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How to Create A Question and Answers Site in WordPress

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Do you want to build an online question and answer community like Stack Overflow or Quora?

You can create a whole site dedicated to Q&A, or add a question and answer section to an existing WordPress site. No matter what approach you take, helpful questions and answers can improve the visitor experience and keep people on your website for longer.

In this article, we will show you how to easily create a question and answers site in WordPress.

How to create a question and answers site in WordPress

Getting Started with a Question and Answer Website

To start your own question and answers website, you will need the following:

  • A domain name. This is the name of your website, such as stackoverflow.com.
  • A web hosting account. This is where your website’s files are stored. All websites need web hosting.
  • A Content Management System. This is software that helps you create, publish, and manage all your questions and answers. For this guide, we’ll be using WordPress, as it powers nearly 43% of all websites and gives you complete control over your content. To learn more about why we recommend WordPress to all our readers, please see our complete WordPress review with pros and cons.
  • Extra software, plugins, or tools. These add special question-and-answer features to your WordPress website.

How Much Does It Cost to Build a Question and Answer Website?

The answer to this question depends on the features you need, how many visitors you get, how much content you create, and lots of other factors.

To help you budget, we’ve created a complete guide on how much it really costs to build a website. However, typically the cost of building a website can range from anywhere between $100 per year to as high as $30,000 per year.

We recommend you start small and then add more features to your question-and-answer site as it grows and gets more popular. This helps you avoid spending too much on your site before it starts making a profit.

That said, let’s see how you can build a successful Q&A website for under $100.

Step 1: Setting up Your Question and Answers Site

To create a WordPress website, you’ll need a domain name and web hosting. To help you out, we’ve hand-picked some of the best WordPress hosting that you can buy for a question-and-answer website.

Although the WordPress software is free, hosting and domain names are where the costs can really start to add up.

A domain name typically costs $14.99/year, and hosting costs start from $7.99/month. This is A LOT for new websites or anyone working with a limited budget.

Luckily, Bluehost has agreed to offer our users a free domain name and over 50% off on web hosting. Basically, you can get started for $1.99 per month.

→ Click Here to Claim This Exclusive Bluehost Offer ←

Bluehost is one of the largest hosting companies in the world and an officially recommended WordPress hosting provider.

They’re also offering our readers a free SSL certificate, so you can accept payments online. This is perfect if you want to make money from your question-and-answer website in the future.

To buy a domain name and hosting, simply go to the Bluehost website in a new browser window and click on the green ‘Get Started Now’ button.

Bluehost website

This will bring you to a pricing page where you can choose a hosting plan for your question-and-answer website.

We recommend choosing a Basic or Choice Plus plan, as they’re the most popular web hosting plans among our readers.

Bluehost pricing plans

After selecting a plan, click on ‘Continue.’

On the next screen, you’ll need to choose a domain name.

Choose domain name

Ideally, the domain name will be easy to pronounce, spell, and remember.

Need help choosing a domain name for your question and answer website? See these tips and tools on how to choose the best domain name.

After choosing a name, click on the ‘Next’ button to continue.

Now, you’ll need to provide your account information, such as your name and email address. After that, you’ll also see optional extras that you can purchase.

We generally don’t recommend purchasing these extras straight away, as you can always add them later on if you need them.

Bluehost uncheck extras

After that, simply type in your payment information to complete the purchase.

Once you’ve done that, you’ll get an email with instructions on how to log in to your web hosting control panel. This is your hosting account dashboard where you can manage your Q&A website, including setting up email notifications and asking for WordPress support if you need it.

It’s also where you’ll install the WordPress software.

Step 2. Install WordPress on Your Question and Answer Website

When you sign up with Bluehost using our link, they will automatically install WordPress for you.

You can then simply login to your WordPress website by clicking on Edit Site button.

Login to WordPress by click on the Edit Site button in Bluehost

If you don’t see a website here, then you can always install WordPress using Bluehost’s installer.

Click on the Add Site button under the Websites section to launch the installer.

Bluehost add new site

Once that process is finished, you can log in to the WordPress dashboard by simply going to yoursite.com/wp-admin/ directly from your browser.

If you’re using a different WordPress website host like SiteGround, Hostinger, HostGator, or WP Engine, then you can see our complete guide on how to install WordPress for all the top hosting providers.

Step 3. Select a WordPress Theme

After installing WordPress, you’ll typically want to change the default theme. WordPress themes are professionally designed templates that change how your site looks and acts.

There are many different premium and free WordPress business themes to choose from. You can generally categorize these as multipurpose WordPress themes, or niche industry themes.

Another option is to use a landing page builder plugin such as SeedProd.

The SeedProd page builder

SeedProd is the best drag-and-drop WordPress page builder and comes with built-in templates that you can use to build a professionally designed question-and-answer website.

It even has a ready-made FAQ section that you can add to any page using drag and drop.

A SeedProd page builder, with an FAQ section

Once you’ve chosen a theme, please see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress theme.

Step 4. Setting up Your Question and Answers Site

The easiest way to add question and answer features to your WordPress website is by using the AnsPress plugin. This plugin allows you to create a Stack Overflow-style question and answer site.

How to create a question and answer site using WordPress

Even better, AnsPress automatically creates all the pages you need to launch a successful Q and A site.

This includes a page where visitors can type in their questions, in exactly the same way people use websites like Quora.

An example of a question and answer site, created using WordPress

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the AnsPress plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, AnsPress automatically adds question-and-answer pages to your WordPress website. To see these pages, head over to AnsPress » Settings in the WordPress dashboard.

Once there, you can select ‘General’ in the menu on the left-hand side.

The AnsPress question and answer WordPress plugin

This page lists all the different pages that AnsPress has created.

To take a closer look at any page, simply click on its ‘View page’ link.

Changing the question and answer settings in WordPress

The default AnsPress pages should be a good fit for most WordPress blogs and websites. However, you can always add your own content to these pages.

For example, you might add some text that encourages visitors to post their questions, and tells them when to expect an answer.

Customizing the default question and answer page in WordPress

To add your own content to any AnsPress page, simply click on the ‘Edit page’ link next to it.

This opens the standard WordPress post editor, where you can add text, images, and more.

An example of question and answer WordPress shortcode

As you can see, AnsPress adds all its content using shortcode, so don’t change this code in any way.

When you’re happy with the changes you’ve made, just click on ‘Update.’

Customizing the question submission page in WordPress

You can edit any default AnsPress page by following the same process described above.

When you’ve finished, don’t forget to click on ‘Save Pages’ to store your settings.

Changing the AnsPress WordPress plugin settings

By default, AnsPress adds the following message to all its pages: ‘Question and answer is powered by anspress.net.’ This can make your site look less professional.

It also links to the AnsPress site, which can hurt your pageviews and bounce rate by encouraging people to leave your site.

An example of a question and answer site, with a 'Powered by' disclaimer

Because of that, it’s a good idea to remove this text by checking the box next to ‘Hide author credits’ and then clicking on ‘Save Changes.’

Now if you look at any AnsPress page, you’ll see the text has vanished.

Removing the 'Powered by' disclaimer from a question and answer site

With that done, scroll to the ‘Permalinks’ section in the AnsPress settings.

Here, you’ll see the permalink structure and settings that the plugin uses by default. These settings should work well for most websites, but you may be able to improve your WordPress SEO by making some small changes.

Changing the Q and A permalink settings on your site

For example, you may want to add some relevant keywords to the default ‘Question slug.’ This can help you create more SEO-friendly URLs in WordPress.

In the image below, each question will now use the slug /questions/wordpress-questions/question-name/ which will help us rank for the term ‘WordPress.’

Changing the permalink settings on a Q&A WordPress website

If you do make any changes in this section, then don’t forget to click on ‘Save Changes.’

Next, it’s time to fine-tune the layout by scrolling to the ‘Layout’ section. Here, you’ll see that AnsPress shows the user’s Gravatar in a few different places including next to questions, answers, and comments.

Customizing the profile pictures on a question and answer website

You can change the size of these avatars by typing into the different boxes.

For more information on user avatars, please see our beginner’s guide on Gravatars and why you should start using them right away.

By default, AnsPress will show 20 questions per page and 5 answers per page. You can show more or less content by typing new numbers into the ‘Questions per page’ or ‘Answers per page’ box.

Showing more or less questions and answers on your Quora-style WordPress website

If you show fewer questions and answers per page, then users will need to scroll less. This is particularly helpful for visitors who are using smaller devices like smartphones and tablets. It can also speed up your WordPress performance since you’re loading less content.

Just be aware that most visitors expect to get the right answer on the first page, so you’ll want to show a reasonable number of answers per page.

When you’re happy with how your Q&A site is set up, click on the ‘Submit’ button.

Email notifications are an important part of running a successful question-and-answer website. They let admins know when customers or potential leads post a new question, and they also let users know when their question gets an answer.

In this way, emails can keep users engaged and help your Q&A site run more smoothly.

AnsPress comes with built-in email notifications that work out-of-the-box. However, it’s still smart to see whether there are any changes you want to make by clicking on the ‘Email’ link.

Customizing the email settings in your Stack Overflow-style WordPress website

Here, you can see all the different emails that AnsPress will send automatically.

To enable or disable an email, simply click on the box next to it.

Changing the email notifications on a Q&A website

Pro Tip: You need to make sure all your Q&A emails go to the user’s email inbox and not to the spam folder. The best way to do this is by using an SMTP service provider to improve email deliverability. For more details, see our guide on how to fix WordPress not sending email issue.

As always, don’t forget to click on ‘Submit’ to save your changes.

Some question-and-answer sites are completely open to the public. This means that non-logged-in users can see the content and may even be able to post questions and answers without creating an account.

Other Q&A sites are completely private or require user registration.

There are drawbacks and positives to the different approaches. A public question-and-answer site will typically get more traffic and engagement, but it may also get more spam and attract low-quality answers.

If you’re using questions and answers to make money online blogging with WordPress, then you may want to make some parts of your site members-only. This allows you to charge a subscription fee using a plugin like MemberPress.

Another option is allowing people to register with your website for free so you can collect their email addresses. In this way, your question-and-answer site can help you do lead generation like a pro.

However you plan to use your question-and-answer site, it’s a good idea to review the posting permissions by selecting ‘User Access Control.’

The user access control settings

Here, you can see all the different content that logged-in and non-logged-in users can access, and the actions they take. You can change these settings using the different dropdown menus.

You can also change whether questions and answers get posted automatically or if they’re held for admin approval. By default, non-logged-in users can post questions and answers, but you’ll need to approve them manually in the admin area.

This is similar to how you moderate comments in WordPress.

These settings are self-explanatory, but they have a big impact on how your question-and-answer site runs. With that being said, it’s worth going through the different settings carefully and then making any changes.

Changing the posting permissions on your Stack Exchange-style WordPress website

If you do edit these settings, then don’t forget to click on the ‘Submit’ button.

AnsPress encourages users to engage with your site through gamification by awarding reputation points for different actions. This reputation system works by default, but you can change how many points AnsPress awards for each action by selecting ‘Reputations.’

Here, you’ll see all the different actions and their reputation points.

Adding a reputation points-based system to a Q and A website

To award more or less points for an action, simply type a new number into its box. When you’re happy with how the reputation system is set up, click on Save Events Points.

There are some more settings you may want to look through, but this should be enough to help you set up a successful question-and-answer website.

When you’re happy with how the plugin and pages are set up, it’s a good idea to add them to your website’s navigation menu so visitors can find them.

A WordPress menu with question and answer links

For step-by-step instructions, please see our beginner’s guide on how to add a navigation menu in WordPress.

If you need reminding about all the different pages that AnsPress added to your site, then simply go to AnsPress » Settings and click on the ‘Pages’ link.

Managing Your Question Answer Site

At this point, your site is ready to start accepting questions and answers from users. However, depending on how your Q&A site is set up, you may need to manually approve some, or all, of these posts.

By default, AnsPress will email the WordPress admin about any questions or answers that need manual approval. You’ll also see notifications in the admin dashboard.

Managing your WordPress question and answer site

To manually approve an answer or question, simply click on either ‘All Questions’ or ‘All Answers’ in the left-hand menu.

You can then hover your mouse over the post that you want to review and click on ‘View.’

Approving questions and answers on a Q&A WordPress blog or website

This will show a preview of how the question or answer will look on your website.

If you’re happy to make it live, then click on the small cog icon and then select ‘Published.’

Approving a question or answer on your WordPress website

If you don’t want to publish the post, then select ‘Delete’ or ‘Delete Permanently’ instead.

We hope this article helped you create a question-and-answer site in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how to create a contact form in WordPress or see our expert pick of the best live chat software for small businesses.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

Disclosure: Our content is reader-supported. This means if you click on some of our links, then we may earn a commission. See how WPBeginner is funded, why it matters, and how you can support us. Here's our editorial process.

Editorial Staff

Editorial Staff at WPBeginner is a team of WordPress experts led by Syed Balkhi with over 16 years of experience in WordPress, Web Hosting, eCommerce, SEO, and Marketing. Started in 2009, WPBeginner is now the largest free WordPress resource site in the industry and is often referred to as the Wikipedia for WordPress.

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Reader Interactions

81 CommentsLeave a Reply

  1. Syed Balkhi says

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    Did you know you can win exciting prizes by commenting on WPBeginner?
    Every month, our top blog commenters will win HUGE rewards, including premium WordPress plugin licenses and cash prizes.
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  2. Moinuddin Waheed says

    AnsPress is such a powerful plugin that we would be able to make a stack overflow like website on our own.
    in stack overflow any one can post a question and anyone can answer the question just by logging in.
    will this feature be available in this plugin or will we need to have some custom code snippet to make that possible?

  3. Moinuddin Waheed says

    I am working on making a forum for my course website where students can ask questions and anyone can give answers to it.
    I want it to be like a discussion forum which can ensure website engagement.
    I think anspress can suffice my need.
    however, I don’t want it to be a standalone website rather a navigation tab in the main website with the name forum.
    is there a possibility to make one with ansPress plugin?
    or could you please recommend any other ?

    • WPBeginner Support says

      You can do that, you would have normal homepage and you can link to the question and answer section in your menu as you would any other page on your site.

      Admin

    • WPBeginner Support says

      Thank you for letting us know, we will be sure to take a look at updating this article when we are able.

      Admin

  4. Malay says

    After activating the plugin I am only getting DW Question Answer page.
    The DWQA Ask Question page is not reflecting.
    What am I mising over here?

    • WPBeginner Support says

      If I’m understanding your question correctly, you may need to clear your cache if it is a display issue. If you mean you’re not able to list the questions then you would need to reach out to the plugin’s support.

      Admin

  5. Brij Bhushan says

    This article is very useful and informative …………..your way of writing is really easy and understandable I learn so much from your blog thanks for sharing such an informative article

  6. Bob says

    Why this form of Q&A versus a traditional discussion forum such as BBPress? What are the pros and cons of each?

    Bob

    • WPBeginner Support says

      The main bonus of using the plugin from this article is the option to upvote specific answers while a forum is not required to answer questions. It is personal preference for what to use for what you’re trying to achieve.

      Admin

    • WPBeginner Support says

      While you could make something similar without using plugins, it would require a large number of customizations to make it a simple process for your users which the plugin allows.

      Admin

  7. Brij Bhushan says

    Such a more valuable information. I also read your all Blogs. This is awesome!! I’ve always enjoyed reading your blog. Keep writing such kind of info on your page. I am really impressed with this type of writing. Thanks for sharing with us.

  8. Ian says

    This is helpful but when I generate a new question the formatting goes all wrong. I have a transparent header and menu and because the questions is generated on a white background I lose this visibility. Likewise as I edit a question page to make it look right as soon as I generate another question the format reverts back. How do I overcome this?

    • WPBeginner Support says

      You would want to reach out to your specific theme to see if this is a conflict between your theme and the plugin.

      Admin

  9. Anna says

    Hello,

    I would like to enable the option of adding comments and answers without a need to be logged in and without the requirement for an email address. How can I do it? Right now to add anything person needs to give the email.

    Thanks in advance.
    Anna

    • WPBeginner Support says

      You would want to go into the plugin’s settings to allow anonymous posting or comments

      Admin

  10. Graham FB says

    I use a site that the questions asked come in the form of an email. I know postie plugin can convert the email to a post. Can any of the Q and A plugins accept” questions by email ?

    • WPBeginner Support says

      We don’t have a specific one we would recommend at the moment but this method does give an option for your users to submit the questions through your site.

      Admin

  11. Arti Sharma says

    Very nice collections of question answer sites, i have found here best question answer site over my search experience. and also its great use for my question’s answer,thanks for sharing such a wonderful sites. thank you very much.

  12. ATUL says

    Sir I can create a one website that is number of user ask IT question.and ans any user.please tell me about requirement to popular website.

  13. vikash says

    Its not SEO friendly plugin even Youst Seo is not helpful to index in google of questions. i have convert my bbpress tp DWQA but i think its big mistake. its five days gone and there is 112 new questions but no any indexed in google but with bbpress any questions was indexed within 24-48 hrs. now any one can help me the way to convert DWQA to bbpress again? i am not a coder and its very difficult for me please any one help me :(:(

    • Margie says

      Hi Vikash
      Did you receive any help in the end? I am trying to integrate BuddyPress with DW Questions & Answers but the recommended code

      include_once get_template_directory().’/buddypress/bp-custom.php’;

      is reporting errors.

  14. Raju says

    I had a website name. Now I want to create a page for the students where all question regarding maths, especially for engineering and other numerical questions well be in solved form.. can i use this plugin for numerical question or can i put HTML codes using this plugins? pls explain me . Thank you.

  15. Zain Javed says

    Hi sir ,

    Can you please tell me some good free themes with this plugin to work .

    Thank You ,
    Zain

  16. Ajay Rathaur says

    Hi,
    As I have checked on this plugin that user can login with the wordpress account only. is it possible i can modify it. so that people can login with their gmail, yahoo and other mail account also.

  17. syed Ismail Shah says

    i want to create a website for the students where all question regarding maths, statistics and other numerical questions well be in solved form.. can i use this plugin for numercal question or can i put HTML codes using this plugins?

  18. designwall says

    Hi everyone,
    Thanks WPBeginner for this awesome article about our DW Q&A plugin. We really appreciate it.
    @Everyone who is using our plugin and facing any issue or having questions, please feel free to raise it at our Support page: http://www.designwall.com/question/
    Our support staff will answer all the questions and issues.
    Thanks a lot
    Cheers,

  19. hiren patel says

    hello, is there any way to show particular page related question and answer using wp-answers plugin.

    pls advice

    thanks.

  20. younes says

    hello…my friend

    tanx a lot for this post…

    Vote option in Local working perfectly but in really host dont appear

    I disabled all plugin but vote dont appear

    please help me

  21. Christian Trejo says

    Awesome! I was going to spend $124 in the WP-Answers Pro plugin but I installed this and it is awesome. Any idea about how can I translate it? Thanks

  22. Ra Ek says

    DWQA has DWQA in the “DWQA Questions” literal. Where can this be changed? I didn’t find it in the php code.

  23. marian says

    A very good post! I just instaled dwqa plugin, and I came here from a google search ” what theme should I use with dwqa plugin” I read the all post, I read it how to instal from dw guide original page, but tour post is better then their post :)). Good Job. Checking my site http:// Just kiding, this isn’t a spam comment :). Is my feedback :)

  24. Sai says

    Does WordPress.com support downloading plugins and installing them? I saw that it doesn’t. Does that mean all the plugins that are mentioned are for wordpress.org?

  25. Kjetil says

    Thanks for this info
    What is the main benefits with this (or this kind of) plugin compared with a forum plugin (like Simplepress) – apart that Q&A obviously is simpler to setup?

    • WPBeginner Support says

      It depends on how you use a forum plugin. If you want to use it to create Q&A site, then you would need to set it up in a way so that your users can quickly understand what you want them to do. Using a Q&A specific plugin takes the guess work out of the equation and provides a better user experience.

      Admin

  26. Charlie Sasser says

    I have also been looking for something like this. Have not installed yet, but it wasn’t clear if Q&A could be “viewed” without a login. I would want everyone to view the information but have a login to ask a question or answer. Could this be integrated with a plugin that allows login via Facebook, Twitter, acccount, etc.?

  27. Arup Ghosh says

    Great share I was looking something for free. There is a theme by wp-answer.com which allows importing of question and answers from Yahoo! answers.

  28. Anna Coffin says

    This plug in is perfect for my site. I followed your directions but the pages are not appearing on my site? Any suggestions on what might be wrong?

    • WPBeginner Support says

      You can also create your own pages. Simply create two new pages and then go to plugin settings and use one page as Ask question page and the other page for listing questions.

      Admin

  29. Mark H says

    I had a Q&A page on our site for a while (plugin from WPMU) but it was constantly hit with spam. How does this plugin deal with it? Unchecking “anyone can register?” Then what?

  30. Erik says

    It also appears you need to use a redirect plugin.. after you submit a question you get a 404 page.

  31. Erik says

    It would be nice if you could remove the questions category and tags option. Just have the title and question.

  32. Bob Dunn says

    Wow, perfect timing, as I have been debating between a forum and this kind of a plugin for a new site. This helped make my decision :)

    After installing and testing, I did find a couple minor bugs with the theme I am using, but this plugin is in it’s first version I believe, and that is bound to happen. Overall it looks great. Also, going through the support questions it sounds as if they are working on some more specific features as people ask questions or find issues. I see a great future for this plugin… cheers!

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