Frequently Asked Question Page for Websites: How to Create a Great One?

In general, an FAQ section (Frequently Asked Questions) can be defined as a collection of important information arranged to provide further knowledge about your service or product to the potential customer. All that information is presented in a question and answer format, making it convenient for readers to find exactly what they’re looking for.

While many developers tend to underestimate the importance of this page, from a digital marketing standpoint, it actually has a massive effect on your online business, especially when converting site visitors to paid customers.

In this article, I am going to give you some recommendations on how to create an engaging and informative FAQ page.

What’s the Deal with an FAQ Page?

Did you know that most website visitors will only read 20% of your page?

With that knowledge, it is easier for me to explain that the FAQ page is often used by users to “summarize” your product’s quality and worth.

Most visitors will only skim the main page, then proceed to the FAQ page to consider whether your products or services are worth their hard-earned money. As an alternative, if your main landing page only provides limited information, users will go to the FAQ section to learn more. Providing detailed information on the FAQ page will surely boost your chances to earn their trust.

In addition, a detailed, well-organized FAQ can also improve SEO since it usually contains a brief summary of the main page, which in theory should be ranked organically.

Anything that can boost your SEO should be used as optimally as possible because SEO is arguably the most important aspect of growing your online business.

Moreover, a good FAQ page has a significant effect on increasing sales as the page will help convince the skeptical customer to trust your service.

Nonetheless, it is important to note that the page should always provide honest and true information.

A FAQ page should be used to answer your visitor’s questions without being too focused on marketing your product.

How to Make a Great FAQ Page

Creating a great FAQ page is not as difficult as you might think. In fact, this should be relatively easy for you as a business owner (all you need to do is answer the most common questions, which you already know the answers to).

However, there are some basic rules that help create a quality FAQ for your website. Here are those rules:

1. Display Relevant Information

An FAQ is usually arranged in a question and answer format which is divided into several parts. Each part aims to answer specific questions, such as the complete specifications of the product, how to order, how to pay, and how to ask for a refund.

That being said, just because an FAQ serves as a source of information that does not necessarily mean that you should pack literally everything in it.

A good FAQ page should only contain relevant information. To determine whether the information is relevant or not, you should put yourself in your customer’s shoes and ask the question – what do the customers want to know about my product? The question format helps in this as well. All you need to do is answer, and avoid being too .

2. Have a Good Question Structure

Once you have compiled all the necessary information, you need to present it with a nice flow and in a logical order.

Start by answering the general questions, such as where can the customer buy your product and what exactly are the differences between each of them (if you have multiple products).

Then, move on to a more specified question, such as how your product is made and why does it cost less than your competitors.

Good question structure does not only make your site’s FAQ easier to read, but also help users find the answer to their question more easily.

Avoid putting unnecessary information in the middle of the FAQ page, such as your contact information or the history of your company. This kind of information should be put on different pages like “About Us” or “Contact Us”.

3. Avoid Mistakes at All Cost

While it may look trivial at first, typos and basic grammatical mistakes are hard to be overlooked. In fact, a recurring silly mistake is usually enough to annoy some people and make them leave your site.

After all, if your FAQ page is not in order, why should the customer believe that your service is any better?

Moreover, you should always make sure that your answers are accurate and up-to-date. If you have updated your product or added another service to your line up, make sure that the FAQ page is updated accordingly since the outdated information will confuse your site’s visitor.

In addition, when you are setting up a big seasonal event or a special promo, it is better to create a specific FAQ page for them.

This way, you can make sure that the information will not cause misunderstanding with your potential buyers.

4. Insert Your Keywords

Google orders the SERP by actively scanning and listing the content on every website and grading it by certain standards. Since FAQ is considered as content, you can use it to boost your site’s ranking by embedding keywords that are related to your niche, or by using question long-tail keywords as headings to those questions.

However, it is very important to note that keyword stuffing is really bad for SEO. Therefore, I strongly recommend that you reach no more than 2% keyword density for your whole FAQ page.

Here are some tips to avoid keyword stuffing:

• Focus on creating a helpful FAQ page instead of adding keywords where they might not belong.
• Use Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) to enrich your page’s keywords.
• Use shorter paragraphs when answering each question. This way, you will easily spot any repetitive words.
• Use pronouns to refer to something repetitive.
• Make sure keyword density is 2% or less.

Moreover, you can also use an online tool to check the keyword density, such as SEO Review Tools. You can paste the URL of your FAQ page or add the text directly into the search box (don’t worry, it is free to use!).

5. Use Pictures or Videos

The fact that FAQs are written to provide information doesn’t mean that you can’t add a bit of creative flair. In other words, FAQ pages are often boring and uninteresting.

Luckily, you can make it look more attractive by adding pictures or videos. You can also use charts, illustrations, tables, or any other visual aid to keep the page easier to understand by providing detailed information.

In addition, if the FAQ somehow contains a short technical tutorial, you may want to use a video to explain everything instead of using a written guide. However, avoid putting too many videos on an FAQ page since it may slow the page.

Try adding a link instead, but make sure that it will direct the visitor to their destination. Do not place ads or let them go through multiple sites to reach the intended page.

6. Pitch Your Products

Pitching products or services on an FAQ page is a common practice. After all, the real reason to write FAQs is to convince the potential customer to buy and use your product.

Nonetheless, you need to be subtle. You can use a “call to action” sentence here and there, but do not overdo it. Try making it as a part of the explanation, not a blatant sales pitch.

Furthermore, make sure to always add links to important pages like your product’s page, pricing, etc.

5 Examples of a Great FAQ Page

Now that you know how to write a killer FAQ, you should start compiling and determining the most common question about your site.

To give you a better perspective on how to apply those guidelines from before, here are some examples of great FAQ pages that I took from multiple successful companies out there. Take a close look:

1. McDonald

As a fast-food company, McDonald’s does take its time creating a detailed and well-organized FAQ page. They provide all the information you may want to know about their products, including some specific details, such as the kind of beef they use for their patties and the reason why their products are cheaper than most handmade burger stalls.

Another great thing that you should note from the McDonald’s website is the way they use pictures to categorized each product’s FAQ section.

These pictures are simple, but they are quite effective for attracting visitors – including myself – to stare at them for a couple of seconds and wonder if I should get those McNuggets for lunch.

2. Microsoft

If you are selling software or other digital products, Microsoft’s FAQ page is definitely a textbook example of what to do.

It provides a direct and clear explanation about their products in the simplest way possible. That way, even an inexperienced user will have no trouble understanding the information.

Although there are tons of features in each Microsoft product, they choose not to babble about them too much and focus on covering the basic information instead. This actually makes sense since the technical aspects of a product should be explained on a specific product page, not in an FAQ.

3. Buffer

As a developer of social media management software, Buffer has a lot of features that may confuse a beginner. Luckily, they implement such an elegant way of covering all aspects of their product in the FAQ page – it is simply divided into multiple sub-sections.

Buffer’s FAQ page is an impressive example of how to fit such a huge amount of information on a page. It is packed, but you won’t have a difficult time finding what you are looking for.

However, the layout does seem a bit too simple. It may be a bit “boring” for those who have an eye for popping colors and unique designs.

4. Dropbox

Dropbox’s FAQ page is a perfect example of how a simple touch can help the customer tremendously.

At a glance, it does not look like anything special, except for the fact that they provide a “suggestion box” that contains some links to the pages that are actually helpful to the visitors. This gesture can save a lot of time for their users when they look for specific information.

In addition, Dropbox placed the suggestion box before the FAQ. This way, you do not need to scroll all the way down to find it.

The page also has a rating system to measure customer satisfaction. If you are not sure about the quality of your FAQ page, adding a rating button may be the best idea to figure out whether the page is actually helpful or not.

5. Pinterest

The core of every FAQ page is the text – making sure that it is visible and easy to read.

On a more specific note, I personally think that the Pinterest FAQ is the one that stands out from the rest – it uses a simple style with a bigger font size that is so easy to read and skim through. The text is also linked to a specific page that contains short tutorials.

However, if you plan to adopt this style, make sure that the fonts are not too big. You may also want to provide some visuals, so the page isn’t “too wordy”.

Time to Create Your Own FAQ Page

Now that you know how to create a great Frequently Asked Question page for a website, it’s time to get to work. Remember, a good FAQ page should leave no further questions on your visitor’s mind. Thus, making them feel comfortable buying or using your services.

In addition, there are some important elements to note when writing an FAQ page:

1. Make sure that you only display relevant information and don’t pack anything unnecessary.
2. Have a good question structure. Read it out loud to have a better sense of how a visitor will read your answers.
3. Avoid mistakes. Use Grammarly to check for typos, missing punctuation, and grammatical errors.
4. Since FAQ pages rank as content, you should always insert keywords to boost the website’s rank on the SERP’s.
5. Use pictures and videos to make your FAQ more attractive.
6. Pitching your products on an FAQ page is a common practice, but make it as subtle as possible.

Lastly, I personally believe that the key to writing an excellent FAQ page lies within the ability to see your content from the customer’s perspective.

If it is possible, try asking one or two friends to read your site’s FAQ and find out whether the page can really help them figure out – at least – the basic information about your products or services.