There are certain elements that every company or entrepreneur needs, such as a good logo, a domain name preferably in a new and significant domain extension, such as .TECH (for technology), .STORE (for e-commerce), .SPACE (for creatives and, well, outer space), .ONLINE and .SITE (for a more versatile and open presence), and a website with relevant information about the business and your products.
Apart from these foundational aspects, there are other things that a good website needs such as an FAQ page.
What is an FAQ Page?
A business’ FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page is an important part of the customer support system, even more so for an online business where customer concerns are not addressed in-person by an expert sales associate.
An FAQ page that covers all bases can be a real time-saver for both the customer and your customer support team. While the customer can have their simpler issues sorted out without having to deal with long wait times on calls or writing elaborate emails, your team can focus on bigger issues that require more personal attention.
But that’s not all that an FAQ page does. A well-designed and well-crafted page helps build trust among your customers, especially first-timers, and can play a major role in positively influencing their purchase decision.
Moreover, when you target search keywords related to your business and add links to other relevant pages on your website, your FAQ page can greatly improve its SEO and navigation.
Your FAQ page shouldn’t be just a random collection of questions. By planning its content, design, and accessibility with these five tips, you can transform this page into a valuable business asset.
Research your questions
There are several sources that you can peruse in order to find the most common questions that people are asking about your business. Your primary sources of such information are your customer support tickets and your team’s manuals.
Next, you should look into your emails as well as comments and messages left by people on your social media accounts. Other places worth looking at are your reviews on Google, your official website, your social media handles, and online directories or upvote websites.
For new businesses with a lesser volume of customer tickets, FAQ pages of competitors or communities on platforms such as Reddit and Quora can be useful reference points to gain a sense of the questions potential customers could have for you.
If you want to leverage your FAQ page for SEO, you can even add generic questions pertaining to your field. For instance, a tour and travel company operating in a particular region can answer questions about visa rules, weather, culture, and other facets of the region apart from those pertaining to their specific services.
Have a small business with a straightforward product that doesn’t warrant too many questions? Use the FAQ page to steer the conversation towards topics that improve your business’ reputation, such as what makes your product unique, the ethical processes you have adopted, or how your business benefits society.
Make it easily accessible
Where your FAQ page is located and how it is accessed matters. Lots of people, especially first-time visitors, are likely to use this page to get to know your brand before they do business with you, so make sure that it is as easy to find as your other key pages.
Here are a few spots from where the FAQ page can be easily accessed:
- Right at the top on your main menu with other pages such as About Us, Our Products/Services, Contact Us, etc.
- As a drop-down option in your Customer Support, About Us, or Contact Us tabs in the main menu.
- In your website’s footer where company information, terms and policies, and mailing-list sign-ups are often displayed.
Depending upon the range and features of products and services you sell, you could have a separate FAQ section for each of them directly within those product pages along with other options such as features, tutorials, variants, and pricing.
Make it readable
Your FAQ page must be easy to navigate and readable, especially if you’re answering a lot of questions spanning a wide range of issues.
To prevent people from having to scroll through your page endlessly to find the information that they are looking for, you should group related questions into categories.
These categories will vary from business to business, but the most common ones include:
- Customer account
- Purchase history
- Tracking your order
- Payments
- Shipping & delivery
- Returns & exchange
List these categories clearly on the FAQ page, ideally above the fold. The questions within each category can be accessed through a drop-down menu or an automatic scroll to the relevant part of the page when a person clicks on a particular category tab.
Ecommerce platforms such as Shopify and BigCommerce provide useful tools for designing and formatting your FAQ page.
Use bold and clear fonts that are easy to read and, wherever possible, consider adding visuals, such as icons for different categories, product images, and even infographics or videos that demonstrate how a product is used.
The overall design of your FAQ page should be clean, user-friendly, and aesthetically pleasing, one that inspires trust, confidence, and warmth.
Pay attention to language
When crafting your responses to the frequently asked questions, avoid straying off the topic and focus on answering the questions in the shortest, simplest, and most straightforward way possible.
Don’t use complex words or industry jargon and, at all costs, don’t indulge in self-promotion. The FAQ page is not the place for bragging about how great your business is. It is about putting people’s concerns at rest through honest information.
Even when you’re talking about certain shortcomings—whether it’s longer delivery times, lack of return or exchange on certain items, or shipping charges—you must always portray things as they are instead of indulging in overjustification.
The language you use should strike a balance between authoritative and empathetic. Be confident and let your expertise reflect in your responses. Feel free to imbue them with your brand’s personality.
Be witty, funny, quirky, sarcastic, or anything else, as long as your tone matches your brand’s overall voice without being condescending.
The customer’s perspective is of the utmost importance when crafting content for your FAQ page. Analyse your audience and talk to them in the language that best resonates with them.
For instance, you can be fun and playful as a fashion brand but you should use a more serious tone if you’re offering financial services.
Write your questions in the first person in order to incorporate the customer’s voice (using “I” instead of “you”) and answer them from the perspective of your entire team (using “we” and “our” instead of “I” and “my”).
Guide your visitors
Different people who visit this page are at different buying stages. Some might be following up on something they have purchased from you, some might have heard of your brand before but are looking to learn more before they decide to buy while others may be visiting your website for the very first time.
Instead of treating your FAQ page as a postscript or a dead-end, utilise it cleverly to push different categories of customers down the sales funnel. Think from their perspective, understand what they would like to do next, and guide them in that direction through a call to action linked to relevant pages.
For instance, if the question is about returns, link it to your returns and exchange page. If it is about your product’s USP, link it to that particular product’s page or to your company information page. This not only improves the navigation of your website but also gives people a chance to make decisions that benefit both them and your business.
Conclusion
Don’t let your FAQ page be a mere afterthought. Use these tips to craft a page that becomes an integral part of your website’s user journey, serving as a valuable knowledge source for customers and helping you gain their trust and their business.
Alisha is a Senior Content Marketing & Communication Specialist at Radix, the registry behind some of the most successful new domain extensions, including .ONLINE and .TECH. You can connect with her on LinkedIn and Twitter.
