How To Write An Effective FAQ Page

How To Write An Effective FAQ Page

by: David Coyne

Websites that have multiple pages usually have a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)page. There are several good reasons why you should have one.

An FAQ clears out any confusion your prospect might have about buying product. Remember, a confused mind always says no.

It lets a prospect grab key information quickly.

It creates a positive impression with your prospect because you’re acknowledging that their time is precious and they want answers quickly.

An FAQ saves you time. The more answers you provide at your website, the less customer emails you’ll get asking the same questions over and over.

Before you write an FAQ, do some research. Think about your favourite websites and formulate some questions you might ask about their products or services.

Now surf to those websites and review their FAQ pages. Were you able to find answers to your question quickly? Or did you have to scroll or click through pages to find what you were looking for? Were the questions separated into logical categories or were they put in random order?

This should give you an idea of the ขdo’sข and ขdont’sข of creating an FAQ.

Another valuable research technique is to ask good friends or customers to give you feedback on your products or service. What questions popped into their minds when they visited your website. (You might offer a small gift or discount to your customers in exchange for feedback.)

After getting everyone’s comments, assemble the questions and group by category. For example, questions about how quickly you ship products would be under your ขShippingข category, etc.

Write your FAQ in a ขQuestion & Answerข format.

Organize the questions in each category so the most important questions appear near the top.

Create a ขTable of Contentsข at the top of your FAQ page and put the most asked questions here.

Hyperlink them so your customer just has to click to get to the answer. Or hyperlink your categories at the top of the page.

Here’s a few more tips:

Keep your FAQ updated. Are the answers still relevant? Review monthly.

Keep your questions and answers concise. No more than a paragraph. If the question requires a long, detailed answer, have a link to a separate webpage.

Don’t create your FAQ as a file that a prospect has to download to read. Most people won’t bother, and they’ll leave your site frustrated.

Include info and links at the bottom of each FAQ page so that a prospect can contact you if they still have unanswered questions.

About The Author

David Coyne is a marketing consultant and online entrepreneur.

Visit his website and get the FREE ebook ขMarketing Secrets Of The Ages.ข You can sell this ebook to customers and keep 100% of the profits. http://www.dcinfobiz.com

This article was posted on May 03, 2003

by David Coyne

Why You Want to Include an FAQ In Your Site

Why You Want to Include an FAQ In Your Site

by: Richard Lowe, Jr.

Congratulations! Youกve got a brand new site and itกs doing pretty well. You check your statistics every day and the hits and page views keep climbing, your links are all in order and everything looks very good. On top of that, your guestbook is filling with great comments and you’re getting a few emails now and then with praise and perhaps a question or two.
Now is a good time to sit back and examine the subject (or subjects) of your site. What is the theme? What are you trying to accomplish? Then once youกve got your site visualized, start to think about it from the perspective of a new visitor. Put yourself in their shoes, and assume you know nothing. What questions would you have? Write down these questions or type them into a document as you think of them.
What you are creating is a list of frequently asked questions (commonly abbreviated as FAQ). These are questions that your visitors may have about your site, the subject or theme, or even about you. Just about any question is valid, as long as it is helpful to your visitors.
Letกs create an example of, say, a web site about model railroading. Now, what questions would you have if you surfed to that site? You might want to know "what is it?", "when did it start?", "how much does it cost?", "why does this site exist?" and "who is the webmaster?".
That last question is more important than it seems at first glance, as putting a face behind a web site increases itกs credibility and makes it more likely that your visitors will (a) return, (b) tell their friends, and (c) purchase something (if your site is commercial). Some web guruกs will tell you never to include information the webmaster these people simply do not understand human nature. In general, people will trust another person far more easily than they will trust a web site or a machine.
Once youกve got your list of questions, go ahead and create one or more web pages (create as many as you like). Add the questions to the pages, along with the answers. If you feel like linking to articles within your site go ahead. I would avoid including external links at this point, as you want to get people interested in your site, not someone elseกs.
Remember to keep your answers short and to the point. You are not trying to duplicate your web site. Your goal is to give your visitors some quick answers to their questions to get them more interested in looking around further.
As you are adding your questions and answers, you will most likely come up with additional questions. By all means, add those to your frequently asked questions as well.
Some webmasters like to include a form at the bottom of their questions to allow people to submit additional oneกs if desired. This is a great idea, as it is an easy way to improve your web siteกs interactivity which is usually very good for getting people to return later.
I would not recommend, however, doing what Iกve seen some webmasters do automate this function. I guess the idea is to get your visitors involved in answering the questions. In this case, the FAQ becomes more or less a moderated message board. I prefer just to receive my visitors questions in an email, which I can then either answer directly or add to the FAQ when I get the chance.
FAQกs are great for answering simple questions that your visitors may have before they send you an email. It is important to remember to include a link to the FAQ in a prominent place on every single page of your website you want people looking at them when they have questions.
In summary, FAQกs tend to pull visitors into your site and make them feel better about it, which means they are more likely to return for more again and again.

About The Author

Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster of Internet Tips And Secrets. This website includes over 1,000 free articles to improve your internet profits, enjoyment and knowledge.
Web Site Address: http://www.internettips.net
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Claudia ArevaloLowe is the webmistress of Internet Tips And Secrets and Surviving Asthma. Visit her site at http://survivingasthma.com

This article was posted on February 4, 2002

by Richard Lowe, Jr.

Writing A Business Website Sales/Marketing FAQ

Writing A Business Website Sales/Marketing FAQ

by: Joel Walsh

Everyone on the web thinks they can write a FAQ. But then why are so many FAQs so lacking? How often have you read a FAQ and thought, ‘that didn’t tell me anything I needed to know!ก?

Two Worst FAQ Writing Faux Pas

Many websites don’t separate their FAQs for existing customers who need support from their FAQs for prospective customers who just want the information they need in order to decide whether and how to buy.

Many websites that do provide a special presales FAQ turn it into yet another advertisementugh! Your prospective customers need presales information that truly helps them come to a decision.

Tips for Writing a PreSales/Marketing FAQ:

You should divide your FAQ into sections that will make sense to a prospective customer. Naturally, what sections you use will depend on the content of your own website and the nature of your business.

If you have a complex business or website with many products and services and/or options for them, you may need to have a FAQ that is very long. Traditionally, webmasters would simply create one very long page for the very long FAQ. However, very long pages are almost never good web practice from a searchengine point of view. Multiple mediumlength pages will get you more search engine traffic than one long page. If you have a FAQ that would go over 1000 words, you should put each section on its own page, and have one front page with a table of contents for the entire FAQ, linking to each section and providing a list of the questions in that section.

Usually, a FAQ will have a list of all the questions up top, with links to the questions within the page, sort of a table of contents. If you have a briefer FAQ, you don’t need this.

Keep your answers brief. If an answer requires more than two paragraphs, you should create an entire web page for it, and simply provide a link to that page in the FAQ answer.

Your answers should cast you in the best possible light while still being believable. Do not confuse this FAQ for prospective customers with the more common support FAQ! You do not want your prospective customers to see a laundry list of everything that could conceivably go wrong with your product or service.

In order to keep your FAQ believable and informative, do not fill it with marketese and hype. Keep the exclamation points to a minimum! Yes, you want to portray yourself in the best possible lightbut the best possible believable and informative light.

In the end, remember this: your web visitors who read your FAQ are among the most qualified, interested prospects on your site. If your FAQ lacks your site may lack sales.

About The Author

Joel Walshกs business website UpMarketContent.com has a FAQ web page content template: http://UpMarketContent.com/faqtemplate.htm? writing FAQ content

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[email protected]

This article was posted on August 07

by Joel Walsh