I’m talking about the FAQ: abbreviation explanation, purpose, design rules and other features of this section of the site.
What is a FAQ?
FAQ stands for Frequently Asked Questions (translated as “Frequently Asked Questions”). This is a small guide on the site, giving short answers to frequently asked questions by users. The idea of this section is to summarize the most necessary instructions so that most potential consumers can find the information they are interested in on the site without resorting to the help of technical support of the resource.
The FAQ page on the site serves a bunch of useful functions. For example, it offloads technical support and keeps interested customers on the site / in the application, explaining the key points of the service / program.
What are the benefits of a FAQ page for webmasters and site owners?
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Saves time. And to everyone who works on the site. Maybe at first you will enjoy answering dozens of emails with questions from new users, but after a couple of days it will get bored because there will not be enough time for other tasks. The FAQ will unload you.
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FAQ has a positive effect on traffic volume. Search engines are always trying to answer a consumer’s question. If you have designed the FAQ page in a “question-answer” format, then consider that you have done half the work of optimizing the resource. And there is also a chance to get directly into the search results, and the answer to the question of interest to the user will be on the “editorial”.
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A well-designed FAQ with answers to really popular questions increases the brand’s reputation in the eyes of a potential consumer. So he sees that the site owners understand their customers and are ready to help them.
How to find questions for the FAQ
A good FAQ answers real user questions. But what questions should you answer when writing the first version of the FAQ?
Analyze what questions your customers and users are most likely to ask
The first step is not difficult to complete. If you have already received the first heap of emails or messages on social networks with questions from users, then you can surely tell what questions are asked most often. Here they also need to be described in the FAQ.
Moreover, these can be both questions related to technical aspects, and questions on related topics that prevent a potential client from deciding whether to use your services or not.
You need to select popular “problems” from both directions and expand each in the FAQ.
Check out the competitors’ FAQ pages
There is nothing wrong with being inspired by someone else’s product, as long as it is not about directly stealing content. No one will judge you for choosing to answer the same questions that your competitors are answering. And if you answer them better, you will get an additional advantage over your rivals.
The main thing is to somehow alter them and not copy the style of the FAQ-page (both visually and in terms of the choice of linguistic solutions).
Before publishing, you can check your version through services in the spirit of text.ru and make sure that the level of borrowing does not exceed adequate.
Go to Google or Answers.
It is not a fact that there will be questions related directly to your brand, but with a high degree of probability there will be questions related to your field of activity.
Let’s say you’ve created a password storage application. Enter the keyword “Password Manager” into some search engine or service with questions and answers (Quora, [email protected], Yandex Kew) and see what interests potential customers. Maybe they have doubts about the safety of such programs or some common difficulties.
How to make an effective FAQ page
Now let’s move on to some practical tips for creating an FAQ that are really useful.
Help users find your FAQ page
It sounds strange, but the FAQ page should be called FAQ or Frequently Asked Questions (and it is better to use two options at once). You will greatly increase the chances that the user will even find this section of the site and use it.
The fact is that FAQ is a well-established abbreviation even in Russian, so users will try to find it on your site.
Make this section of your site visible to your visitors so you don’t have to send everyone a FAQ link in response to emails.
Write in the first person, concise and clear
Design the FAQ page as if you are talking to your customer. That is, build some kind of first-person dialogue and don’t go into details.
Better to structure the question differently:
Can users buy two app licenses from the password manager website?
And so:
Can I buy two licenses of the application on your site at once?
You also need to clearly understand that the FAQ is not complete documentation and not part of it. When designing a section with answers to frequently asked questions, you should not describe in too much detail every technical aspect of your brainchild. The shorter the Q&A, the better. You need to quickly orient the visitor, and not load him with additional information.
Design the FAQ-page as a list with points in the style of “question-answer”
This is the standard format. If you had any other idea, wait and think again after you finish reading this section.
First, Q&A is an effective and convenient way to convey information. This has been proven in practice.
Secondly, such FAQ-sections are ideal for increasing the position of the site in the search results. With a well-formed FAQ, you can improve your website’s overall SEO performance and break into Google snippets.
But if you really want to test your hypothesis, then you can conduct A / B testing.
Organize your questions wisely
Two important points should be noted right away:
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The shorter the answer to the question, the better. Sometimes you can really answer in one word. If you are often asked a question about some application function that does not exist, then you should not rant and waste the user’s time. So write: “No.” Positive answers are also not worth describing. Keep within 50-100 words.
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Answer the question directly in the FAQ so that users do not have to go to other sections of the site.
Compare the two answers to the question “Can I get a refund if I don’t like the item?”
First:
Yes. We have a 30-day return policy from receipt of the item. Just send us an email with your order number or post on social media.
Second:
You can read about the return policy here … (and here is some link).
I think it is obvious that the first option is much better. Site visitors and search engines feel the same way.
Speak the consumer’s language
Jargon and specific vocabulary can only be appropriate if your target audience is 100% familiar with it. In any other case, you can lose customers, because they will not even understand you.
Better not to take risks and always focus on the majority. And this means that it is necessary to avoid jargon and anglicisms in any form and write in a common human language. This will be considered good form and will be clear to all visitors, not just those close to your industry.
Use visual content
Sometimes it is useful to insert a couple of pictures right into the FAQ if we are talking about some kind of mini-instructions. A picture is more readable than a text instruction, so this answer can be much more useful than just a set of letters.
The same goes for videos. A large proportion of users would prefer to watch a video instead of reading a canvas of text.
Add a search engine to the FAQ page
This often applies to those sites on which the FAQ section has become too weighty, and it is no longer enough to go over it with your eyes to find answers to all your questions.
There is a separate category of users using search engines by default. It is important to give this caste of visitors the ability to search for content on the page. So having a search box would be a nice bonus.
Well, or at least tell me directly on the FAQ page that you can press Ctrl (Cmd) + F to enable the browser’s built-in search on the page and find the desired question.
Anyway, avoid FAQ pages.
The point is not that such a page on the site is not needed at all. The point is that your site needs to be designed so that the user does not have additional questions. You need an intuitive interface that, on occasion, gives explanations without the need to go to a separate page to understand the principles of the resource or program.
A difficult-to-implement scheme, I agree. But it is worth striving for the benefit of customers.
Instead of a conclusion
Finally, a couple more topics worth disclosing through the FAQ:
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brand return policy,
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countries / cities to which you deliver the goods,
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average speed of ordering and delivery,
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basic information regarding product selection,
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little-known but useful facts about the products being sold.
That’s all. Create a quality FAQ and always keep in touch with your audience.