Three Ways to Optimize Your Website FAQ
As I’ve seen across industries in my consulting work, the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page is often unloved compared to other page templates on business websites.
Many times, an FAQ is omitted entirely. And most of the time when one is added to a website, it contains incomplete information and/or looks like it was written by a robot — or possibly by groupthink.
But a good FAQ helps your small business or nonprofit. So it’s a smart play to include one if you don’t have it — or to update it if you can’t remember when someone last looked at it.
The FAQ’s reputation recently took a hit, with Google’s latest Helpful Content Update to its algorithm now excluding FAQ-rich results from the coveted Snippets section at the top of search results. However, as LinkedIn noted last year, despite that, FAQs continue to provide many online and offline benefits for organizations.
Here are three ways to make your FAQ work for both your customer or client leads and for search engines:
Write your questions and answers like a human. Not only do you want to sound like a person — because your lead who has eyeballs and a brain will ultimately read it — but with advancements in search engine algorithms, including those driven by AI, if a search engine has a choice between two FAQs from same-industry firms, the one that stands out in its writing and its ability to serve its target audience will be picked for a given search result. You want your firm to win that result!
If you have the option coding-wise, insert videos and/or graphics into answers (do so judiciously, though). Why? This is primarily for your human readers, to break up the text and deliver a more wide-ranging experience, including the ability for you to brand-build through customer/client and/or employee photos or videos.
Include a call to action (link, email, phone number, etc.) for as many answers as you can. This is something that many FAQs fall short on; they simply answer a question and don’t use the answer to drive a lead toward taking an action that helps them at their stage of product/service research. For this tip, I like to keep in mind that: (a) on any given page, you have less than 3 seconds to make a first impression on a visitor, and (b) every additional second someone spends on your site increases the risk — especially due to distractions — that they will leave without buying or taking another action that moves your business or nonprofit forward. So when it comes to balancing your answers with managing your customer/client/donor journey, carpe momentum! (Seize the moment!)
Check out our FAQ
Compared to business consultants in general — and even many other marketing consultants — our FAQ shines when it comes to shedding light on what we do and how you can work with us. Check it out here.
Note: I did not follow my own tip #2 above — but that’s because Squarespace isn’t currently coded for this when it comes to their Accordion block (widget) that’s used for FAQ pages. (Yes, I will be submitting a feature request to them. 😉)
