The Ultimate Frequently Asked Questions about an FAQ page

We’ll start with the most easily common questions about frequently asked questions.

It stands for frequently-asked questions. The FAQ page on gives quick answers to your customer or potential customer questions. It should provide quick short answers to the most commonly asked questions.

Officially you should write it as “an FAQ” as you are reading the initials (“an eff-ay-cue”).  However, some people do say it as “a FAQ” (a “fack”). It’s probably a British humour thing.
You may find you get slightly more traffic by using the “an” rather than the “a”.

Don’t be fancy. Just call it what it is. It should be called “Frequently Asked Questions”, “FAQ” or “FAQs”. Ensure all three are mentioned somewhere on the page so it can be found.

As many as you want. REMEMBER! The whole point of an FAQ is to save you answering the same questions you always get asked (hence the words “frequently asked”). If customers or potential customers ask repetitive questions, then save you and them time by putting it on your FAQ page. In fact, the FAQ page should be a continuously developed page. Someone will ask you something you didn’t think of and it will be worth adding it.

Probably when you’ve got a handful of new common questions. You may also want to update them when you update your Terms and Conditions or Privacy Policy. 

Your FAQ page should be easy to find. You should have it on every page of your website. We recommend putting at the top AND bottom of the page.

Here we will discuss what people often ask about when it comes compiling their FAQs

It might seem obvious but your first ones should come from your actual or previous customers. Can you remember anything they all seemed to ask? There will be some you just know people will ask.

Check out your competition! Have a look at what they have answered.
Another option is to start typing in a question into Google. Google will start auto-filling in the rest of your question with the most commonly asked questions. It also has a section that says “people also asked”. You should consider answering some of these as well on your website.

Yes! This is a definite! I’m a big believer that there is no such thing as common sense. The world is too big for your customers and potential customers to all know the same thing. They can come from different countries, levels of education or different upbringings. So something that you might think is common knowledge, might not be to them. People also don’t like to look stupid. They might know they are meant to know the answer so not ask you. But if they can find it without asking a person, then it can save them the embarrassment. 

Yes and No. The FAQ page is not an opportunity to brag about you or your company! If, for example, it’s asking if all your staff have a DBS then YES put it in an FAQ. If it is an FAQ about your business in general then you might just want to update your “About Us” page and direct them there. The FAQ section should be about customer needs and concerns, not yours.

You should write the questions from your customers point of view. Consider how most of your customers will ask that particular question.

As simple and as short as possible (yeah I know we’ve already broken this rule a bit). Just make sure you answer the question. Don’t go into too much detail and try not to use scientific jargon and pompous words. It may sound more professional but people just want to understand the answer. Also, remember to be you in your answer. Show them your personality. If it needs a much longer explanation, write a blog about it and direct them there.

Get a work colleague, family member or friend (preferably the dumbest person you know) to read through them and make sure they feel it is answered. If it isn’t, then rework and break down your answer more. Make it a habit to ask someone.

There are a few ways you can organise your FAQs. 

> Firstly you can just list them in a question and answer format. In other words, write the question and answer it underneath. This is not too bad if you only have a small list of questions. If there are too many questions and answers then it might become boring for customers who have to scroll all the way through it.

> List the questions and link them to the answer on the same page. This means when people click the question it will auto-scroll down the page to the answer. Questions are easy to find, there is no need to scroll through answers to other questions you are not interested in and there is no additional load time to read the answer.

> You can also set it out using a toggle bar. This means you can have all the questions listed and then click on the question for it to appear below. It has similar benefits to “List the questions and link them to the answer on the same page” but we just think it looks nicer.

> List the questions and link them to the answer on a different page. This is probably the most common way of listing your FAQs. This is great if you have a long list of questions. It also helps you monitor your most popular FAQs. You will also have a higher chance of Google using them in the “People also asked” section. However, people may get annoyed about going back and forth to different pages if they are looking for more than one answer.

As you get more questions, you should put them under different sectional headings to help navigation. You may also want to consider a search bar at some point for people to find your answers quicker.

Find out why an FAQ will benefit your business

Yes! Well, it will if you have written the Q&As correctly. In fact, it will save you time and money. For example, If you spend a lot of your time answering emails or social media messages then an FAQ can stop them from contacting you first and have them reading the FAQ page first instead. You’d be surprised at how many people have checked your website for an FAQ page first before contacting you.

Yes. The reason is that Google’s way of reading your website has changed recently. It wants to be able to answer questions as well as just get your website found for keywords. If you have Q&As on your website then you’re providing Google with the opportunity to be found for that question. If you answer the question well and people are already going to your website for the answer then google might even list your response in the ”people also asked” section, which will only increase traffic to your website.

A well-answered FAQ page shows off your knowledge and experience. If you can already answer an expected question for a customer, then they already know that you know what they need. Your trust and professionalism will go through the roof, which will give them more confidence to buy your products or services.

Do you ask Alexa, Google or Siri questions? Then this is your answer. In fact, they predict that 50% of all searches across the internet will be voice-based in 2020. The majority of which will be questions. You need to have a page optimised for “Who”, “What”, “When”, “Where”, “Why” and “How”. Other trigger words you might want to consider are “Is”, “Best”, “Can”, “Top” and “Easy”.
Google has also changed how it scans your website. It is called Google BERT. It is now looking for questions. Questions in search term sense are called “long-tailed keyword terms”. Google wants to find these. So, if Google is telling you to do something, then do it. Make sure you are being found for common questions about your business, your products or your services.

Find out more about what an FAQ SSD is and does for your business

The FAQ Structured Data allows Google to display your FAQs directly on the Google search page or through google assistant.

From our research, we have found it displays up to 10 questions.

There are still mixed opinions about FAQ schema.

Some say it is a good opportunity to gain organic traffic to multiple pages in one listing by ensuring each question has links available.
Others worry it could stop people going on to their website. This is because people can just read the answers on google so reduces traffic to their website.

However, as previously stated, if the FAQs are answered well you build trust and professionalism, so although you might have less traffic, the people clicking on your site will be more interested in buying your products or services which in turn increases your click-through and conversion rates.

> Ensure you answer the question correctly.
> Add links to each question to encourage them to your website.
> Be aware of what will show on Google. Don’t post something that gives away your company secrets and skills.
> Do not use it as an opportunity to advertise products. Google will know.
> Remember it is only a part of improving your website traffic. Don’t get caught up in it.
> You can also use yoast SEO to help setup your FAQ structure.