Frequently asked question (FAQ) pages (or hubs) help your business respond to the needs of your audience more quickly and appropriately.
An effective FAQ resource can educate, inform, and guide the user in a natural way through your website’s content and toward the goals and end results you have set.
In fact, an FAQ page is an essential webpage to have on your site.
Why?
Because FAQ pages can bring in new visitors to your website via organic search and drive them to related pages – most typically deeper blog pages and service pages closely related to the questions being resolved.
The FAQ page is one of the best ways to help people visiting your site.
They will get their intended destination faster because you are removing any possible knowledge (informational and often trust) barriers.
Why FAQ Pages Are a Priority
FAQ pages continue to be a priority area for SEO and digital marketing professionals.
An FAQ page is one of the simplest ways to improve your site and help site visitors and users.
In no small part, the importance of FAQ pages has been driven in recent years by the growth in voice search, mobile search, and personal/home assistants and speakers.
These predominantly rely on the pre-results (Google Answers and Featured Snippets) and can be targeted specifically with FAQ pages.
An effective FAQ page:
- Reflects your audience’s needs.
- Covers a broad range of intent (transactional, informational, etc.).
- Frequently gets updated based on new data insights.
- Lands new users to the website by solving problems.
- Drives internal pageviews to other important pages.
- Fuels blog (and deeper content) creation.
- Showcases expertise, trust, and authority within your niche.
Now let’s look at 25 great examples of FAQ page/resources, as well as why they’re so effective.
1. Twitter
Twitter’s FAQ made the list as it includes some nice personalization, easy to use search functionality, and it looks nice (something that few FAQ pages ever achieve).
2. YouTube
YouTube’s FAQ page is clean, fresh, simple to use, and provides access to the most commonly asked “help” topics.
3. McDonald’s
The McDonald’s FAQ page feels informal, sociable, and encourages people to share their FAQ experience (a rarity).
4. WhatsApp
The FAQ resource for Whatsapp is bright, easy to use, and categorized effectively for quick desktop or mobile use.
5. Wikipedia
Wikipedia’s help center is a great example of an “old-school” FAQ page.
It is text heavy, blocked into key topic areas, and has extensive access to all the key support areas you could ever need.
6. Microsoft
Microsoft’s FAQs section employs accordion/expandable div functionality to enable a more effective mobile-first experience and to support quick top-level access to information without excessive scrolling.
7. UCAS
The FAQs section of UCAS is simple, scaled back, and concise.
It also includes a useful prompt to ask if the information was useful and to gather user feedback for improving the resource.
8. WorldFirst
WorldFirst’sFAQs hub provides single-click content segmentation, plus view all capabilities which place functionality and usability of the resource first – an important part of an effective frequently asked questions resource.
9. Nintendo
The Nintendo Online FAQs are bold, functional and simple in approach.
The content isn’t cluttered and easy to skim read.
10. DaysOutGuide
DaysOutGuide’s frequently asked questions resource incorporates tags to make the most out of single-click functionality for all device access to information.
The balance between text, images, and interactive features works great.
11. SendInBlue
SendInBlue’s FAQs are by far the most basic by design (single grid defined by thin square categories) included in this list of my best and most effective FAQs, but they work.
It’s a simple solution, but almost always overlooked.
12. FreeSpirit
The FreeSpirit FAQ page combines useful information navigational features with interactive content to empower the user to progress through the site and making buying decisions faster.
13. Amazon Web Services
Amazon Web Services’ FAQs are functional, easy to skim through, and categorized for use.
There are no frills here.
But, in some cases, it’s better to get straight to the point.
14. Silicone Engineering
Silicone Engineering’s FAQs help demystify a traditionally complex industry.
The combination of quick links, ask the expert, and deeper content answers work well for the user regardless of time availability or device used.
15. Dropbox
Dropbox Help brings fun to the FAQ area with the choice of images used and encourages the user to experience the site through self-discovery.
16. TUI
TUI FAQs are in a grid format, include depth of topical coverage and reflect the volumes of information available on the site.
The resource is not very pretty by design, but it works and almost has a retro feel to it.
17. UPS
The UPS Help and Support Centreincludes a virtual chat assistant which leverages the FAQs above the static functionality of most.
Chatbots are ideal FAQ considerations mainly based on the ability for them to expedite and drive the user journey (a key effectiveness area for any help and FAQ resource).
18. Transpack
The Transpack Product Help Center acts as both an FAQ resource as well as a guides roll-up resource, meaning that users can access top-level information as well as buying guides, measurement information, and a whole host of other insights normally only accessible through blogs.
19. FatFace
The FatFace help center and FAQs resource is a nice example of a bigger brand getting it right.
The help center places the users first with the topics covered and still manages to feel personable and helpful.
20. King’s College London
King’s College London’s FAQ page is divided into FAQ sections per key area of the website. This enables highly targeted support recourses that are driven by a single purpose (often facilitating easy applications).
The segmentation of FAQs is what stood out and led me to include them in this list.
21. Pinterest
Pinterest’s Help Center takes simplicity to the next level.
The design and information provided are clearly prioritized for the mobile user combining visual and textual triggers.
22. Elite Island Holidays UK
Elite Island Holidays’ FAQs are driven by audience needs and clearly set out to answer peoples holiday dilemmas from preparation through to last minute help and support.
The blog nature of the answers means that the site visitor doesn’t need to travel beyond the FAQs page for help.
23. Airtable
Airtable’s Help Center is fun, visually driven, and even provides useful information on how to use the FAQ section.
Making a help resource fun isn’t easy, however, Airtablehas achieved this.
24. Pretty Little Thing
The FAQs on Pretty Little Thing tells you their audience immediately and position the design and content accordingly.
The FAQs also appear well thought out and enticing to interact with.
25. First Direct
First Direct’s FAQs, Help Center, and Tools/Guide Resource bring lots of information-rich segmented guides and financial tools into a single place.
Making often complex and dry financial topics straightforward and accessible is not easy, but this section does it well.
Creating an Effective FAQ page
Whether you have an FAQ page in place but you believe it can contribute more, or are looking to create a new FAQ resource for your website, it’s important to consider the following steps.
1. Decide on the Purpose of the FAQ Page
If you wish to bring your experts to the foreground and provide ongoing audience support, your FAQ hub will function very differently than it would if you intend to simply increase the ease of access to know cornerstone content on your website.
2. Plan to Maintain Your FAQs
Your audience questions will change frequently and you need to ensure that your FAQ content reflects this.
Data within Google Search Console (GSC), on-site search behavior, plus broader industry trends will help inform this
3. Look Outside of Your Company Database
Whilst your data is fantastic to servicing your existing customer base, there are often multiple layers of FAQs to fulfill.
You can use free tools such as Answer the Public for more generic questions to answer, plus Google Trends, competitor sites, and more
4. Structuring FAQs
Both your page and individual FAQs need some consideration on how you structure them and make a lot of varied content accessible for the user and search engines alike.
At the individual FAQ level, consider expandable onclick text to keep answers clean, and easy to use.
At the page structure level, take time to prioritize content based on value and demand, plus technical optimization areas such as the use of schema, page speed, and mobile-friendliness
5. Use Data to Refine & Improve
FAQ pages quickly become out of date and the value declines over time.
Make sure that you are testing page changes and iteratively improving everything from headings and clickable page elements, through to new data-led content additions and call to actions
6. Don’t Forget the People Element
The most successful FAQ pages often stem from a deeper understanding of the people they are intended to help.
Data is always important, but you also need to balance this out with real-world insights.
The best people to help with this are the front line staff who are actively engaged with your audience on a daily basis and have a true understanding of how online and offline FAQs can support and enrich your problem-solving offering.
More Resources:
Image Credits
Screenshots taken by author, September 2020
