FAQs, an SEO positioning tool?

Responding to the user’s search intention is very important for the notoriety and positioning of a website. Unfortunately, they sometimes find an answer in the FAQs that Google shows, which greatly reduces the chances of them entering our website.

But, could FAQs be used as a positioning element to attract traffic? Are they useful for positioning in Google?

What are FAQs?

It is the name given to the answers to questions that inform the user about a certain topic, product or service.

Normally, web pages include “Frequently Asked Questions“, which informs about store policies, payment methods, information about the shipping process… So that the user does not have any doubts about the process To make.

However, we can also find them outside the web, in other words, as a result in the search engine to those questions that can be related to a specific search.

For example, if in the search engine we write “What is SEO?”, together with the different pages that deal with that keyword, it will show us a series of questions related to the search intention, which could interest the user, such as:

What is an SEO and what is it for?
What is SEO examples?
What is SEO and SEM?

Each of these questions are short excerpts from websites that answer those questions. In other words, Google is using content from other pages completely free of charge.

Can FAQs help the SEO positioning of a web page?

Yes and no. Frequently asked questions are entered through rich snippets, or structured data markup.

In this section, we can enter keywords that will respond to a search intention such as: “What is SEO for?” or “How can SEO help web positioning?”. If our website is well positioned, has reputation and presence, it will appear as an option to ask that question.

Now, this in no case improves the positioning of the web, but it can be used to improve the CTR if:

• The query is not fully resolved, prompting the user to complete the information on the web.
• FAQs can be created that answer all kinds of questions, even if they are not so frequent. For example, if you are specialized in the sale of a type of product, you can answer the Frequently Asked Questions related to that product.
• You can include links in the FAQs so that they go to a certain web page.
• It is true that it is not a positioning method itself, but if your FAQs appear in Google, even if they are below the competition, you will appear above it when resolving the user’s search intention.
• According to some experts, it is much more effective in voice search results.

How can you take advantage of FAQs for SEO?

You have to be very careful with this. FAQs can help users find you when they perform a search for specific keywords, but they also count as ‘keywords for your website.’ Therefore, you could fall into cannibalization if you’re not careful.

Suppose you have a furniture store, with a category of “Modern living room furniture”.

Frequently asked questions may include:

What furniture is put in a modern living room?
What are modern living rooms like?
What colors are used in modern living rooms?
What colors can be combined when painting a modern living room?

Each question responds to a search intent that informs about different aspects of a modern living room. You can include with a plugin a FAQ at the end of the category or the article that answers all these questions.

Thus, the main content will guide you to talk about the advantages of your business, while these questions will answer more common questions and you will be able to attract traffic to the web.

Now, imagine that you write an article, in which you talk about “How to decorate a modern living room”. In the main category you have already answered many frequently asked questions, and you could fall into cannibalization when developing the article.

You have to be very careful when using them, because although Google does not count them as “KW positioning”, it does take them into account as cannibalization.

How to get your FAQs to appear on Google?

There is a lot of discussion around this topic. The only thing that the great SEOs agree on is that it all depends on the Google algorithm and how the content of a website responds to the user’s search intention.

You can use tools such as FAQ Plus or Francy FAQ to enter them on your website, but this does not mean that they will appear in the search results.

Trust your website traffic to the FAQ?

As we have already mentioned, it can be a way to “improve the CTR” of your website, but it does not ensure that you will increase traffic as much as other SEO techniques would.

If you want to climb positions and be among the top search results on Google, you need a strategy tailored to your business and the search intent of your potential customers.

The use of FAQs should be a “complement”, but never the center of the strategy. At Mikksa Network we develop a totally personalized strategy, focusing on your target audience and content that increases both the CTR and the sales of your business.