A good FAQ page can help your business out in a number of ways. For one, it clears up the common confusions that your customers have in regards to your business. It also allows online customers to get the information they need quickly so that they can move on to make a purchase.
Beyond that, though, there’s another big advantage to a great frequently asked questions page. They often rank well in SEO rankings.
We’re going to explore ideas on how to get your FAQ page to rank on Google today. Hopefully, the information below can inform the way you create your FAQ page so that it ranks in the search results.
Let’s get started.
The Value of an FAQ Page
If you don’t yet have a frequently asked questions page, it’s important that you think about what you’d like it to do before you start.
The page might seem like a trivial thing, but it holds a lot of potential to ease the workload of you and your employees. For example, you might have a lot of concerns about refunds or simple customer service questions.
You get numerous calls, and the process might be time-consuming to explain so you waste precious time repeating the same information over and over. Crafting an effective FAQ section that details the process could save you dozens of hours over the course of the year.
Further, the page shows that you want to help your customers. There’s a sense of trust that’s built when a user enters a page and is greeted with clear information on the topic they were curious about.
It shows that you pay attention to the concerns that customers have and are willing to take extra time to address those questions. If a user comes to your site with a question, they might not take the time to call or visit your store for answers.
So, a good FAQ page greets those individuals with the information they need, keeping them well-situated in the sales funnel and on their way to your store.
FAQ and SEO
FAQ pages rank well in Google searches because they’re curated, stripped-down answers to very specific questions. In most cases, a user enters the search engine with one of those specific questions in mind.
In this way, the page is a direct source of simple answers to user queries, which is what Google values the most.
Google’s objective is to provide its users with the quickest route to answer the question implied in the keyword phrase. They look for quality content that other users have supported and engaged with.
The unique thing about frequently asked questions pages is that they contain a multitude of answers to various keywords. If you optimize your FAQ to include common questions for users in your target audience, you can find yourself in a number of Google rankings for various things.
When you rank for one particular search, the page gets more traffic. When you achieve more traffic, the page holds more weight in the eyes of the search engine algorithm. As a result, your page starts to rank better in the other keyword searches it relates to.
Similarly, one successful page on a website sheds a good light on the rest of the pages on that site. The rising tide raises all ships in SEO, so your FAQ rankings and engagement will boost traffic to your content pages, home pages, and more.
In this way, FAQ pages can be big drivers for the overall success of your SEO campaign.
Optimizing Your Frequently Asked Questions
It might help to give a very brief refresher on how SEO works.
Search engine optimization is the process of creating your website and its pages in a way that agrees with the search engine algorithm. The algorithm contains a number of factors that determine how useful or relevant a page is in relation to a keyword search.
The specific keyword phrase is important, as you’re trying to rank for that exact wording rather than the general idea of the search. So, let’s say you want to rank for the phrase, “how to get stains out.”
You wouldn’t write a general page on how to get stains out, failing to incorporate the target keyword. Instead, you would create the content using “how to get stains out” in the copy at different intervals.
You’d also put that phrase into key areas in the hypertext, meta-description, image attributions, and other areas. There’s more to a well-rounded SEO campaign, but keyword research and usage are most important for our discussion today.
We’ll now run through a few pointers for you to focus on while you craft your FAQ page to do well in the rankings. Note that you don’t always have to have a full understanding of how the algorithm works in order to optimize for it.
Sometimes, you just have to do things in a certain way and the pieces fall together. The following things should help your page come together in a way that improves rankings.
1. Blend Your Real Questions and Popular Keywords
The headers in your FAQ tend to be the questions themselves.
Each section is distinguished by a bold header that states the question at hand. Headers hold more value than standard text in SEO because the algorithm assumes that the headers give a clear indication of what the content is about.
You won’t always be able to blend your header question with a target keyword because the questions could be too specific. That said, there should be a lot of overlap between user search phrases and the questions on your FAQ.
Run through a keyword research tool and try to identify all of the target keywords you could incorporate into your FAQ.
Let’s say that you run a consignment shop. Your customers might ask about what “consignment” is on a regular basis. You notice that “consignment shops in New Richmond” is a popular keyword for your area.
You could then use “What are consignment shops in New Richmond?” as your question header.
Consignment shops in New Richmond are the same as consignment shops anywhere else, so you can address the definition of consignment shops for your customers while inserting yourself into the rankings for that keyword.
2. Incorporate Different Media
Google values the use of infographics, images, videos, and other forms of media that you might think up.
If there’s a tricky concept that you need to describe, don’t limit yourself to just writing about it. You’ll find that most FAQ pages are just walls of text with very little additional visual information.
Break that mold and try creating a video to use as an aid. You can also use videos from other areas on the internet if you need to. That said, finding a way to supplement your information with visual aids makes it more engaging and useful to individuals.
Google knows this, and you’ll be marked up accordingly. Even if you have the information described well in writing, it might be stuffed in a big wall of text. Anything you can do to break that text up with different information is a good thing.
So, you might add a video that says the same thing you have in writing and place it in the middle of the section. It’s not redundant because visual information conveys things in a unique way.
You could even try to incorporate a video for each section of your FAQ if you had the inspiration to do so.
3. Structure Long Sections
Some questions can be answered in a few short sentences.
Others require a little more explanation. When you’ve got a section that includes a series of information that explains one point, do your best to break that information into sections.
You can use descending headers to structure your information. Think main point, secondary points, finer points, in that order. Use an H2 header for the main points, H3 headers for secondary points, and H4 headers for finer points.
The more structured and clear your subsections are, the better Google will be able to understand them. You might notice that a specific Google search is met with a clipping from a section of a website.
These snippets sit at the top of the search results and address your particular question right on the page. You don’t even have to click. This happens when Google takes one of those subsections from a piece of content and displays it as a ready-made answer for the user.
This is only possible when the information is divided into chunks that are distinguished by headers. Beyond getting a spot as a snippet at the top of the results, you’ll benefit from organizing your content because Google will assume it’s easier for the user to navigate.
4. Don’t Embellish Things Too Much
You have a lot to say about the specifics of your business. You’re knowledgeable, passionate, and you’re the expert on these questions.
That said, longwinded answers aren’t what everyone’s looking for. In fact, most people want to get the information they need and go on with their day. Google feels the same way.
Get to the point as soon as you can. Be as concise as you can, and don’t stray from the truth at all. Try to frame your answers in a way that could be displayed at the top of the Google results and understood in 10 seconds or less.
A FAQ isn’t a blog post, so you don’t have to stretch your writing chops at all. You just have to be concise and answer the question at hand. It might seem like you’re cheating by writing a few sentences and hoping to rank well in Google, but the simpler the better.
If something is too complex to write only a few sentences about, consider using some of that visual information we talked about a couple of sections ago.
5. Update Your Page
Pages that are time-sensitive and dated don’t get search rankings. Google does a good job of keeping rankings up-to-date and relevant to the present.
Even if your FAQ page still answers the same questions a few years after it was created, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t re-write different sections or update the page on a regular basis.
Keep it fresh and it will stay afloat with the other FAQ pages that are more modern. You can do this by changing some wording, adjusting the headers to greet changing keyword phrases, and adding new questions as they arise.
The page should be a living document, not something that you make once and let sit for a long period of time. You should also adjust your FAQ (as well as your other content) in accordance with how it’s performing.
You can look into the analytics of your pages and see where you might find some improvement.
6. Get Some Help
Most of the ideas above can be completed by anyone who has a little bit of experience in managing a website. That said, there’s a lot of skill involved with creating an excellent digital marketing campaign.
Keyword research is tricky, writing for SEO can be strange, and there are a number of other factors associated with rankings. Your website has to be in good shape to compete with the others in your niche, and managing the back-end of a site requires a whole set of skills that not everyone has.
Digital marketing professionals are an excellent investment if you’re not familiar with this process. Even if you are familiar with search engine optimization, it’s important to note that the pros are working campaigns on a daily basis.
The field is changing all of the time, and those who keep up with those shifts are the ones who can have the most impact on a campaign.
Need a Little Digital Marketing Help?
A great FAQ page can do a lot for your business. There are numerous other pieces of SEO and digital marketing that hold just as much weight, though.
They can be tricky to find time for if you’re working to establish your business. That’s where we come in. Contact us to learn more about digital marketing, explore your options, and start seeing success on your website.
