A FAQ page is another tool which may boost your online business, develop your skills and mostly importantly provide your readers that you care about their uncertainties.
It is a place where your customers find answers to their questions or where readers search for frequently asked questions. Before you start creating the page you need to think about how you will approach this not so simple task. You need to create an effective FAQ with a neatly organized structure.
Tips for a powerful FAQ page
- Try to put yourself in the shoes of your clients.
What kind of questions would you ask? Look for valuable information on your website or linked pages where visitors give a feedback. Structuring the questions and answers so that they will be reached by multiple people is more useful than addressing one person.
2. Update your questions and answers.
Old issues may have been solved and it is useless repeating them for a loner period. You may also have upgraded a new feature which is easier to use so going on with last year`s issue is not really beneficial.
3. Be precise in formulating questions and providing concise answers.
In particular, provide accurate replies not vague answers. Don`t let the information take customers around in circles. Many have complained that FAQ are providing them with phone numbers for further assistance which actually do not exist.
The questions need to be addressed in regard to a specific topic. For example, the question ‘How about portfolios’ is rather unclear but if you rewrite it to be more specific like ‘How to build an effective portfolio’ then the language is clear and consistent and customers will keep looking for an answer and not leave the page.
4. Organisational structure
This is also important as it helps customers to easily search information, especially if you deal with a lot of FAQs. You can sort them by audience type. For example, make them simple and comprehensive if you create a FAQ page for beginners.
Alternatively, you can have a ‘questions for advanced users’ which may include more complex questions and explanations. Alphabetical order also helps for easier access to the desired goal as well as giving headings to the question types. It will fasten the searching even more and bring more satisfaction to your users.
5 It has to be updated, it has to seem updated
Presenting information in a way which ensures customers that the information is current and accurate, you are on the right way to keep customers and prioritizing queries.
6. Be creative and different from other FAQ pages.
Give your page a new name depending on what the questions are about. For instance, if your questions are about how to write a proposal, call your page `Getting started`.
7. Lastly, make your FAQ page easy to print out.
Printed versions are handy when there is a need for system reboot since customers will be able to go back using the URL when they are online again.
So why dont you have one?
While I have experience writing FAQs for my clients, the lack of this section in my website is obvious. Yes I need to create one, no excuses.
