5 Fast Essential Rules for Any FAQ Page

So, what is the point of FAQ pages?

A FAQ page (that stands for Frequently Asked Questions) is the digital version of an infopoint in your store or office building: inside it any of your customers or guests can find handy answers to those specific questions which have just popped up in his or her mind. These moments represent an excellent opportunity to make a valuable impression, build trust and, why not, increase conversions. It allows you to communicate your product’s best features straight away, demonstrating the quality of your customer service and accompanying your visitors through your services and procedures.

Based on the complexity of your business and your own experience with your customer’s querying behaviour, you can decide whether your website needs a FAQ page or not. But be careful!  Having well designed, explanatory landing pages or dedicated description areas does not necessary replace it.  However, if you decide you should have a dedicated FAQ area on your website, please keep in mind that its main purpose is to offer fast, easy and effective help, while alleviating your other customer support channels’ traffic.

Here are 5 simple rules every FAQ page should follow:

1. Short and Sweet

Answers should neither be so short that it leaves the sensation of having said nothing, nor so long that it seems like you are making up for poor website content. FAQ should also be sweet; they are meant to solve real doubts and to communicate with all of your different clients, non-expert included. Leave your large, technical vocabulary for your “Features” page and instead go for plain English. The goal here is to make your content as clear as possible.

2. Up-to-Date

Your FAQ must be current with your business progress and your latest product innovations. If your website is a static place, your company will seem to be static, too. Clearly, it is not a wise decision to leave your “most recent” frequently asked questions linked to outdated services and products. Find a way to keep them coherent with your promotions, improvements and pricing so that you won’t give the impression of a frozen company.

3. Easy to Navigate

Users browsing a FAQ page are looking to answer their doubts quickly and easily. By making the path for them the simplest possible you will be doing a big part of that job. This is clearly a task that has to do with graphics, templates and user experience, but avoid the temptation to over-design your FAQ page layout; instead, prefer simplicity and work on offering simple and easy tools like a proper search engine, direct links to each FAQ (as well as their categories and subcategories), and, of course, an easy way to add new questions.

4. Integration and Coherency

A FAQ page should be relative, and linked to your website in the same way that every other page is. Customers should be able to consult it briefly and then get back to the task at hand quickly.  Improve their experience by helping them navigate through them efficiently– include links to forms and explanatory pages, links to possible next steps. You can also redirect the traffic into your sales funneI, if you think that would be useful for your users.  Last, don’t forget to set up some analytics; by doing this you will have a clearer idea about what is happening and what your next steps should be.

 5. Keep it Real

Stop guessing what your customers queries are, or, even worse, using your FAQ page as a promotional tool by filling it with the questions you would like everyone to ask you. Put yourself in your customer shoes. Don’t risk your reputation. Be transparent and, if you can’t figure out how to anticipate your customer’s needs, let them tell you what they need to know with their own words.