SEO Hosting Blog

The FAQ (frequently asked questions) page is an often overlooked, yet very important, section that almost every website could benefit from including. Not only do they allow you to offer better online customer support, but they also save you time as you don’t have to field the same questions on a daily basis.

While there is no single right way to create your FAQ page, here are some basic guidelines for ensuring you create a truly useful page that enhances the user experience.

• Information is your top priority—Don’t let the design become a distraction on your FAQ page. People who visit this page want information delivered quickly and easily. All distracting elements should be removed from the page, making the focus on the content.
• If you have a lot of questions, have them link to the answers—Depending on the size of your company and the complexity of your products or services, you could end up with a big list of questions on your FAQ page. In this case, it’s best to hide the answers and just link the questions to their answers at the bottom of the page. This way, the user doesn’t have to browse through a bunch of answers he doesn’t care about. Also, remember to include a link at the end of the answers that takes users back to the top.
• Divide questions by category—Categorizing questions allows users to find what they’re looking for much more easily. For example, if you sell widgets, you could have FAQ sections for shipping information, warranty information, payment options, etc.
• Start with the basics—Start your list of questions with the most basic information (e.g. What is insert product name here?) and work your way toward more complex topics.
• Track the questions your customers ask—A FAQ page is useless if it doesn’t answer the questions your visitors actually have. To figure out which questions you need to include on the page, you should be tracking the questions your customers ask most often. Look through your emails and talk to your customer service reps to identify these questions.
• Keep answers short—People use a FAQ page for one reason: to get information quickly. Don’t go on some longwinded diatribe when answering the questions. Keep the answers short and easy to understand.
• Provide a way for people to ask additional questions—Not every question customers have will be on your FAQ page. That’s why you should have a way for visitors to easily ask additional questions.

Do you have a FAQ page on your website?

As more and more consumers turn to the internet to guide their purchasing decisions, it’s essential to take a hard, unbiased look at your website to make sure it meets the demands of potential customers. Remember, online shoppers are skeptical by nature, and if your website appears shoddy and outdated, there’s a good chance they’ll abandon your site for one of your competitors.

How can you tell is your website is outdated? Here are 6 signs to look out for.

1. You still have a splash page. Your customers are in a hurry. Making them wait while your splash page loads and then click another link before they can actually access your website is a horrible idea. It leads to high site abandonment rates, costing you money. It’s 2010. Ditch the splash page.
2. Your copyright isn’t current. Nothing screams outdated like a website with a copyright from 2003. It shows that you haven’t updated your website in years, and it makes it look like there is no active, breathing company behind the website. Customers want to know that your company is current, relevant, and trustworthy. Update your copyright, and earn the trust of potential customers.
3. The copy doesn’t reflect your current business. Businesses grow. They change. If it’s been a few years since you’ve updated your website, there’s a good chance it doesn’t reflect your current business. It may no longer correctly speak to your target audience, and it might not focus on your latest unique selling point.
4. Your website uses old, spammy SEO tricks. Oh, how I miss the old days of SEO. The hidden text on the background of the page. The long paragraph of keywords stuffed at the bottom of each page. Nothing like some good old spam. If your website still uses these old SEO tactics (and I still see websites like this), you need to update your site ASAP.
5. Your site doesn’t display properly across all browsers. In the past, all you really had to worry about when building your site was making sure it looked okay in Internet Explorer. That’s no longer the case. Not only are there several other browsers you have to consider (Google Chrome, Firefox, etc.), but there are also mobile browsers, so your site needs to display correctly on cell phones as well.
6. It just looks dated. Just like fashion, interior design, automobiles, and everything else, website style is always changing, and if your website hasn’t been updated recently, it might look dated. The only difference? Dated websites aren’t hip or vintage. They’re just sad, outdated, and ineffective.

What are some other telltale signs of outdated websites?

Right now, I’m in the middle of launching a new website for a design and copywriting services company I’m starting with some family and friends. Of course, there is a lot that goes into launching a new website, and like all other new companies, we want to get it up fast and hit the ground running once it’s up. In other words, we want to start seeing results!

With my years of experience in the internet marketing industry, I’ve taken part in a lot of new site launches, and I’ve learned quite a bit about how best to do them. With that in mind, I’m going to share some of my favorite tips for launching a new website.

1. Don’t rush it—If it was up to me, my new website would’ve been up the day we had the idea for it. But that’s just not realistic. Building a website takes time, and you want to make sure you do it right the first time. Otherwise, you won’t hit the ground running; you’ll just hit the ground period after you stumble out of the gates. So, give yourself time to create a strong design, write effective copy, edit and proofread your copy, and get everything set up just right.
2. Optimize your site from the ground up—Now is the perfect time to start optimizing your website. It’s easier to optimize from the foundation than to try to optimize an existing website. Do your keyword research, find a strong domain, optimize your copy, and do everything else that goes into designing a search engine friendly website.
3. Create a list of everything that needs to be on the site—Before you start writing any copy or designing your site, you need to figure out which pages you’re going to have. Make a list of everything you need on your website, and prioritize it so you can get the most important pages done first (like the home page).
4. Set the tone by writing your home page copy first—As a copywriter, I see the home page as the foundation for the rest of the website. It should include the top benefits of your products and services, key differentiators, strong call to action, and easy navigation that keeps the visitor moving forward. Write this page first so that the rest of the pages will follow its tone and style.
5. Know what you need to do after the site is up—Just getting the site up isn’t all there is to it. That’s only the beginning. You have to promote your website, update it regularly, tweak it to get more conversions, and so on. Make a list of all these website maintenance tasks, and keep on top of it.
6. Double check to ensure everything is working correctly on your site—The last thing you want is a website that’s broken from the start. Double-check all the links, contact forms, images, etc. to make sure all aspects of your site are running correctly.
7. Set a launch date and do your best to stick to it—Like I said, there is a lot that goes into building a new website, and there is always more work you can do. But eventually, you just have to get the thing up. Set a schedule for building your site, and stick to it.

What are some other tips you’d offer to someone looking to launch a new website?

One of the biggest myths is that customers want a lot of choices. Businesses think by giving their customers a lot of different things to choose from, they’re bound to find something they like. It’s the old “throw a bunch of $*@! against the wall and see what sticks” theory.

The only problem is it doesn’t work.

Why doesn’t it work? The concept is called Choice Paralysis. The idea is that when you give customers too many choices, they end up choosing nothing at all. The choices overwhelm and confuse them, and it quickly becomes easier for them to choose nothing than to pick the right thing from all the options in front of them.

Applying Choice Paralysis to Landing Page Design

I’m always hunting for new ways to get more conversions. One of the ways I believe you can stop losing sales is to limit the number of options on your landing pages. Whenever someone comes to your landing page, you should have a clear action you want them to take. If you’re throwing several different options in their face, your call to action gets diluted because visitors don’t know what they should do.

Of course, this begs the question: How many options should you give landing page visitors? Do you want to corner them into choosing one thing?

Personally, I prefer landing pages that have no more than 2 options. This allows the visitor to more easily see the differences between the options, allowing him to make a decision without the stress of comparing several options.

One way to keep Choice Paralysis from setting in is to use a clear chart showing the benefits/features of each option. For example:

This gives visitors a visual tool for clearly recognizing the differences between the two options, allowing them to make a quick, well-informed decision. Just make sure you don’t get out of control with these tables and have them compare dozens of features, as that too gets overwhelming.

What do you think? How many options do you typically offer on your landing pages?

A few weeks ago, web usability expert Jakob Nielsen posted a new study that showed web users spend 80% of their time looking at information above the fold. They only give 20% of their time to information they have to scroll down to see. That doesn’t mean they won’t see the bottom part of your website; just that they probably won’t give much attention to it.

So, what does all of this mean for you? It means you need to put your most important information above the fold of your website so that visitors can see it without scrolling or taking any further action.

Here are 5 things I believe absolutely must be above the fold on your website.

1. Strong headline—The headline is your introduction to the customer. It’s the first thing they see, and if it isn’t great, there’s a good chance they’ll just back out of your website. The good news is that writing powerful headlines is actually pretty easy. Just make sure you focus your headline around your USP/main benefit, and keep it clear and to the point.
2. Top benefits of your products or services—In addition to including a benefit in your headline, it’s also good to try to get a short list of your other top benefits above the fold. Bullet lists are most effective because they’re easy to scan and they cleanly lay out the benefits of doing business with you. Just be sure every benefit you list passes the “who cares?” test, and don’t drag your list on forever. Just focus on 3-5 key benefits in your list.
3. Clear call to action—Without a call to action, your entire website falls apart. You need to tell your website visitors what you want them to do. Otherwise, they won’t do anything at all. So, if you want them to call you for a free consultation, put that on your website. If you want them to fill out a short form, tell them to do that. And make sure you put this call to action above the fold so it’ll catch the attention of visitors immediately.
4. Navigation—Web users expect to interact with your website in a certain way. They’ve come to expect your site navigation to be across the top of your website or along the left side. Personally, I prefer placing it across the top as it puts all key navigation links above the fold. This makes it easier for visitors to find what they’re looking for as quickly as possible.
5. Search box—Speaking of making it easy for visitors to find what they’re looking for, a search box could be a good tool for your website. This is especially true if your site has a lot of content or if you have a large inventory of products to choose from. Make sure you put the search box above the fold and label it clearly. Also, check out your search function on a regular basis to ensure it’s still working properly.

Are these 5 elements placed above the fold on your website?