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Is your FAQ page working hard enough?

Is your FAQ page working hard enough?

Posted 20th February, 2020 by Sarah

7 minute read

FAQ pages are the wallflowers of the website world. They’re completely overlooked by visitors until they need them. For that reason, they can be overlooked by website owners, too.

Some digital marketing specialists suggest that websites don’t need FAQ pages – claiming that the on-page content of every site should be good enough to answer all customer queries on the spot.

However, not every visitor is 100 per cent focussed when they visit a site. With almost half of all internet traffic coming from mobile devices these days, website viewers have roads to cross, tubes to catch, and coffees to order at the same time as they skim their web content for the answers they require.

In this article, we’ll look in more depth at the benefits of an FAQ page and provide a checklist so you can see if your own FAQ page is up to scratch.

For WordPress website owners, we’ll look at a few handy plug-ins that can help build and boost FAQ pages.

Hold up…. Need a website before you can fine tune your FAQ page? Visit our product pages to find out how we can help you with affordable domains and powerful webhosting.

The beauty behind an FAQ page

Support

FAQ pages can help reduce the burden that’s placed on your support team or – if you’re a start-up owner or run an SME – the burden that’s placed on your own time.

Customer preference

Don’t feel guilty about using your FAQ pages as part of your front line of customer support. Research by Forrester recently found that people prefer using FAQ pages to find the answer to their questions over elements like live chat and social media.

SEO

FAQ pages could help boost your website’s organic SEO.

More and more people are now carrying out screenless internet searches, using voice. The way people search the internet with vocal commands is different to the way they search when they type.

What does this have to do with FAQ pages?

Well, voice searchers tend to use whole sentences and ask full questions, meaning FAQ pages are perfectly primed to show up in the SERPs when these sort of questions are asked.

6 questions you should ask about your own FAQ page

Is it scannable?

Website visitors don’t want to sit down with a cup of tea and browse FAQ pages. Instead, they want answers and they want them yesterday.

To ensure your FAQ pages are as scannable as possible, you can bunch questions together into topic sections.

For example, you might want a Pricing and Payment section that contains sub-questions such as ‘Can I pay with PayPal?’ and ‘Can I get a refund?’

Another way to make your page more scannable is to include a tag cluster with the words that feature most prominently in your FAQs.

So a cupcake company might have the words ‘vegan’, ‘delivery’ and ‘allergies’ in its tag cloud, for example.

Is it navigable?

The best FAQ pages have a search bar included that allows users to search the site.

The more powerful this search function the better. For example, if users can search using a simple keyword as opposed to an exact phrase then you’re onto a winner. An auto-populate function can also make the experience more efficient for users.

Is it personalised?

So, personalising your FAQ pages isn’t the easiest bit of web development in the world, but if you can do it, you should.

Twitter has a personalised FAQ page, welcoming each user to the page using their twitter handle and asking what they need.

Is it crafted with the right input?

The best FAQ pages are acutely tailored to customers needs. Don’t just fill them with the things you think your customers want to know.

Talk to frontline support staff regularly to find out what customers are asking them, either face to face or over the phone, and ensure the most common questions are included in your FAQ page.

Also, keep an eye on social media to see what your followers are asking there.

Plus, make a note of any queries that start to crop up more frequently in any emails that are addressed to you.

Does it inspire action?

Your FAQ page needs to work hard for your customers, but it can work hard for your business, too. Ensure that your FAQ pages are sprinkled with links – to products, to sales pages and anything else that might lead to a sale.

Is it up to date?

As your company grows and morphs, so too will the questions your customers have about your products, services and the way you do business.

Make a point of regularly reviewing your FAQ page to ensure that it’s up to date and features the latest information about your company.

WordPress plug-ins for FAQ pages

Heroic

Created by popular plugin developers Hero Themes, the Heroic FAQ plug-in has a drag and drop interface. Highlights of this plugin include the fact that FAQs can be grouped into batches and reorganised easily in terms of the order they appear on the page, and that the pages can be branded. Rich content such as video and images can also be added using this plugin.

Acronix FAQ

Installed by more than 10,000 users, the Acronix FAQ plugin has a five star rating on the WordPress plugin page. It requires a small degree of coding to use, but highlights include the fact that FAQs can be added to any web page and that FAQs on dedicated pages can be grouped into sections. The bonus with this simple plugin is that it’s free.

Ultimate FAQ

Crafted by Etoile Web Design, the Ultimate FAQ plugin allows users to make accordion-style FAQ pages. FAQs can also be grouped by category and users can choose from a clutch of layouts. You can also use a short code to add a search field to your FAQ page and there are advanced options that allow you to include autocomplete in this area, too.

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