Ah, FAQ pages. A relic of the early internet. Most people can’t remember when FAQ pages started becoming ubiquitous or what the acronym stands for.
A FAQ, or a ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ page, is an essential element in the design and functionality of any business website – both small and large.
But, creating a good FAQ page is no easy task. Affecting a variety of metrics such as SEO, CRO and customer satisfaction, there can be a lot of things to consider.
Being a text-heavy page, how do you create a comprehensive enough document for customers that’s also engaging?
Additionally, how do you let it speak to larger business elements such as your brand’s image and tone? There is definitely a method to the madness that is FAQ page design.
To maximize clarity, engagement and information for your customers, there are a number of design practices you can follow.
Getting started can be difficult, especially considering the myriad of things to consider. Luckily, we’ve aggregated a collection of FAQ design best practices along with some great examples to help you get the ball rolling.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
What is a FAQ Page?
Definition
A FAQ page, short for Frequently Asked Questions, is a page outlining important information about the business to clarify customer questions. Most FAQ pages are designed to relieve the requirements of customer support as many businesses have the same questions repeatedly asked. It’s also an efficient way for customers to get a quick solution to their problem.
FAQ Page Design Best Practices and Examples
10 FAQ page design examples
- Clear question headers
- Succinct, jargon-free copy
- Using subheadings and categories
- Links to other pages and navigation
- Social buttons/ feedback
- User experience and design
- Focus on the customer
- Keep it updated
- Optimize for SEO
- Add a search bar to make it a knowledge base
1. Clear question headers
When it comes to FAQ design, the clearer and simpler the questions, the better. Customers use the FAQ page to quickly find the answers to their burning questions. The less time spent browsing and searching, the less likely they’ll be frustrated. The more likely they’ll stay and make a purchase, increasing your customer conversion rate.
If your questions are long-winded and unclear, it defeats the purpose of having a FAQ in the first place.
Questions worded plainly provide the customer with the fastest avenue to finding an answer and might even help them find questions that they didn’t even know they had.
A good example of this is Twitter They include clear and simple questions, with different topics split up into smaller questions.
2. Succinct, jargon-free copy
Your answers should also strive to be short and to the point without over complication. Keep the jargon off of your FAQ page – you don’t want your customers leaving your page to look up industry specific slang.
Customers want to find the answer to their questions and then move on. Write your answers as clearly and concisely as possible.
If it begins to look dense, don’t be afraid to include more questions to break up your answers.
Wikipedia is a good guide for this, with most of their FAQ answers only a couple of lines long, even for complicated questions.
3. Using subheadings and categories
Depending on the nature of your business, your FAQ page can have an immense amount of information. If you don’t stratify your information into logical categories and sub-categories, your customers will have a time finding the relevant information they need.
Deciding on a categorical set of questions and answers of which to organize your information is a necessity. Nobody wants to decipher a wall of text to find the information that they need – especially if they have several questions regarding a single topic.
Break your FAQ questions up into categories, and use sub-headers so that customers can easily navigate through your FAQ.
As with having clear questions, grouping your information under categories can help answer questions customers may not even know they had in the first place. Additionally, these subheadings and categories can also help with SEO, as key questions are repeated again.
Etsy shows how this is done with clear categories under which you can find further questions.
4. Links to other pages and navigation
Once a customer’s query is answered, don’t run the risk of them navigating away from your site when they have to manually navigate to the relevant page. If a customer is curious about how to contact you, it’ll be a good idea to include a link to your contact information.
The goal is to have a seamless, interconnected experience which connects your FAQ to all the important, relevant pages of your business. This encourages customers to invest more time browsing your site.
Dropbox has a good example of this where you can see that they link to their sales team for further information on discounts.
5. Social buttons/ feedback
Occasionally there’s something missing, a gap in knowledge, or a piece of information you overlooked in the FAQ. That’s why it’s important to allow your customers the opportunity to give feedback.
Use social buttons to link your customers with support and extra information. For example, you can include a Contact Us section at the end. “If you can’t find your answer here, you can Tweet us at @Advesa or message us on Facebook and we’ll get straight back to you”.
You’ll be continuously improving and upgrading your FAQ page and it also allows your customers to get involved. This will increase feelings of appreciation for the transparent communication you’re offering.
Check out how McDonald’s does it:
6. User experience and design
At the simplest level, make sure that your FAQ design is clear with regard to visibility and style. Don’t use tiny text or low-contrast font colours. Rather, make sure that the page itself is easy to read, with text and images to support your answers if necessary.
Just because your FAQ page is all text, there isn’t any reason that it should be boring. Play around with the design and aesthetic of the page to make it fit with your brand.
Expandable categories, fixed navigation bars and content layouts are just some of the things that should be considered when designing your FAQ page to fit with your brand’s tone and aesthetic.Here’s an example from BestMade of a FAQ page that is both easy to read and indicative of their brand’s aesthetic.
7. Focus on the customer
If customers are on your FAQ page, they’re looking for the information they need to feel confident enough to convert and make a purchase.
Avoid populating your FAQ page with superfluous brand information and attempts to upsell. That’s a turn off. The FAQ page should be about helping your customers, not about a sales pitch.
Prioritize the customer’s experience above all else. Are there questions that you know for certain that are asked more frequently than others? Place those at the top of your FAQ or have an entire category dedicated to the most frequent of your frequently asked questions. Do the same with your most popular category of questions.
Keep it about information, not about sales. An informed customer is a happy customer and the increase in your conversion rate will speak volumes to that.
Notice that Nalgene’s FAQ page is void of product placement sales pitches. All the information on the page is information that pertains strictly to the customer.
8. Keep it updated
An amalgamation of your business’s most frequently sought after information, your FAQ page is one of your most important pages and should be treated as such.
Review it often to ensure it is updated with new information and relevant to your customers. If you took heed of our “social buttons and feedback” tip then this shouldn’t be a problem. Your customers will inform you personally of any gap in knowledge.
Microsoft’s FAQ pages feature a “last updated” footnote so the customer knows exactly when the information was revised.
9. Optimize for SEO
FAQ pages have a lot of information – depending on how you establish yours, they may even be the most text-heavy page on your site. This not only opens the door for SEO, but encourages it.
Make sure your page is SEO ready. Conduct your own keyword research and including the top performers in your answers, category headers and links.
Make explanations short and sweet. Extended answers or more in-depth explanations can be offered as an optional link. You can also include CTAs throughout your content to incentivize visiting those pages.
HubSpot’s FAQ page provides succinct answers to questions while including links to guides and more information:
10. Add a search bar to make it a knowledge base
If your FAQ page is dense with information and text, including a search bar would be a good idea.
Having to scroll down a directory of categories looking for questions may help answer questions customers didn’t know they had in the first place. But it also runs the risk of irritating those who are more impatient. Including a search bar can cut down the time spent looking for an answer and increase the time they spend browsing through your site.
At the end of the day, it’s up to you to decide what FAQ page form will best serve your client base. It’s good to be cognizant of other available options if the more traditional FAQ format isn’t performing as well as you want.
Dollar Shave Club’s categories redirect to a page dedicated entirely to that topic, as well as including a search bar to index their knowledge base.
Key Takeaways for FAQ Page Design
As you’ve seen, FAQ pages remain ever relevant. But so often they’re characterised by boring, text heavy pages and poor structure. This doesn’t have to be the case. Here are some final tips for giving your FAQ page designs the best chance of converting customers once they reach your site:
- Keep it short and sweet. Avoid superfluous information and ensure your answers are succinct. Design your FAQ page so customers can find their information and return to browsing your site as fast as possible.
- Focus on the customer. Design your FAQ page with your customer in mind, and make it the sort of help page you would like to read yourself. Avoid sales pitches and brand information – this can serve to alienate your client base.
- Make it clear. Use plain and simple language, subheadings and categories, and design the page to be easily readable with helpful links to other pages.
- Allow feedback. Involve your customer in the process and let them help you improve any gaps in knowledge you may have. If something isn’t working for them, you’ll be able to know right away.
- Have an organized structure. Don’t just dump a wall of text onto your reader – make it organized. Structure your questions and answers into logical and relevant categories so customers can find all the answers in one place.
