Your target audience has questions. And answering their questions at the right time could help to turn browsers into buyers. Solving problems and setting your site up as a resource is not just great for SEO; it's also excellent for brand awareness.
A website FAQ page or section is a great way to help turn website visitors into customers. You can capture attention, engage the visitor and present your business as a solution to their problem. And if you're worried that your site is a little thin on content, adding FAQ keywords to your site is a great way to bump up the word count.
Why are FAQs great for SEO?
FAQ pages are an excellent opportunity to produce relevant, on-topic content that is related to your business. By answering questions clearly and concisely, you have the chance to teach the reader something new, solve their problem, or remove an obstacle that is stopping them from converting.
In addition, this quality content will help your site achieve better rankings over time by attracting natural links and improving your site's reputation with Google.
A move towards voice search will also increase the importance of FAQs for SEO. For example, when using virtual assistants like Alexa, Cortana or Siri, users typically ask queries in complete sentences.
In a standard Google search, you might use a phrase like "best smartphone camera 2021", but when using a voice assistant, you might ask, "Which smartphone has the best camera?" so focussing on long format questions could help future-proof your site.
FAQs and featured snippets
Another reason to focus on FAQs is the possibility of appearing in the feature snippets. Look at the SERP for a term like "smartwatches". Currys dominates the top of the search, but you'll see results from blogs and other resources within the People Also Ask panel.
So while you might be targeting a long-tail keyword with low search volume, you'll have the opportunity to appear in the SERP for short-head keywords with huge search volume. By providing quality content that answers search users' questions, your site could enjoy a boost up the rankings.
How can I find FAQ keywords?
There are several online tools out there like Answer The Public that can help you quickly discover what types of questions people might be asking about your business or services.
There are also Chrome plugins that will scrape the data from Google for you. Of course, you could do this manually, but a plugin will make light work of extracting this valuable information. For example, SEO Minion allows you to scrape data from the "People Also Ask" panel and export this to a spreadsheet.
And remember, Google isn't the only place to find questions that customers want to know the answers to. Sites like Quora are a rich source of FAQ content. Thankfully, you don't have to trawl the internet to find FAQs to answer. Instead, SEO Scout makes it simple to extract this information and feed it into your content strategy.
What is the best way to add FAQs to your website?
You can add your FAQs to your site in the following ways:
- Create an extensive FAQ page that you add to and enhance as your website grows
- Add an FAQ section to service pages to help improve the content and guide the user journey
- Create blog posts that answer the question in an extended format
An FAQ page can be helpful to website visitors, but this isn't always the best way to present information. When website visitors land on your site, you should aim to reduce the number of steps required to achieve their goal. For example, if they land on a service page, have questions, and have to click through to an FAQ page, you could lose their attention.
Including relevant FAQs on your service or product pages can help boost rankings for the long-tail and the short-head keywords. This can also provide additional context to the website user and help to inform their user journey.
Another popular way to add FAQs to your website is to use the question as a starting point for a blog post. If the question warrants a longer answer, you can certainly extend this into a full-length blog post. Just be sure to create a concise answer to the question close to the beginning of the blog. This will ensure Google can extract the information for the PAA panel.
How to use SEO Scout to find FAQ keywords you can easily rank for
The SEO Scout suite makes it simple to find new keyword opportunities. These keywords might have limited search volume, but that is not to say that they are not valuable.
This is the workflow we use to help find FAQ keywords for sites:
1. Identify the keywords you are already ranking for
You don't have to start from scratch with new content; you can enhance the content you already have by providing additional context. You'll notice that many of the PAA results are pulled from pages that appear in the top 10 results, so you almost have to prove your eligibility. Appearing in the top 10 results increases your chances of also appearing in the PAA panel, which will increase your site visibility in search.
Use this guide to discover which keywords your site is already ranking for. Focus on your best-converting keywords. Or take a cue from your customer service team. They might have a list of commonly asked questions that should be addressed on your website. Adding content for the sake of adding content is not the goal here. Instead, the goal is to enhance the user experience by providing an answer to their questions.
By looking at the keywords you already rank for, you increase the chances of ranking for FAQs. Google already knows that your site is relevant for these terms, so you're just providing additional context.
2. Turn your keywords into questions
You can complete this step manually or use SEO Scout to extract all of the information you need.
Head into the Topic Research tab and enter your target keyword. Once the topic analysis is complete, head to the Questions and Answers tab. Don't be put off by zero search volume; these terms are still valuable to your site.
To do this manually, you would need to search for your seed keywords and extract the information from the People Also Ask panel. This would miss out on Quora keywords, so we recommend using SEO Scout for more comprehensive coverage.
3. Turn your list of FAQs into Q&As
If you search Google for these questions, you might find that they haven't been answered particularly well. Of course, Google might attempt to extract an answer from an existing page, but you're the expert, and you can probably piece together something more valuable to the reader.
If the FAQ will be added to a product, service or FAQ page, keep your answers short and to the point. The majority of PAA panel results are around 50 words or 300 characters. This can be in the form of a bullet list, numbered list or a paragraph. Video content is also eligible for the PAA panel.
4. Add FAQs to the page body copy
FAQs don't have to be lumped together in a section at the bottom of the page or hidden in a dropdown accordion. You can include content for FAQs in the body copy of your page. If you choose this approach, make sure it is signposted with the relevant heading tags.
You can use the SEO Scout content editor to optimise your content further and make sure you're hitting all the right points with your content. This can help to inform your approach to the content by ensuring you include the terms and phrases your readers expect to find.
5. Use internal linking within posts and pages
The final step for optimising your website for FAQs is to use keyword-rich anchor text to link between pages. Remember that the purpose of the FAQ content is to enhance the user experience.
It isn't just about SEO; it's also about guiding the customer journey. For example, you can use FAQs to create a kind of step-by-step guide through the site. This can help to turn browsers into customers by answering their questions at the right time.
If a customer is on the verge of converting but they have a few questions about your product or service, an FAQ section could help to tip the scales in your favour.
