Summary: Frequently asked questions improve the customer experience. We share why you should use the FAQ content format in your blog strategy.
Are you using Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) content in your blog strategy? Because if you’re not, you need to realize that it is an essential resource for marketers and users.
Just think about your own behavior when searching for something online: after you enter your query and the search engine results page (SERP) offers multiple answers, what do you do? Do you start randomly clicking on links, or do your eyes immediately look for the Google SERP feature “People Also Ask”?
When on a website, do you immediately look for the FAQ section of the site to look for the answers you’re seeking? Because you don’t want to scroll through pages of content to get an answer to your question?
If this sounds like you, then you’re not alone. Your website visitors are doing the same thing—so let’s discuss FAQ content in more detail.
What Are Frequently Asked Questions?
Simply put, Frequently Asked Questions improve the customers’ experience by directly (or indirectly) answering questions about a topic, brand, product, or service in a few short sentences.
Unsurprisingly, they are used in the FAQ pages of websites and social media platforms, as part of a FAQ blog post, and in pillar posts to help clarify fundamental information about the pillar post topic.
As all good digital marketers know, audiences are looking to connect with a company that understands them and offers valuable content that addresses their specific pain points. FAQs are all about giving customers what they need the minute they need it, all to educate, inform, and ultimately create trust.
Where Do FAQs Fit Into a Blog Strategy?
A FAQ page on your website or blog post offers a comprehensive and holistic insight into a topic by answering the most popular and frequently asked audience questions. The FAQ format tends to be more visible and valuable with content that’s geared toward the top of the marketing funnel, drawing customers into the journey.
FAQs are also a great source for blog content ideas. Tools like Answer The Public or even Google Trends can help you identify what your audience wants to learn more about, and you can then use that data to form the basis of a cluster content strategy, with topics offering readers a selection of destinations and resources that answer their questions.
At the end of the day, strong FAQ content creates goodwill toward your brand, positions you as an authority in your space, and encourages readers to engage with your products and services.
Why Do You Need To Use FAQs?
Good content marketing includes a strong mixture of content types, such as blogs, case studies, videos, webinars, FAQs (and more!), to attract and retain the ideal customer. Your audience will all have unique ways that they prefer to absorb content—a good content marketer will acknowledge that and ensure their content covers as broad a spectrum as possible.
So what FAQs do is offer another way to connect with your audience. FAQs allow you to deal with specific questions customers have that, when answered, might result in a sale.
Frequently asked questions can increase traffic to your website via search engines, optimizing the user experience and increasing conversions. Ultimately, FAQs help you understand your customer’s challenges, needs, and desires better to serve them more effectively.
How Do You Write A Good FAQ Blog?
The secret to writing a good FAQ blog is to start the paragraph of each answer with an insightful and clear answer to the question. The better our content, the better your chances that it will appear as a featured snippet on the Google SERP and the happier it will likely keep your reader.
PRO TIP: to increase your chances of appearing as a rich result on a search and potentially increase your page’s click-through rates, Google requires you to include the entire text of the question and answer.
You can add more detail to the answer if relevant and necessary. If your FAQ blog is long enough, considering adding a table of contents that lists the questions, giving readers a quick overview of the blog content and encouraging them to read further.
To offer additional resources or links related to the questions you’re answering, link each question section to a blog or more in-depth content. The more in-depth analysis you share with your answer, the more you can establish your brand as an authority on the subject.
When Are FAQs Not A Good Content Choice?
Frequently Asked Questions are a trusted source of information for users and an effective marketing tool for businesses—but are there reasons not to use the format?
Short answer—it depends.
Google wants you to provide original helpful content to your visitors and not use a FAQ page for advertising, or you will not rank well. So the question becomes: will additional content in the form of FAQs make your webpage content irrelevant instead of enhancing it?
And lastly, website speed is vital to a positive user experience. So if adding a FAQ Schema slows it down, you might want to rethink how you use the frequently asked question format.
In Conclusion
At the end of the day, the responsability of any content marketer is to create good, quality content that your audience wants to interact with. And FAQ pages, when used properly, can answer your audiences’ questions quickly and efficiently.
We want to work with you to identify the possibilities that remain untapped in your business. Do you want to add FAQs to your content marketing and need assistance with your blog strategy?
Contact WSI today: we are happy to help.
