FAQ pages have grown in popularity in the past couple of years, making them more of a necessity than a choice. In that same manner, implementing schema markup to these pages is essential to ensure they get the maximum exposure possible in search results.
Because of this, business owners must have these pages optimized for search engines if they wish to stay on top of the game.
For this reason, we’ll review the basics of FAQ pages, their importance to a website, and the pillars behind effective FAQ content. Likewise, we’ll go over how adding FAQ schema is as crucial to these pages as the pages themselves and some basic guidelines to keep in mind.
What Is a FAQ Page?
A Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page is a dedicated resource that lists questions and answers that people have asked regarding a product or service.
FAQ content has grown in popularity in the past few years. This is because they provide great value to your target audience, acting similarly to a product support page. When done properly, these pages not only can help with customer support but also increase awareness of your brand.
As a result, FAQ pages have become an essential part of a business’s website, similar to the About Us and Contact Pages.
Why Create a FAQ Page?
In general, implementing an optimized FAQ page is always a good rule of thumb.
Here are some benefits an FAQ page can grant to a site:
- It provides insightful content in a fast and efficient manner to users.
- FAQ pages can increase your site rankings in search engines, thus increasing your website traffic.
- It saves you time by reducing the number of users contacting you only to ask simple questions.
- You build trust with your target audience.
How to Create an Effective FAQ Page
For an FAQ to bring the best value to your potential customers, it’s essential for the page to be done using relevant search terms and, most importantly, address questions tailored to your product.
When creating an FAQ page, keep the following in mind:
- Consult with your customer service team to gather the most common questions they get.
- Be sure to use a question-and-answer format
- Avoid adding long and complex answers.
- Make some quick searches on Google relating to your product to know some common questions.
- Try to showcase your brand’s personality through your answers.
- Make your FAQ page easy to find.
What Is FAQ Schema?
When looking for a way for search engines to understand your site better and make your content eligible for Google’s rich results, you must implement the appropriate schema markup.
Schema markup is a type of microdata vocabulary site owners can add to a page that gives crawlers a better picture of its contents. The most common schema language used is JSON-LD, as it’s simple and customizable.
Multiple search engines like Google, Bing, and Yandex collaborate with Schema.org.
On that same note, multiple schema markup types exist, including Local Business, Article, and FAQ.
FAQ Schema markup allows site owners to define the questions and answers for an FAQ page. As a result, Google can read this markup and, due to its better understanding, help generate a rich snippet that looks like this:
Difference Between FAQ Schema and Q&A Schema
Many people tend to confuse FAQ Schema with Q&A Schema. However, their main difference is that FAQ schema can only have one answer per question, while a Q&A schema allows multiple answers for a single question.
Likewise, since they have different formats, they have different appearances on search engine result pages. By default, the Q&A schema usually appears as a Featured Snippet result, showing all answers associated with a question.
On the other hand, FAQ-rich results appear under an organic blue listing, displaying up to two to four questions corresponding to the query a user is searching for.
If you have a FAQ page, then you benefit from implementing FAQ schema. On the other hand, if you have a page that resembles more of a forum in which users can add multiple answers to a question, then the recommended schema type is Q&A.
FAQ Schema Benefits
These are some reasons why you should have schema implemented on your FAQ page:
- You can increase your SERP visibility: Since FAQ schema makes you eligible for rich results, it enhances your search listings. As a result, it helps you acquire more real estate on SERPs through these enhanced listings. This extra real estate also pushes your competitors further down in search results.
- It improves click-through rates: Because of the added space FAQ schema can grant, pages can result in having higher CTR and overall increased traffic to your site.
- FAQ schema applies well to voice search SEO: Lastly, with the rise of voice search SEO, site owners must adapt to this change. Implementing FAQ schema allows your site to appeal to these types of results, making it clear for crawlers to identify the answers to common questions people ask when using voice search.
If you wish to learn more about how to make your SEO strategy adapt to voice search, be sure to check the video down below:
Optimize Your SEO Strategy for Voice Search
FAQ Schema Guidelines to Follow
Of course, similar to other structured data types, you must properly add FAQ schema to reap its benefits.
Now, remember that applying any schema markup does NOT guarantee a page to be automatically featured as a rich snippet. It simply makes your page eligible for these results.
First, the general guidelines regarding structured data include ensuring that it aligns with the current content on the website, is detectable by crawlers, and isn’t hidden from the user.
Regarding FAQ schema specifically, you’ll need to abide by the following for your site to appear on rich snippets:
- Use the question-and-answer properties. For any type of customization for these elements, use the following HTML tags: Headings, breaks, lists, bold, strong, italic, anchor, paragraph, division, and emphasize.
- Make sure the page is accessible to crawlers.
In addition to these general guidelines, you must also abide by the content guidelines, which include the following:
- The FAQ page must be written by the site, and no users can modify the answers to the questions. In other words, forum or product support pages where users can submit answers aren’t eligible for FAQ schema.
- Avoid using the FAQ schema for pages with advertising purposes, as their intended purpose is for organic results.
- Include the whole Question and Answer texts on the schema, which must also be visible on the website.
A valid FAQ schema markup should look like this:
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "FAQPage",
"mainEntity": [{
"@type": "Question",
"name": "What We Do at White Shark Media?",
"acceptedAnswer": {
"@type": "Answer",
"text": "We work with SMBs, marketing agencies, and large corporations on all things related to performance marketing. Whether you are a corporation looking for an agency to manage your online marketing campaigns or an agency looking to outsource your PPC efforts, we handle all."
}
},{
"@type": "Question",
"name": "Where Is White Shark Media Located?",
"acceptedAnswer": {
"@type": "Answer",
"text": "White Shark Media has offices in Managua, Nicaragua, and Miami, Florida. Learn more about us by visiting our About Page."
}
},{
"@type": "Question",
"name": "Does White Shark Media offer a White Label Program?",
"acceptedAnswer": {
"@type": "Answer",
"text": "Absolutely! Our White Label Paid Advertising Partner Program is designed to help agencies tap into the market for PPC, SEO, and Facebook services when they can’t do it in-house or want to scale their current offerings. The Partner Program includes all the tools and resources agency teams need to manage, pitch, and sell Online Marketing. Our Partner Portal, Tracking Tools, Reporting Platform, and SEM Sales Enablement Resources work together to form the business solution your Agency needs."
}
}]
}
</script>
Of course, after you’ve finished generating your schema markup, you should always test your code before and after its implementation. You can use tools like Google’s Rich Results Testing Tool and Schema.org’s Markup Validator.
You should expect to see a result like this:
Lastly, after implementing the code, you can use Google Search Console to index your updated FAQ page.
Get Your Page Featured on Rich Snippets Today
While implementing FAQ schema can do wonders for your organic presence in SERPs, you’ll need more than that to get ahead of your competitors. You must use a solid SEO strategy to attract organic traffic and qualified leads.
If you wish to learn more on how to scale your SEO game, we invite you to check out our video down below about the latest SEO trends for this 2023:
Likewise, if you need help from a professional digital marketing team to guide you through your organic search strategy, don’t hesitate to reach out to learn more about our SEO consulting services.
