A few weeks ago, I wrote a post entitled “Should Your Site Include a FAQ? that discussed whether or not it was worth developing an SEO FAQ for potential clients. I wasn’t sure how much information was too much, in terms of the Brick Marketing SEO strategy. There is no “magic solution” or “secret” to SEO, so it’s not like I’d be giving away trade secrets. However, I was worried that having FAQ pages about keyword research would mean I’d have to sift though more leads from people that ONLY wanted keyword research, which is not the kind of client I’m looking for.
The topic of site FAQs came up again recently while I was optimizing a client’s site. On the surface it looked like their site had less than 50 pages, but as I started digging through I stumbled upon their FAQ. There were probably another 50-75 pages being indexed that had so little content they could barely justify having unique URLS.
If you have the page anyway, really flush out the content!
FAQ pages are a great place to target long tail keywords and they can become valuable landing pages for your site. If you are going to build an FAQ (or have one on your site already), really expand on each topic and write useful, juicy content that is both appealing to visitors and the search engines alike.
This is especially important for companies that sell things like computer software or other high-tech equipment. Chances are your products/services are very complex and might be a little confusing for a potential client is who at the beginning of their buying cycle. When someone is conducting research, you want your site to become a trusted source of information. That way, when it comes time for them to buy, the relationship with your brand is already established. If someone finds your site and FAQ right from the start, they might be more inclined to work with/purchase from your company because you helped guide them through the process.
If each fact or question has a unique URL, it is very important that you justify that. The search engines might see that your site has 50 additional URLS with little to no content on them and your site might get flagged for having low quality content. If you can’t expand on each point, then try combining some of the questions so you have fewer pages with more content. This is better for the overall user-experience, since they don’t have to jump around your FAQ to find related information.