Getting Started: Frequently Asked Questions (2024)

FAQs

Are FAQs still relevant? ›

If you write clear web content that is easy to navigate and answers your readers questions, you will not need to create a FAQ. FAQs often cause your readers more frustration. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) can be overwhelming and leave your customers searching through a sea of content.

Frequently asked questions (FAQ) are questions and answers that follow a certain topic – a collection of common questions that tend to be asked repeatedly on issues such as timing, delivery, handling, product information, and return policy. FAQs can be anywhere on the page, most commonly at the top or bottom.

That said, you want to find a nice middle ground. Fewer than five questions might indicate you haven't done your research… or that you didn't need an FAQ to begin with. Fielding dozens of questions isn't good either, but if they're all necessary, consider splitting your FAQ into multiple pages.

Asking questions is important because it helps in a better understanding of the topic being discussed. It allows for a deeper exploration of the subject and encourages critical thinking.

FAQ sections are not user-centred because a user has no way of knowing if their question is “frequently asked”. They are easy for writers to create, but inconvenient for readers to use. They are often used not as a way of answering users' questions but as another dumping ground for PR propaganda.

FAQ pages aren't only beneficial for customers; they're a game-changer for your business. Take a look at the benefits they bring to the table: They serve as an indispensable resource for addressing common queries, significantly reducing the influx of repetitive customer inquiries.

Answers should be CCF (clear, concise, and factual)

(I have just made up this abbreviation, but it does a good job getting my point across.) A good rule of thumb is to write short answers to each question — two to three paragraphs would make a good answer. If you go longer, the page will be too long and cluttered.

Benefits of a FAQ Page

Customers can easily find answers to their questions about your product or business all on their own. However, FAQ pages don't need to be entirely made up of customer service questions. Helping your customers navigate your site and make decisions is more than just addressing common questions.

By including an FAQ page on your website, you're showing your customers that you value their time and are ready to help. Additionally, your FAQs demonstrate you've taken the time to get to know your customers, understand their concerns, and anticipate their questions before they ask.

How should you frame a FAQ? ›

Asking Questions Instead of Listening

Being the only one asking the questions is a known tactic for asserting authority and keeping control. Being made to answer questions, rather than share your thoughts, makes sense if you are in a police line-up.

Questions are important because they help us create a framework for understanding and discovery, whereas answers are (at most) temporary fixes to our problems. Both questions and answers must be updated over time as things change.

Questions are useful tools, they open lines of communications; give us information; improve interactions, facilitate analysis and diagnostics of a situation; allow us to propose our own ideas; help to understand the priorities of others; stimulate motivation to learn; motivate creativity and more importantly scientific ...

Just because Google isn't including FAQs in rich results any more doesn't mean you should skip the Schema markup process – it can still be helpful. Other search engines may still use it too, as it provides context to the page and tells the search engine what type of content it is.

FAQ can be pronounced as an initialism, "F-A-Q", or as an acronym, "FAQ". Web designers often label a single list of questions as a "FAQ", such as on Google Search, while using "FAQs" to denote multiple lists of questions such as on United States Treasury sites.

FAQs are convenient for writers - they put everything in a long list; it's all neatly organised and the 'Q' does a lot of work for you. But they're more work for readers - questions take longer to scan and understand than simple headings and you can't take any meaning from them in a quick glance.

Most of the time it's a dead space with zero organic value. But it doesn't have to be that way. FAQ pages are not only helpful for website visitors, but they can also be beneficial for search engine optimisation (SEO) purposes if you have the right SEO experts in your corner.