioners use, not marketing language — make useful headline and subheading material, since content written in the audience's own vocabulary tends to read as more credible to that audience.
Production notes
Search multiple phrasings, not just the primary keyword. Quora questions rarely match keyword-tool phrasing exactly; running two or three variations catches more relevant questions.
Only run Reddit Comment Scraper on posts worth the detail. Comment-level extraction is more useful selectively, on posts Reddit Scraper already flagged as high-engagement, than run broadly across every post.
Read the actual disagreement in comment threads. The most useful content ideas often come from where commenters correct or argue with the original post, not from the post itself.
Keep source links attached to every idea. An outline built from a Reddit thread or Quora answer should keep the source URL nearby, both for fact-checking and to avoid presenting someone else's specific anecdote as a generic example.
Question text alone misses the texture of confusion. Quora questions give headline ideas but miss where people actually get stuck. Adding Reddit comment-thread detail surfaces the specific misconceptions worth addressing directly in the content.
Cost comparison
| Approach | Question phrasing | Discussion depth | Scale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Keyword tool only | No | None | High |
| Manual forum browsing | Yes | Yes | Low |
| Apify Quora + Reddit pipeline | Yes | Yes | High |
Check the current Pricing tab on each Actor page before running at scale.
FAQ
Can Apify scrape Quora questions and answers?
Yes. Quora Search Scraper extracts questions, answers, and engagement metrics for a given search query.
Is this different from keyword research?
Yes — keyword research shows search volume and phrasing at a high level; this workflow shows the specific questions and confusions behind that volume.
Do I need to scrape every comment on every post?
No — target comment extraction at the specific high-engagement posts your subreddit-level scrape already flagged as relevant.
What's the fastest way to try this?
Pick one topic, run Quora Search Scraper for two or three phrasings and Reddit Scraper on two or three relevant subreddits, then pull comments on the best posts.
Try it yourself
Pick one topic you're already planning to write about. Run Quora Search Scraper for two or three phrasings, then run Reddit Scraper on the two or three subreddits where your audience actually hangs out. Pull comments with Reddit Comment Scraper on the best posts. Build your outline from the actual questions and disagreements, not from a keyword list alone.
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