Website FAQs are great for answering common customer questions about your business, but did you know that FAQs can also be used to improve your website’s search engine optimization? That’s right—FAQs can actually get pulled into search engine results pages (SERPs) and help drive traffic to your website. Here’s what you need to know about using FAQs for SEO.
Where FAQs Appear in SERPs
Over the last few years, FAQ answers have been popping up on Google, as the search engine giant continues to adjust its results pages for better user experience and question answering. Two of the most common places where question-answer features in search will display are in People Also Ask and Position Zero.
People Also Ask
The most prevalent space in Google SERPs where FAQs appear is in the People Also Ask boxes. Whenever a Google user asks a question, the search results page may include a People Also Ask section with answers curated from—you guessed it—websites that have answered these questions in their content. Ranking in PAA boxes works similarly to ranking on a normal SERP, except this box only shows the top result for each question. To try and break into a PAA box, it’s important to create quality on-page FAQ content with good keyword optimization throughout.
Position Zero
More commonly known as a Featured Snippet, Position Zero is the top spot in SERPs reserved for the result that Google believes best answers the search query in question. Position Zero features a snippet of content from a website, and it could include anything from a paragraph to a single sentence or bulleted list. This highly coveted spot is a great place to get in front of searchers on Google—and in many cases, Position Zero can help drive traffic to the websites that claim those spots, as those sites are viewed as quality authorities.
Tips for Creating Strong FAQs
If you want to increase the likelihood that your website content will be found in either People Also Ask or Position Zero spots in Google, you need to create quality FAQ content. Here are some tips to keep in mind.
Do Your Research
Before you create FAQs, you need to identify common questions that your customers (and other searchers) are asking online. This can help you write more targeted question-answer content. Start by looking at questions that pop up in search engine results pages for things related to your business. You can even pull ideas from existing People Also Ask boxes and related searches at the bottom of Google SERPs.
Additionally, you should do some keyword research to come up with a list of words, phrases, and questions people use in Google to find information. That way, you can target those keywords in your FAQs. For example, if you’re a mechanic, you may come across keywords like “mechanic services” and questions like “How long does an oil change take?” These can give you a jumping-off point for developing your content.
Another great place to find ideas for questions is to look at the types of searches you’re showing up for through your Google My Business listing. The information you can pull from Google My Business insights can show you the exact search queries Google searchers use to find your listing.
Optimize Your Questions & Answers
When you put together FAQs on your website, there are a few things you’ll need to do to ensure that you’ve optimized the content—that is, you’ve made it easier for Google to find, understand, and index the content.
- Follow Proper Formatting: Use header tags around questions with regular body text for answers. Not only does this visually represent the importance of the information on the page, but it also makes it easier for website visitors and search engines to find relevant information.
- Incorporate Keywords & Phrases: Make sure you’re utilizing the keywords and phrases you found in your keyword research. By strategically writing questions and answers using commonly searched words and phrases, you can increase the chances of your content showing up in Google SERPs.
- Answer Questions Clearly & Quickly: Try to answer the question posed in the header within the first sentence of the answer paragraph, if possible. The closer you can get the answer to the question in the page layout, the more likely it is that Google will find it and index it for relevant search queries.
Add FAQ Schema
Perhaps the most important on-page SEO tactic here is FAQ schema. If you’ve never heard of schema markup (or structured data) before, it’s essentially a digital language that tells Google what a webpage is about and how it should be indexed.
So, in this case, you would add FAQ structured data around your FAQ content on a webpage to tell Google that this specific information should be categorized and used for question-answer search results. This can improve the chances of your content being pulled into People Also Ask and Position Zero spots in SERPs.
Create Page-Specific FAQs
While it’s a good idea to have a page designated specifically to Frequently Asked Questions on your website, you can also add more FAQ content and structured data to your site by including question-answer content on other webpages. For example, you could add FAQs to product pages, service pages, or even location pages.
Not only does this provide more answers to specific questions customers may have about your business, your services, your products, or how to get in contact with you, but it also further optimizes your webpages by providing more indexable content for Google to pull into SERPs.
Need help with website optimization? Hurrdat Marketing offers content marketing services and SEO services that can help you appear in more search results for relevant keywords and questions. Contact us today to learn more!
