The Importance of FAQs for SEO and CRO and Why You Should Use FAQ Schema Markup

We love FAQs. They are good for content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO) and conversion rate optimization (CRO), and that’s what we do.

Here’s why:

Why to use FAQs in your Content Marketing:

If content marketing is part of your strategy, FAQs should be included in that strategy. What better topics for content than the questions people have about your products or services?

Consider:

• What do people not understand about your products or services,
• what are people interested in learning, what are they comparing, and
• what are they trying to solve?

Any question that is related to your business is a good topic for your site. Questions can be more general than many competitors will write about and more specific where only companies from your niche might touch on. Both general and specific questions are good to target, but you need to take into account what resources you have. Then you can choose after which topics to prioritize first, and which to cover in the next round and so on.

Why to use FAQs for your SEO:

People come to Google to search for information. Even if they don’t construct their query as a question, a question is implied. When they type in a 2-word query, that may imply multiple questions. For example, if someone types in Chuck Norris in the search field, they might have all of these different questions in mind:

• Who is Chuck Norris?
• What movies has Chuck Norris taken part in?
• How old is Chuck Norris?
• What are some good jokes about Chuck Norris?
• Can Chuck Norris strangle you with a cordless phone?

So, when you plan your SEO strategy you need to think of including all relevant questions and then answer those questions in your copy. By doing so, you are adding the topics and subtopics that your user might be searching for in Google. Make sure to include only those questions that are related to your area of business, so Google can semantically relate you to the correct scope. For example, if you’re an Apple phone seller – make sure you include questions related to Apple phones and exclude topics about how healthy apples are for people to eat.

Why to use FAQs for your CRO:

What is conversion rate optimization? It is the task of convincing a visitor of your website that your product or service will serve their need. Those visitors probably have questions they want answers for like: what exactly does this product do, will it be easy to start using it, how well will it integrate with my existing system, does it really do all the things it claims to do, etc. (We recommend ConversionRateExpert’s Making Websites Win book for understanding the art of CRO.) Answering all of those questions will lead you where you want to be — converting those visitors into customers. That is how FAQs help with CRO.

Here are 3 best practices to make the most out of your FAQs:

#1: Find the right questions:

• Speak with your sales teams and customer service teams: What do people ask most frequently over the phone? What is that they don’t understand?
• Use help with tools like https://answerthepublic.com/ and https://www.semrush.com/ (Keyword Magic Tool > Questions).
  

#2: Use FAQs on the right places on your website:

• FAQs can be used on stand-alone pages, for broader, more general topics — that’s when they’ll be serving content marketing and SEO purposes.
• However, the best use of FAQs is on your landing pages — to explain how your product/service works, to answer any concerns visitors might have, and to make it as much clear as possible. This will help CRO and SEO.
  

#3: Add Schema FAQ Markup:

By marking up your FAQ’s with Schema.org you have a better chance for showing up in Google’s rich snippets.

Here’s what FAQ Schema Markup looks like (https://schema.org/FAQPage):

Here’s an example of how FAQs are pulled into rich snippets in Google: