“Did you Google it?” That’s usually my first response when somebody asks me a question that I can’t immediately answer. I’m guessing I’m not the first person who has given this reply and won’t be the last.
In life, you may not want to be the person who gets asked the question that’s best intended for an Internet search. But if you’re in business, you’re likely competing with other businesses to provide the answer to those questions.
While you might be focused on specific keywords that bring users to your website, there’s also a portion of Internet users who are asking questions through detailed searches, and if you can answer them, it can be good for business. According to SEOmoz, 70 percent of searches are long-tail searches – searches with more detail than two or three keywords, or searches that ask a specific question. While these searches often aren’t high-volume or common searches, they can be more valuable searches for businesses. Customers using more specific search criteria might have a better idea of what they are looking for, and therefore are closer to actually making a purchasing decision.
If you hear certain questions frequently from your customers, it makes sense to incorporate them into your website content strategy. Answering frequently-asked-questions on your website can both increase customer satisfaction and drive traffic to your site. You can devote a portion of your site to these FAQs or go about answering them in blog posts – or a combination of both. Either way, by dedicating pages to these questions, you’re more likely to be able to efficiently help existing customers and bring new customers in through searches.
If you’re looking for ideas about which questions you should be answering on your website, here are a few ways to build your list:
- Write down a question each time you get one from a customer you deal with in person.
- Go through old emails and find commonly asked questions.
- Use Google Analytics to find out if your visitors are already arriving at your site by asking certain questions. Answering those questions directly on your site can help bring in more visitors with the same questions.
