When it comes to building a successful WordPress website, very few pages are as important as the FAQ page. An optimized and well-written FAQ page is going to provide you and your company with a wide variety of benefits, but many people don’t know how to create that type of content. Luckily, building a high-quality FAQ page is easier than most people realize, and you could have that page up and running before you know it. Here is a quick glimpse at just a few of the benefits of a high-quality FAQ and some simple steps that you can take to optimize that page.
Why Set Up an FAQ?
There are many different reasons why you should consider setting up an FAQ page on your WordPress website. One of the biggest benefits of having an FAQ is client satisfaction. When a potential customer doesn’t have to call your company for basic information, then they will be much more likely to make a purchase on the spot. It is also important to provide your clients with clear policies, and the FAQ page is one of the best places to do that. That level of transparency can build quite a bit of trust between you and your visitors.
Another reason why FAQ pages are so important is because they help you optimize your WordPress website for search engines. Your FAQ is going to provide Google and other top search engines with rich and pertinent information, and that could drive up your rankings on the search engine results pages. FAQs give you the opportunity to build some internal links as well, and that could potentially keep visitors on your site for longer.
Collecting Information
While you might be able to provide many of the answers on your own, a little bit of research could be necessary as well. Depending on what type of business you have and the industry you are in, the answers might already be online. Carrying out some searches for a few hours will give you a much better idea of what types of answers others are giving. That being said, you need to be sure that the answers aren’t copied exactly. Copying their information could lower your search results rankings or even result in copyright issues.
Speaking with a handful of your own skilled employees is another great option. The customer support department is going to be particularly useful because they will have a much better idea of exactly what type of information clients and potential clients are looking for. At the very least, you should have some of your top customer service representatives write down a list of the most common questions that they receive and what answers they give to those questions.
Writing Your Answers
Once you have all of the data that you will be using, you can then begin the process of fleshing out some of your answers. The most important aspect of writing out your answers is ensuring that they are 100 percent factual. If the information isn’t completely factual, then it could end up getting flagged by the search engines or drive away potential customers. It is also vital that your answers are as concise as possible. While every situation is slightly different, most sites will benefit from FAQ answers that are no more than two paragraphs. For questions that only need short answers, one or two sentences should be completely fine.
Unfortunately, some questions are going to require lengthy and in-depth answers. In those situations, you have a few different options. One of the most effective options is simply creating a new page on your site for the answer so that it can be fully explained. Another tactic that many WordPress web designers use is adding GIFs and short videos to their answers. Adding visuals to your answers is a great way to keep visitors engaged and on your site for longer.
Using the Right Schema
In addition to ensuring that your data is clear and concise, you also want to be sure that Google can correctly identify and categorize the FAQ page. When Google is skimming through a website, the algorithms will be looking for specific data structures so that they can properly identify what type of information is being presented. When your FAQ is in the proper format and structure, it could have a profound impact on your search engine results rankings. As an added bonus, Google Assistant and other digital assistants might eventually flag some of your answers as the top result. If that occurs, then your information will automatically be read to the user when they ask their digital assistants a certain question.
While you can try to manually structure your FAQ, many people simply prefer to use plugins. WordPress and some of the other popular web development tools have plugins that will automatically structure your data so that it can be interpreted by the search engines. Those plugins could save you quite a bit of time and help you get your FAQ up and running much quicker.
Turning Your FAQ Into a Sitemap
Another major benefit of having a world-class FAQ is the ability to turn that page into a sitemap. If your FAQ has common questions and excellent answers, then it could essentially become a landing page for the rest of your website. That is why it is so important to ensure that it is filled with internal links. Those links should be attached to keywords and phrases that visitors might want to gather more information on. The internal links could send visitors to more in-depth articles or landing pages for some of your products and services.
Essentially, you want to be sure that your FAQ page is going to satisfy those who are searching for specific information as well as visitors who are simply browsing. Each answer should be very easy to skim through, but you want to present visitors with the opportunity to learn more about your products, services, or company as a whole.
Monitoring Your FAQ for Ongoing Success
Your FAQ could potentially drive a huge amount of traffic to your website, and that is just one of the many reasons why you must keep an eye on it as time goes on. Just like all of the other pages on your website, your FAQ might need the occasional tweak in order to fully maximize its effectiveness. You should carefully track which answers are attracting visitors and what links those visitors are clicking on. Another important set of data that you need to keep an eye on is customer feedback. Luckily, most plugins already have built-in tools that allow visitors to vote on or rate answers.
The Bottom Line
An FAQ page is just one of the many tools that you can use to create a powerful and far-reaching online presence. Getting started with an FAQ might seem like a major undertaking, but that type of project can easily be broken down into manageable chunks. Once your FAQ is up and running, you can then use plugins to track the success of the page so that you can continue to make improvements.