As an SEO provider, our main objective (depending on the client) is to drive as much traffic as possible to our client’s website. Now, you may ask yourself, how do you do that?
Well, this is simple. Rank for as many keywords possible that have high search volumes on the first page of Google. Aim to take up as much real estate as you can on the search engine results page (SERP.)
Google is becoming much better at understanding searcher intent. This means the game of SEO has become a little more tricky. Although SEO continues to become more advanced as the competition increases, this opens many opportunities for you to dominate your industry's keyword positions, retaining as much organic traffic as possible.
We have seen the potential that featured snippets can have in helping clients capture organic visitors. It has demonstrated how we can combat the challenges of SEO by being creative. We can take up more real estate on the SERP, leading to higher clickthrough rates and more organic traffic.
With Google BERT released last year, Google's search algorithms have become much better at processing words in relation to all other words in a sentence. In layman's terms, Google is doing a better job in helping you find useful information based on your search.
With the ability to rank for more long-tail searches, there are huge opportunities for clients to add frequently asked questions (FAQs) to their service pages, helping them outrank competitors. We have seen many clients with a stand-alone FAQ page, but recent updates have increased the potential of dominating the SERP when adding FAQs to specific pages. Here’s why!
Inbound Links
In order to compete organically with competitors for certain keywords, Google not only looks at your domain authority but will also strongly consider page authority.
In order to help build up the page authority for a specific keyword you’re targeting, not only will you need a great user experience, but also a strong backlink portfolio. A common strategy for increasing keyword rankings is acquiring backlinks from websites with a strong domain authority to link back to the page you are trying to rank.
However, this can sometimes be difficult if you have a poorly designed web page. Adding FAQs to a page you are link-exchanging for, will increase your odds of acquiring backlinks. The better resource of information and stronger user experience your webpage is, the more likely that other websites will agree to link back to your page.
This is a simple technique to help your outreach efforts in building your backlink portfolio and increase your page authority.
Leveraging Long-tail Keywords
A big reason for the Google BERT update was due to voice searches becoming increasingly popular. Google reports state that 20% of all searches are voice-related.
Adding FAQs has become a simple, yet highly effective content marketing strategy to help assist your search engine optimization efforts. This is because it takes advantage of ranking for long-tail keywords.
By having specific, detailed questions listed in your FAQs (on your service pages) can help hijack traffic from long-tail keyword searches. There are billions of searches every day, and almost everyone is different.
If you have direct solutions to a question or search query, such as a search similar to asking Siri, “why do I need SEO?” It will help your website outrank your competitors. Google will consider your website as a useful resource of information for that user’s specific search.
Simplify Sales Process
Adding FAQs to a particular service page often helps lead to an increase in conversion rates in the sales process.
Providing a user with as much resourceful information as possible before they convert as a lead, helps to shorten the sales cycle and push customers further along the marketing funnel.
Producing FAQs can answer a lot of questions that a potential customer may have, so this can help increase the quality of a lead. Moreover, having FAQs will help establish your business as a trusted expert. Providing reliable answers to your customers demonstrates your business as a reliable source to help gain the trust of potential clients.
Cover More Real Estate on SERP
Outside of the standard top 10 organic results and paid ads at the top and bottom, we see the SERP evolving. Google’s SERP is now saturated with direct answers, featured snippets, youtube videos, the local 3 pack, image packs, newsbox, and the list goes on. It’s evident, the amount of competition that exists when attempting to convince a user to click on to your website.
So certain SEO strategies, such as adding FAQs and implementing FAQ schema, are great ways to help increase your CTR, which allows you to take up more real estate on the SERP.
Adding in FAQ schema enables Google to display your website in a more visually appealing and creative way on Google’s SERP. See below for an example.
You can clearly see how this takes up more space than your standard organic listing. See the example below:
FAQ schema is a great way to hijack clicks from your competitors and increase your CTR. Demonstrate your ability to answer questions for potential leads before they enter your website. Taking up more real estate on Google’s SERP is a great way to build authority with Google and outrank competitors.
Increase User Experience
Adding FAQs is a simple but effective strategy to help improve the performance of your website analytics.
Metrics such as bounce rate, average time on site, and average page views are likely to improve once FAQs are added to service pages. This is simply because the page now becomes more visually appealing. It provides more value to a user who lands on your website. Besides, providing them with an aesthetically appealing source of information that answers their questions directly will inevitably encourage them to stay on a page for longer and take action.
In Conclusion
FAQs added to your service pages and correctly implemented with FAQ schema is a great strategy to help provide your marketing efforts value in plenty of ways.
Whether it’s improving your web page analytics, increasing your CTRs, or improving your keyword rankings, implementing FAQs is a foolproof strategy to help provide a good return on investment from your SEO efforts.
