Create SEO friendly FAQ pages
Even if you think your website content is complete and thorough, frequently asked questions (FAQ) pages can help fill in missing gaps or provide general answers to your customers' most common questions. But do they also offer added value from a search engine optimization (SEO) perspective? Can you optimize this content to increase SEO value? Read on to learn more about creating SEO-friendly FAQ pages!
Are FAQ pages good for SEO?
Yes. When optimized for relevant keywords, well designed for optimal user experience (UX), and properly populated with structured data, FAQ pages are valuable for organic performance. More importantly, FAQ pages help answer important questions your customers are looking for and lead them down the path to a solution (and a conversion for your business).
Good FAQ pages are good for SEO
The above answer paints a vivid picture of how your business can reap organic traffic and profitability from FAQ pages, but the fruits of your labor depend on one key component: well-optimized and SEO-friendly content.
You can't just throw a laundry list of random questions at a website and expect to rank on page 1 or see an increase in qualified organic traffic. Likewise, users won't find value in answers that don't solve their problem, or have to dig through blocks of text to find what they're looking for.
The goal of an FAQ page is synonymous with the importance of SEO: providing the best answers to your visitors' questions. Including keywords in the page text, optimizing title tags and meta descriptions, adding structured data - all these practices contribute to the SEO value of your FAQ page for Google. But Google does not become a valued customer, but the users themselves.
At the end of the day, it all boils down to this. Good FAQ pages are good for search engine optimization. Bad FAQ pages are, well, bad. For SEO, for Google, for users and for your business. So focus on creating the best FAQ experience possible for your current and potential customers!
How to create SEO-friendly FAQ pages?
Okay, you're convinced to set up an FAQ section on your website or review your existing FAQ pages. Where do you start? How do you make sure you're effectively answering the questions your users ask most often? What do you need to do to get Google to rank your content on page 1?
First and foremost, have a strategy (preferably data-driven). The process of creating SEO-friendly pages broadly follows this structure:
- Compilation of the most frequently asked questions by users
- Offer complete, concise answers to these questions
- Format your FAQ pages with usability (UX) in mind.
- Optimize the title tag and meta descriptions for your FAQ pages
- Mark your page with a FAQ scheme
Zusammenstellung der von den Nutzern am häufigsten gestellten Fragen
FAQ pages should contain the most frequently asked questions from your users. This sounds simple on the surface, but it's not as simple as brainstorming questions you think users are looking for. Tap into your resources and let the data tell you what questions users are searching for.
- Internal team members:Your internal sales team and customer service representatives deal with users every day and know every question imaginable. Conduct interviews with internal team members to find out which questions are asked most often and which are most likely to get prospects further down the funnel.
- Target group research:Customer surveys and interviews allow you to find out what users want to know, straight from the source.
- Chat Logs and Website Searches: By analyzing chat logs and website search data, you can get a better understanding of what users are searching for. This is an indirect form of audience research that allows you to make informed decisions at scale without the cost.
- Reddit, Quora and other forums: Even if they don't interact directly with your website, forums like Reddit and Quora are great sources for learning about industry-wide trends and topics from users themselves.
- People Also Ask (PAA) results: PAA results indicate questions that are closely related to a user's intent for specific keywords. Use PAA results displayed for relevant keywords to fill remaining gaps on your FAQ pages.
Provide complete, concise answers to these questions
Once you have a complete list of questions to include in your FAQ pages, it's time to provide the best answer to each one. Again, you can draw on existing resources (e.g., the sales team, internal SMEs, white papers) to ensure the answers are accurate. Many of the answers can be found in existing content on your website. Just be sure to reword them to avoid penalties for duplicate content.
Although answers should be thorough, it is equally important to keep them short and to the point. Users come to FAQ pages to get answers, and you don't want to make them work for it. Include enough information to fully answer the question, but try to use no more than 2-3 sentences for each question. Use internal linking to direct users to relevant content on your website where they can find more information on a particular topic.
Format your FAQ pages for user experience (UX)
In addition to frequently asked questions and the best answers, you should structure your FAQ pages to provide a high-quality UX. If you make it easy for users to find what they're looking for, they'll be more likely to stay on your site.
A common mistake is to cram all questions onto a single FAQ page, forcing users to scroll endlessly to find an answer. Not only is this bad for usability (and likely leads to a high bounce rate), but it also doesn't take advantage of SEO opportunities.
Consider splitting your question list into multiple FAQ pages, separated by categories and topics. This way, the main page can serve as the content hub for your FAQ, and it creates a clear structure that users can easily navigate. If you have the resources, you can also include a search bar that allows users to search for their answer within the FAQ hub.
If you create multiple FAQ pages, you can target specific terms for each topic or category from a search engine optimization (SEO) perspective.
Optimize the title tag and meta descriptions for your FAQ pages
For multiple pages, you can include thematically relevant keywords in the title tag and meta description of each FAQ page. Title tags play an important role in helping search engines understand what the page is about and users understand what content is on the page. Although meta descriptions are not a ranking factor, they are an important component that can impact CTR. By optimizing these two on-page SEO factors, you provide users and Google with a clear explanation of what the page is about.
Mark your page with FAQ scheme
Now that you have the best answers to the most common questions, formatted for high-quality UX with optimized title tags and meta descriptions, you've reached the top of Mozlow's hierarchy of SEO needs (as made public by the MozGuide).
Adding FAQ schema to the header of your HTML page can help you gain extra space in SERPs. Tagging your page with structured data can result in an FAQ rich snippet (similar to a PAA result) in your SERP listing and an action in Google Assistant.
To learn more about implementing structured data, visit the Google Developers FAQ schema resource.
What are the SEO benefits of FAQ pages?
Optimizing your FAQ pages offers many benefits, some of which go beyond search engine optimization. While optimizing pages with relevant keywords and FAQ schema, using data for content creates a quality resource for users.
Some advantages are:
- Answering frequently asked questions directly on the page reduces the number of chats and calls to customer service and internal sales team members
- Integrating PAA data and target keywords on the page increases the chances of owning the PAA snippets
- Internal linking from FAQ pages to relevant content on your website can help increase keyword rankings, CVR and transactions
- Optimizing the title tag and meta descriptions of each page with topic-specific keywords can help improve organic rankings
FAQ pages as part of your SEO strategy
So now you know that a well-optimized FAQ page can contribute to your organic search strategy and success. However, it is only a small piece of a much larger puzzle. To stay up to date on the latest SEO tips and tricks, sign up for our newsletter below! If you are looking for a data-driven partner to help you with your organic strategy and performance, check out our SEO Agency Bern page!
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