How to Attract New Organic Customers with Your Website FAQ

Many brands publish FAQs on their websites. These FAQs serve an important role in customer service, but do little to attract new customers. Website FAQs tend to answer questions asked by current customers — e.g. What is Wayfair’s return policy? — and ignore questions asked by new customers — e.g. What type of paint is best for a beachfront home?

Publishing concise, authoritative Q&A content on your website (that answers non-branded, purchase-intent questions) will attract new organic customers who are looking to buy. And better yet, Google’s AI favors Q&A content for the featured snippet and people-also-ask sections of the search results page. So, this strategy helps you generate the type of content Google’s AI is looking for and delivers customers who are more likely to convert because they are asking the right questions.

Why Branded FAQs Don’t Work for SEO

Most websites already have an FAQ, but it’s only serving their current customers. Branded FAQs are usually about products, terms of service, and shipping policies – information created to serve current customers. These types of FAQs only rank for branded keywords and therefore do not have SEO in mind (i.e only someone who’s already heard of your company will search you up directly).

For example, a branded FAQ question might be, “How long does the battery last on an Apple Watch?” A non-branded FAQ question can cover the same information in general, but the question might look something like this: “How long do smartwatch batteries last?” Both questions cover information about smartwatch batteries, but the non-branded question likely has a much higher search volume and will attract more visitors because of this. Plenty of people have smartwatches, and a smaller selection of these people have Apple Watches. It’s ideal to draw a larger, more general crowd through keywords with higher reach (i.e non-branded keywords).

With Google’s shift to an AI-based algorithm, the AI favors Q&A style content that offers authoritative, accurate and concise answers to the questions your customers are asking when they make a buying decision. Without addressing this need in your web content, you are missing an opportunity to rank for the content Google literally favors. Additionally, a non-branded FAQ will attract new customers by answering the right questions in the right place.

If you already have an FAQ for customer service, create a new one for customer acquisition. This new FAQ should be optimized for and answer non-branded “purchase intent” questions. Once implemented, your content will target potential customers who are ready to make a purchase.

What Does Successful Q&A Content Look Like?

We recommend a Q&A content strategy and suggest you build a website FAQ for customer acquisition. Do this by:

1. Targeting non-branded, purchase intent questions
2. Answering the question with a one paragraph answer

For example, a purchase intent question that a potential customer is searching for may be “Are weight loss medications in pill form or injectable?” We consider this to be “purchase intent” because the user is searching a question about a specific product (that you sell). For this example, an answer could be published on your site, such as this one via Form Health:

Benefits to Using a Q&A Content Strategy

This Q&A content strategy comes with a number of SEO benefits:

1. Target low competition long tail keywords
2. Rank for featured snippets
3. Rank in the people-also-ask box
4. Efficient content creation
5. Create better targeted content that attracts the right customers
6. Drive conversions
7. Create the type of content Google’s AI is looking for
8. Help build search engine authority

Let’s break down each benefit and how Q&A content contributes to it.

1. Target Low Competition Long Tail Keywords

Q&A content allows you to easily target keywords in both your questions and answers. If you specifically target purchase-intent keywords, you’ll likely boost conversions, as well. The more targeted, the more likely you will generate organic visitors who are satisfied by your Q&A content and will trust you as a source. Here are some example targeted questions a weight loss provider published on their FAQ:



We recommend getting super targeted in the keywords you implement. Don’t be afraid to select queries with low search volume – these may result in quicker rankings. Low-competition keywords help to attract new customers who are already searching for this information, but without ranking amongst competitors. The less competition a keyword has, the easier it is to rank for it.

2. Rank for Featured Snippets

Q&A content often ranks for featured snippets. In fact, at Fire&Spark we like to call this “easy-win” content. While there are some places where long-form content wins over short-form content, this isn’t the case with featured snippets. Potential customers are searching questions and looking to find the information they need quickly. We recommend your FAQ answers stay short and snappy to keep readers engaged and provide as much value with as little amount of text as possible. In fact, we recommend your Q&A answers do not exceed 300 words. Google’s Featured Snippets on the SERPs are often 40-50 words long, so by following this format you have a higher chance of earning a featured snippet.



Featured snippets typically get higher organic traffic and a big advantage over other websites on the results page because the featured result is the biggest one. The snippet is eye-catching and because it offers a direct answer searchers are often more tempted to click through to your website, rather than scroll down to other search results.



3. Rank in the People-Also-Ask Box

The People-Also-Ask box is an additional source for searchers who are looking for more helpful information related to their query. Many times, people who are searching for answers to a specific question may have more questions relating to the first one they searched. By providing answers to “people also ask” questions, a business could potentially attract even more organic visitors looking for relevant information.

We recommend using everyday language that is easy for any user to understand. Furthermore, make sure your answers are factual and don’t use language that’s promotional or salesy.

4. Efficient Content Creation

One of the best things about utilizing a Q&A strategy is that it’s efficient content to create. In our experience, it’s much easier to answer a few questions with a one paragraph answer than it is to write an entire blog article on the topic. Insead, Q&A content is easy to make, takes much less effort, and is overall hassle-free content that can be made quickly and in bulk.

5. Create Better Targeted Content that Attracts the Right Customers

As an overall content strategy, your FAQ will be able to attract the right customers to your website through targeted content creation. All marketers share this same goal: increase the number of visitors to your website and convert them into customers. Well, your Q&A content will help to grow organic online sales by utilizing an FAQ as an extension of your customer service efforts.

6. Drive Conversions

Q&A content is a goldmine for driving conversions. The questions and solutions you highlight in your FAQ will educate potential customers on your products and lead them to product pages.

We recommend putting Q&A-style content on your category pages, service pages, and throughout relevant blog articles to help drive traffic directly to pages where they can easily convert. For example, a product page with frequently asked questions has a chance of ranking for the keywords throughout the questions and answers – not just the product keywords. This all ties back to growing your organic online sales with Q&A content.

Where appropriate, FAQ answers should offer visitors helpful information or instructions to follow in order to learn more. FAQs are a perfect place to insert a compelling call to action.

7. Create the Type of Content Google’s AI is Looking For

Q&A style content is what Google’s AI is looking for. Since Google’s switch to an AI-based algorithm, the search engine has placed more emphasis on websites that can provide accurate information to online users. The more authoritative Google deems your website, the more likely the search engine will trust it and promote it to searchers.

8. Help Build Search Engine Authority

Q&A content helps to build search engine authority for your website. FAQs are an authority driver because they demonstrate your credibility, knowledge, and expertise within your industry. If Google believes your website is authoritative, it will rank your site more often and higher on the results pages.

Linking relevant sources or pieces of information into an answer can not only help FAQs rank well, but they can provide visitors with additional content. If you can’t think of an external source to link to, consider working with subject matter experts (SMEs) in your industry to increase your FAQ’s authority.

How To Build Q&A Style Content

While a Q&A page can further support your SEO efforts and help drive website traffic, its primary purpose is to cater to your customers. So, start building Q&A content by identifying which questions Google thinks are important to your customers. You can research SEO keywords via Ahrefs or Moz, or check your brand’s social media accounts to find common questions your customers are asking.

Look for questions and answers around topics like:

• What makes your customers hesitate before they buy?
• What are your customers’ biggest pain points that your product solves?

Using AI Tools

One of our favorite ways to write questions and answers is by using AI tools. Once you harvest several purchase-intent questions, you can then use an AI tools like Jasper.ai to help answer them.

We’ve seen most marketers shy away from AI tools because of assumptions within the industry such as questioning the quality of AI work. However, marketers who are seeking to future-proof their careers can no longer ignore AI. Once tested, AI can be implemented directly into your existing SEO and content marketing workflows.

Example Q&A Content

We’ve spent this article discussing why you should invest in Q&A content, so now let’s dive into one example. Below is a screenshot of one of our client’s FAQ pages. Note how they include the question front-and-center, a short paragraph, a CTA that links to another page on their site, and an author box to boost credibility.

This page earned a featured snippet for a non-branded longtail keyword!

Overall, our non-branded FAQ strategy led this consumer-facing healthcare brand to a 642% increase month-over-month in organic traffic to one of the pages. The client additionally saw an incredible 479.43% increase in clicks and an equally impressive 264.48% increase in impressions month-over-month. This targeted long tail Q&A content strategy boosted the site’s online presence and organic visibility.

URLs on client website containing “FAQ” over a 6 month period. Image via Ahrefs.

Conclusion

Since Google’s recent shift to artificial intelligence based algorithms, the search engine is looking for – and prioritizing – Q&A style content. So, if you’re not using this strategy, then you’re missing an opportunity to create the content that Google is looking for. As a result, you’re also losing out on potentially attracting new customers to your website. Your FAQ needs to be optimized for customer acquisition if you’re expecting it to generate organic sales.

An organized and thorough non-branded FAQ can bring more organic traffic to a company’s website, develop trust amongst consumers, and move potential leads through the pipeline to help convert them into loyal customers. We recommend implementing this strategy across your website to help outrank competitors and generate more brand awareness. If you want to learn how, talk to one of our SEO strategists to get started!