When it comes down to it, the goal of an FAQ page is the same as the goal of search engine optimization: they’re both trying to supply the best answers to the most popular questions users are asking.
For digital marketing, even if your site content is thorough and informative, it’s helpful to remember that many visitors aren’t going to be as well-versed as you are. A well structured, relevant frequently asked questions page helps users to wrap their heads around your business and provides high-level answers to some of their most common questions.
Having a data-backed SEO strategy and ensuring your FAQ page is optimized for relevant keywords, has optimal user experience (UX) design, and makes smart use of structured data can increase conversion rates and improve your leads generated.
Find The Most Common Questions Users Are Asking
To begin answering questions, you need to know what questions are being asked. Here are several question research strategies:
- Analyze your site’s chat logs and search data. Much of the information is already there for you. Figure out user intents – why and how visitors are coming to your site – and then use this data to build effective FAQs.
- Talk to your customer service and marketing team. They’re the ones talking to customers day after day, and they’ll know by heart what the most common questions being asked are. Get insight from those who know because they experience it firsthand.
- Conduct audience research and surveys. You can also directly ask your visitors what their needs are, through surveys and research. Provide users with the answers to their questions by asking them directly.
- Check out sites like Reddit and Quora. Find forums or social media accounts related to your business and see what people are asking. People come to these sites because they actively need a solution to their problem and couldn’t find it elsewhere. Learn from this to pick up on industry trends and provide useful information.
- Use People Also Ask (PAA) results. Using search engine PAA results can yield great insights into customer search intent, so use this data to back up your strategy.
Optimize your FAQ Answers
So now that you know what your customers want, it’s time to start providing answers. Good content marketing provides answers that are thorough, but without losing your visitor’s interest. Keep your answers short and to the point. Provide the information they need, but try to keep it to 2-3 sentences. Where appropriate, use internal linking to drive users to other relevant content on your site, where they can get more thorough answers if they want to. Don’t make your visitors work any more than they have to.
Consider the User Experience (UX)
Now that you have your answers, it’s time to make sure users can find them as easily as possible. Take some time with your site design when considering marketing SEO.
Though it might be tempting to contain all your answers on one page, that can lead to a massive list of questions, with your visitors having to scroll endlessly to find what they need. Good web design plays a huge role in effective marketing strategy.
Instead, consider creating multiple FAQ pages based on different categories. Use link building and treat your main FAQ page as a table of contents your users can navigate outwards from and funnel them towards the content they need. From an SEO perspective, this has the added benefit of allowing you to create different pages, with their own individual keywords, and therefore greater ability to target specific terms. Incorporate relevant keywords in page title tags and the meta descriptions of each page. This allows not only your users, but search engines as well, to better understand what your content is all about.
Stand Out In Search Results With FAQ Schema
One last thing you can do to boost your search visibility is to incorporate FAQ schema into your page. Incorporating structured data into your FAQ page can result in not only your site ranking higher in search results, but also in a featured FAQ snippet in your SERPs, providing users with the answers they need instantly and increasing your profile online. Incorporating FAQ schema also has the added benefit of making your content more accessible through voice search and Google Assistant.
To learn more about implementing structured data, visit the Google Developers FAQ Schema resource.
The Benefits of Incorporating FAQ Pages Into Your SEO Strategy
In digital marketing, your goal is to be as valuable of a resource as possible to your customer. Well-thought-out FAQ sections help you to not only to rank higher in Google, but also can see an increase in conversion rates and leads generated.
Some benefits include:
- Cutting down on the number of human-to-human calls and chats with your customer support team.
- Increasing your chances of featuring as PAA snippets.
- Increasing keyword rankings and CTR by keeping your users on your page through internal linking.
- Improving organic ranking through optimized title tag and meta descriptions.
Incorporating these strategies means not only will you see growth in your web traffic, but you’re building trust and relationship with your user base. For content marketing, this is key. The more you can do this, the more value you provide, the more they come back and access your services. It’s a win-win.
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