Online sales skyrocket when businesses make it simple for website visitors to view details about their offerings. And the Harvard Business Review supports that. It showed that customers are 115% more likely to suggest a website to others, 9% more likely to repeat a purchase, and 86% more likely to buy a product when a business offers them well-detailed and well-structured relevant information.
One way to provide the relevant information is to maintain Frequently Asked Questions, or FAQs.
We went through a lot (about 50?) of websites with converting FAQ pages and found some common ground. There are some ways that can make your FAQ pages (or sections) way more helpful for your visitors and your revenue.
In this article, we cover nine effective ways in which you can present your FAQ page. Let us start by defining FAQs and looking at some associated benefits.
Defining FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) is a set of common/obvious queries your web visitors or customers may have. Some common examples include questions about service hours, shipping and handling, product details, return policies, etc., depending on the industry. You can have different FAQ sections for different pages of your website.
Your FAQ page demonstrates how well you understand your customers. A well-written and organised FAQ page shows that you know and understand your audience well.
Why FAQ pages are important?
When we talk about having an FAQ page, it is important to understand the why.
Let's understand all the benefits one by one:
Doubt Avoidance
FAQs instantly answer the doubts your customers may have. This helps avoid any doubts that prevent the customers from becoming paid users. This is known as the doubt-avoidance tendency.
E.g., A popular FAQ across several industries is “Do you offer a money-back guarantee?” or “What if this product doesn’t meet my needs?”. Answering such questions for your audience builds trust and assures them that their money is safe.
Provides a better UX
Regardless of how easy to navigate and well-organized your website is, visitors who have queries will likely have to go through a few pages in search of the correct response. That is, if there isn’t a dedicated FAQ page.
This can be unpleasant for a visitor who only wants a quick solution to an easy inquiry.
FAQ pages act like resource centres for your customers, who can navigate through the FAQ section and get their queries clarified. This, in turn, ensures a better customer experience and increased customer satisfaction.
Time-saving
This one is undeniable. The FAQ page not only saves customers’ time but also saves your team’s time. Having an FAQ page guarantees instant answers. This ensures that customers won't have to spend hours looking for answers and that staff won't have to address every query one by one.
Customer service teams receive a significant number of tickets daily. They can address other serious concerns more quickly when they are not required to respond to commonly requested inquiries.
This, in turn, ensures an improvement in crucial customer service KPIs such as First Contact Resolution.
Cost-efficient
FAQs do not require as heavy investments as having a customer support setup.
Once you build your resources for your FAQ page, you only need to maintain and update this part of your website. Thus, FAQ is a very cost-efficient customer service option that every company should adopt.
Gives a brand boost
Having a well-organised and informed FAQ page shows that you are an expert in your sector and you care about your customers as well. This boosts your brand’s perceptions. It also helps you maintain a positive reputation. In short: Take some time to build your FAQ page(s) carefully. It will help you win customers' confidence.
The 9 ways to improve your FAQs
1.Internal linking to useful and relevant resources
You can link to internal as well as external resources within your FAQs to direct customers to further sources of information. This enables customers to get the whole picture, whether you link to documentation that goes into greater detail or a product page.
This will make your FAQ section as comprehensive as possible, which it should be. This is how internal linking within FAQs will help:
- It will improve the user experience and your SEO.
- Your customers would read more about your products and services, gaining more insights. This will encourage them to check out more of your products that they might have missed.
- Linking useful sources to your FAQ answers shows your concern for your customer's satisfaction, encouraging them to stay on your website longer and visit other pages.
For instance, Shopify has a well-laid-out FAQ page. The page has extremely concise information and multiple internal links wherever necessary.
Whenever you view an answer to any of the questions and feel like you require more information, the FAQs on Shopify’s website will have useful links to other articles and resources created by them.
This helps a customer understand the issue better before reaching out to the customer service rep. This also reduces the call load for the reps.
2. Making FAQ pages SEO-friendly
FAQ pages help boost your SEO by specifically addressing queries that potential customers could search for on Google and other search engines.
Therefore, it is important to make the FAQs page SEO friendly. This ensures that your page shows up when a customer is looking up something related to the kind of products and services you offer.
Pro Tip: Create a page with all the FAQs and then link to specific pages that address each in greater detail to make the most of your FAQ page's ability to boost website SEO.
By building this network of links, you will be able to direct customers to your dedicated website when they are searching for information about your product. It will also help your URL appear when people search for information on the goods or services of your competitors if you address these queries on different pages. This means more traffic for your website and happier folks.
Once you appear in a search for a competitor's name, you can convert these customers by sending them to your homepage or product page once they find the solution to their problem.
Let us take the example of the FAQ page of Amazon Web Services (AWS). It might look very simple at first glance. But, it is a highly useful page and makes it simple for visitors to obtain necessary information.
To increase visibility and relevance, the landing page serves as a clickable table of contents for FAQ. When you click on any of the FAQs, it takes you to relevant answers and explanations.
This URL format is helpful for SEO regarding relevance and internal linking. This solution demonstrates the value of having a centralised hub as it makes it much simpler to navigate.
3. Placement of CTAs
Clever placement of CTAs on the FAQ pages without overcrowding is important. It helps customers to read through the FAQs.
Say, a clear and simple CTA on top of the FAQ page can be a good way to make customers click on that button. For instance, Mailchimp has a very simple and direct CTA on the top of the FAQ page, which makes it easier to get conversions.
Certain things that the placement of CTAs on the Mailchimp FAQ page teaches us are as follows:
Put your CTA at the top of the page.
Your CTA should be placed at the top of the page because it is the single most crucial element of your website. It is how conversions are obtained. Without having to scroll down or look for it, you want to ensure that people can see it, read it, and click on it.
Make sure that the text on the CTA button is simple and direct.
When the text is simple and asks for a very specific action, customers are much more likely to click on it. For instance, the CTA on the Airbnb page just has a very simple text saying “Log in or sign up.” This is very clear and to the point.
Ensure that there aren’t too many CTAs on your FAQ page.
The last thing that you want your customers to face is information overload. An FAQ page already has a lot of information for customers to grasp.
Adding excessive CTAs and overcrowding the page will serve no purpose. Instead, it might discourage customers from clicking on the CTA button. So it is important to minimise the number of CTA buttons you place on your FAQ page.
Related read: 14 do’s and don’ts of customer service
4. Categorisation of questions on your FAQ page
Thoughtful categorisation of questions is crucial to maintain consistency.
This will save time, make your customers’ lives easier and improve customer satisfaction. That’s because categorisation ensures that customers don’t have to go through everything to get their answers.
Customers can select the category their query is relevant to and then just go through the answers in that category instead of scrolling through the entire page.
Some of the common categories are:
- Shipping, cancellations, and returns
- Payments-related issues;
- Your account
- Security and privacy
- Discounts & promotions
While this is not an exhaustive list, these are some of the most common categories that you can start with for the categorisation of questions on your FAQ page.
One example that we should highlight here is Spotify's Quick Help section on this page. They have made excellent use of categorisation.
Spotify places some of the most commonly asked questions with a clear and easy-to-understand headline, “Quick help,” so customers can quickly access them.
Such a clear layout and categorisation ensures that customers can solve the issues on their own almost always without picking up their phone or typing an email to customer service.
5. Keeping it simple yet attention-drawing
This doesn’t need an elaborate explanation. A simple and minimalist FAQ page that draws your customers’ attention is the way to go. Let us look at an example to explain this better.
Wandering Bear is a coffee brand whose FAQ page is simple, interesting, and aesthetically pleasing.
The company, which primarily offers cold brew coffee, has chosen minimalism by developing a brief FAQ that simply addresses the most fundamental queries. This is a general section that contains knowledge that is helpful to both those who enjoy making coffee in this manner and others who haven't tried it yet but would like to.
It is simpler to understand the text and keeps the page's order when you click on related questions to expand individual answers and hide them by clicking again (as you only display the useful information).
The “Contact us” button, which directs the visitor to the contact form, also draws enough attention.
The brand also made sure to provide excellent content. Even a frustrated customer looking for a solution to their problem can be made to laugh by reading funny but substantial text pieces. This enhances their interaction with the website and helps the organisation become more personalised.
6. The 3Cs to follow
Following the 3Cs to make the FAQ page stand out is an approach that most brands should take advantage of.
The 3Cs are:
✅ Conversational
✅ Creative
✅ Catchy
Making FAQ pages conversational, creative, and catchy will intrigue customers into reading more. It will also ensure that they find your FAQs useful.
Look at the FAQ page of 40/40 Creative Agency.
The FAQ page welcomes the user with a large image from the movie "Dumb and Dumber," which represents the lighthearted tone of the questions and the responses.
The responses are listed immediately after the question and are brief.
The quality of the content and the particular manner in which the brand communicates on this FAQ page are its strong points. It adds humour to the responses and transforms the FAQ into something the reader can enjoy in addition to using as a tool for problem-solving.
7. Using videos to answer FAQs
Using videos in the FAQs is a great way to attract customers and win them over. That’s because you need to keep in mind that not everybody might be interested to go through articles and written answers.
Short byte-sized videos keep the customers interested and help them understand the answers to their queries when they are not keen on reading long articles and answers. This ensures a wholesome customer experience for those who prefer to avoid reading.
A brand that inspires us in this scenario is First Direct. Their FAQs have videos with short written descriptions instead of only written answers and articles.
The most popular questions are located at the top of the page. Each section links relevant articles that elaborate on the subject or point readers to additional resources.
Users can utilise the links to search by themes such as bank accounts, fraud and security, and other areas. Each link opens a single page with an explanation video, which you can find by clicking on the link.
8. Structuring FAQs like your customer journey map
Make your FAQs look like a customer journey map. Organise the FAQs page in such a way that it makes it look like you are aware of every step that a customer goes through. And you also know what doubts or queries the customer will have at each point.
A customer journey is basically the steps that a customer goes through during their interaction with your brand.
A customer journey starts right from when the customer gets to know your brand, visits your website, learns about your brand, and purchases from you to reaching out to you for customer service and support and beyond that.
Understanding each step of this journey and designing your FAQ page based on that shows that you care for your customers and your main goal is to make your customers’ lives easier.
The example that should be highlighted here is National Portrait Gallery. They have taken an underrated yet extremely clever approach to FAQs by organising the page as per customers’ journeys.
The FAQ page is organised into stages of the customer journey. It begins with the “General Information” section before addressing concerns about more specific issues that website visitors might have.
9. Optimising the FAQs for all devices
Focus on making the FAQs page mobile-friendly. This is extremely important because most of your customers might be viewing your FAQ page on their smartphones or tablets while travelling to work, running errands, or for no reason at all.
Some basics to keep in mind when optimising your FAQ page for all devices are:
- Ensure that your website works without any glitches on smartphones.
- Make sure your mobile app or website is as fast as your desktop version.
- The content (including videos, gifs, etc.) should be viewable and easily readable on smaller screens.
- Create a mobile-friendly UI, even if that means deviating away from the web UI. The goal is to optimise for users’ satisfaction.
An example that we would like to highlight here is the FAQ page of McDonald’s. The mobile version of the FAQ page is as smooth and user-friendly as its desktop version.
Moreover, it has a much more simplified version for the mobile app and site, which gives a better UX when viewing the page on your smartphones or tablets.
Related read: 15 examples of companies that aced customer service experience
A concluding note
"The problem is not when you don't have the answer, but when you don't understand the question."
~ Mahendar Singh Jakhar
As the quote rightfully says, identifying the most relevant questions is important if you want to provide solutions for your customers. Knowing the right questions is the key to creating effective and useful FAQs.
