Why
You Want to Include an FAQ In Your Site by: Richard Lowe, Jr.
Congratulations! You've got a brand
new site and it's doing pretty well. You check your statistics every day
and the hits and page views keep climbing, your links are all in order
and everything looks very good. On top of that, your guestbook is filling
with great comments and you're getting a few emails now and then with praise
and perhaps a question or two.
Now is a good time to sit back and
examine the subject (or subjects) of your site. What is the theme? What
are you trying to accomplish? Then once you've got your site visualized,
start to think about it from the perspective of a new visitor. Put yourself
in their shoes, and assume you know nothing. What questions would you have?
Write down these questions or type them into a document as you think of
them.
What you are creating is a list of
frequently asked questions (commonly abbreviated as FAQ). These are questions
that your visitors may have about your site, the subject or theme, or even
about you. Just about any question is valid, as long as it is helpful to
your visitors.
Let's create an example of, say,
a web site about model railroading. Now, what questions would you have
if you surfed to that site? You might want to know "what is it?", "when
did it start?", "how much does it cost?", "why does this site exist?" and
"who is the webmaster?".
That last question is more important
than it seems at first glance, as putting a face behind a web site increases
it's credibility and makes it more likely that your visitors will (a) return,
(b) tell their friends, and (c) purchase something (if your site is commercial).
Some web guru's will tell you never to include information the webmaster
- these people simply do not understand human nature. In general, people
will trust another person far more easily than they will trust a web site
or a machine.
Once you've got your list of questions,
go ahead and create one or more web pages (create as many as you like).
Add the questions to the pages, along with the answers. If you feel like
linking to articles within your site go ahead. I would avoid including
external links at this point, as you want to get people interested in your
site, not someone else's.
Remember to keep your answers short
and to the point. You are not trying to duplicate your web site. Your goal
is to give your visitors some quick answers to their questions to get them
more interested in looking around further.
As you are adding your questions
and answers, you will most likely come up with additional questions. By
all means, add those to your frequently asked questions as well.
Some webmasters like to include a
form at the bottom of their questions to allow people to submit additional
one's if desired. This is a great idea, as it is an easy way to improve
your web site's interactivity - which is usually very good for getting
people to return later.
I would not recommend, however, doing
what I've seen some webmasters do - automate this function. I guess the
idea is to get your visitors involved in answering the questions. In this
case, the FAQ becomes more or less a moderated message board. I prefer
just to receive my visitors questions in an email, which I can then either
answer directly or add to the FAQ when I get the chance.
FAQ's are great for answering simple
questions that your visitors may have before they send you an email. It
is important to remember to include a link to the FAQ in a prominent place
on every single page of your website - you want people looking at them
when they have questions.
In summary, FAQ's tend to pull visitors
into your site and make them feel better about it, which means they are
more likely to return for more again and again.
About The Author
Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster
of Internet Tips And Secrets. This website includes over 1,000 free articles
to improve your internet profits, enjoyment and knowledge.
Web Site Address: http://www.internet-tips.net
Weekly newsletter: http://www.internet-tips.net/joinlist.htm
Claudia Arevalo-Lowe is the webmistress
of Internet Tips And Secrets and Surviving Asthma. Visit her site at http://survivingasthma.com
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