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FACTS ABOUT FAQS
3 Comments | Posted by Ken Munn in Copywriting, SEO, Search engines, Web Marketing
My usual advice on writing for websites is keep it short, keep it relevant, avoid repetition, and make sure key search terms are included in the page copy (as well as the page title, headers, tags, etc). There’s an exception; the FAQs page. That’s where you can relax a little and expand.
Frequently Asked Questions WILL be read by those with real interest in doing business with you (they’ll be read by your competitors too!) Because potential customers come to FAQs seeking answers, you don’t need to worry about crafting words to grab their attention in the first couple of seconds, and convincing them to buy in the next two. You can use more words without boring the reader. You can insert some jargon. You can build in plenty of internal links. You can include a raft of H2 and H3 headers, much loved by search engines. You can cover a single topic from several angles by varying the question. You can include lists – which you’d normally avoid doing. And you can pack in key words and phrases.
Effectively, there’s no limit to the number of FAQs you can pose but, for readability, once you get beyond about ten or twelve, start breaking them into topic groups, to tidy the page visually. Unless an FAQ is deep down technical, limit answers to no more than 50 words or so. If you need many more, consider linking from a summary answer to a sub-page with the full answer in glorious Technicolor.
Many web copywriters regard FAQ’s as a chore. They’re actually a powerful SEO weapon. That’s why, at writeltd.com, we love them.
3 Comments for FACTS ABOUT FAQS
Dan B | 9 March 2010 at 09:59
Jenny Sanders | 9 March 2010 at 10:45
Good idea Dan. What we really need is a sort of FAQ application that manages both the front and back end of dealing with FAQs. Imagine visiting a site, and asking a question via the FAQ application’s form.
The site owner logs into the FAQ program (e.g. gets an email from the application and clicks a link to log in automatically). The owner answers the question, and can check a box to indicate whether or not the question and its answer should be added to the FAQ page.
This would make the whole thing automatic. And could even include built-in functionality to search out similar questions. Somebody must have created this already.
Graham Price | 9 March 2010 at 22:37
Fascinating. Am new to blogging and never even thought about FAQs. I’ll get onto it
Those are some great tips Ken, just wanted to add my two pence and remind everyone that the FAQs page doesn’t have to be static, questions that a website owner maybe called about on the phone may change over time and at different times of the year. So keep a record of the questions that you might get in a phone call or in person and if they get asked repeatedly consider adding them to the FAQs page.