In our humble opinion, FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) are one of the most underrated types of content. Not only do they allow you to service your customers, giving them all the information they need to make a decision, but they can also be a valuable tool for SEO.
Remember Ask Jeeves? This vintage search engine trained users to ask questions as they searched, and this habit is still used today, nearly 30 years after the height of Ask Jeeves’ popularity. In fact, over a quarter of all search engine queries (27%) are phrased as questions (source: Surefire Research.)
Over a quarter of all searches (27%) are phrased as questions
Asking questions is also becoming more common thanks to the rise in popularity of voice search. Asking a question is a very natural way of interacting when searching by voice.
In this article we consider:
• What are FAQs?
• Where should you use FAQs on your website?
• How to structure a list of FAQs
• How to identify your most commonly asked questions
• The best way to optimise FAQs for SEO
What are FAQs?
FAQs (also known as Questions and Answers – or Q&As) are a simple question and answer format, designed to directly answer the most commonly asked questions a user might have, such as ‘Can I bring 2 dogs to the holiday cottage?’ or ‘Will my order come gift wrapped?’
FAQs are a tried and tested way of showing the search engines that you really know your stuff and that you’re happy to share your expertise with their users. They help to add more information to your content, especially if you can’t find anywhere to put it in the main body of your text, and can even improve your rankings by driving more organic traffic to your site.
FAQs provide an easy opportunity to target specific long-tail keywords. You can match a user’s exact query and give yourself a better chance of appearing on page one on the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) or in the PPA (“People Also Ask”) snippet on Google, which appears in 87% of all searches.
Read on to find out how to add FAQs to your content and drive more valuable traffic to your website.
Where should you use FAQs on your website?
There are a few different places on your website where it makes sense to include FAQs. Here, we’ll look at those and some examples of what the FAQs might look like for a fictional outdoor clothing brand.
1. A dedicated FAQs page
You can group together your business questions on a dedicated, standalone FAQs page, which is easy to link to from your nav bar, as it’s just 4 letters and therefore doesn’t take up much space. These questions and answers should be kept brief, easy to scan and cover essential information such as delivery times, postage costs, terms and conditions and returns information.
If you have a customer services team, it can help to task them to keep a note of the more common questions they’re asked and then add some of the most frequently asked ones to this page.
Example:
FAQs (h1)
Orders (h2)
Can I change my order?
Yes, if your order has not yet been marked as dispatched, you can change or cancel it.
How long will my order take to arrive?
Orders will take between three and five days to arrive. Alternatively, you can add next-day delivery for an additional postage charge.
2. Category pages
FAQs on category pages can answer broader questions about the products within the category.
Example for thermal trousers category page:
FAQs (h2)
How do thermal trousers work?
Thermal trousers work to insulate your body. They feature a thermal layer to trap heat while also providing ventilation, preventing a build-up of moisture when you start to sweat.
Do thermal trousers keep you warm?
Thermal trousers keep your legs warm during outdoor adventures. A layer of air is trapped between your skin and the thermal underlayer, keeping hold of your existing body heat.
3. Product pages
FAQs are a fantastic addition to your individual product pages and can help to optimise product pages for the information your users are actually looking for. They can address specific queries about that particular product and can help potential buyers to make a decision without sending them off to read reviews on other sites.
Example for walking fleece product page:
FAQs (h2)
Is the walking fleece warm enough for winter?
The walking fleece is made from fleece, one of the best materials for keeping you warm during cold weather.
Is the fit of the walking fleece tight or loose?
The walking fleece is slightly oversized so it has a loose fitting, enough to fit a base layer underneath. If you’d prefer a tighter fit, you may wish to purchase a smaller size than you would otherwise normally wear.
How to structure a list of FAQs
As well as where to put them, it’s also essential to think about the structure of your list of FAQs, not necessarily for SEO purposes but to create a great user experience on your site. Put the most commonly asked questions to the top, as well as any that have urgency or importance.
Again, your customer service staff may be able to help with this. Remember, the aim of these FAQs is to get your users to convert once they’re on-site by supplying them with all the information they need to make a commitment to buy.
As a rule, if you have less than 20 FAQs per page, keep them as a list. More than 20, it’s helpful to group the questions and answers together under helpful headings or categories, so that the page is easy to navigate and scan and not overwhelming to visitors. More than 100 FAQs and it will help the user to add search and filter functionality to the page.
How to identify your most commonly asked questions
Now that we know where to use FAQs and how to order them, how can we actually identify what your most frequently asked questions might be? We’ve already mentioned getting your customer service staff involved by recording what your customers are asking. But what about any other ways of understanding what your customers are asking for?
You might also want to do some competitor analysis, especially when you’re thinking about your dedicated FAQs page. Consider what other similar companies have on their own websites and whether they might also be useful for your customers.
For your category and product pages, come back to your keyword research. During your research, you’re likely to find that some of your related search terms are formatted as questions. These can be added as H2s if they’re important or relevant enough to your on-page content, or added to FAQs.
You can also use the “People Also Ask” snippet section on Google. Simply search for your main keyword and see what comes up on the SERPs. Remember to keep clicking to reveal more questions.
The best way to optimise FAQs for SEO
Now that you’ve listed your FAQs, let’s have a look at how best to optimise them for search. All the usual SEO rules apply – remember E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) and always write for the user rather than the search engines.
Use FAQ schema
Schema markup (also known as structured data or microdata) is a way for websites to help search engines better understand a page’s content and its relationships between different parts of data. The FAQ schema was introduced in 2018 to help provide the most useful results for users.
By implementing FAQ schema markup on your pages, you’ll increase your chances of ranking on page 1 by 2% (source: Search Engine Land.)
Add in commonly used words that might not be on-brand
Of course, it’s important to stick to your brand guidelines for a consistent and recognisable brand. However, sometimes brand guidelines and search queries are at loggerheads.
For instance, a brand might be reasonably priced but may not want to actively describe itself as “cheap” because of the connotations associated with that adjective. However, users are more likely to search for an item using the word “cheap” rather than the brand guideline phrase “reasonably priced,” as it’s more common to say this – and easier to type!
By adding “cheap” into the FAQs, you get around your brand guidelines and still have the opportunity to rank for the term. Taking our outdoor clothing brand for example, they might have a FAQ like “Where can I find cheap thermal trousers?”
So, in summary, FAQs are an excellent way of adding more valuable content to your category and product pages, driving more users to your site and helping to convert them to sales or leads.
Looking for support writing FAQs?
At The Content Marketing Team, we have written FAQs for home pages, category pages and product pages for numerous brands, covering everything from podcasting software to Vitamin C capsules to Ottoman beds. Need a hand writing Question and Answer content for your website? Just give us a shout and we’ll happily talk you through how we can support you.
