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How FAQs Help Your Search Engine Rank

There are many benefits to an FAQ or Frequently Asked Questions page on your Web site. If you're often asked the same questions about your product or service, it's probable that many other people have the same questions but haven't asked.

Even though the information may be available at other pages on your site, the question and answer format is a comforting, familiar one. Also, many people may start with the FAQs, feeling that all their questions will be answered there, plus a bunch of other questions they hadn't thought of yet.

Finally, but equally important, are the search engine benefits of an FAQ page. There's a theory in search engine optimization that the keyword density of the content--the number of times your keyphrase appears in your content compared to the total number of words on the page--affects your search engine rank. In other words, a page that uses "Portland Caterer" five times on a page of 500 words will rank higher than a page that uses the phrase two times on a page of 500 words...all other things being equal.

Of course, "all other things" are never equal, and too much keyword density is a red flag for the search engines; cramming too many occurrences of your keyphrase may actually hurt you at the search engines.

So what's the magic number of times you should use your keyphrases? Well, no one knows for sure, and if they did Google would change the number the next day. My recommendation is to use your best keyphrases as often as reads well...and maybe one time more.

Getting back to FAQ pages, they allow you to repeat your keyphrase multiple times without sounding forced. For example...

What's the most effective way to get my children to do housework?
Getting your children to do housework can be a challenge, but it is possible....

What are the benefits of an ARM as opposed to a fixed-rate mortgage?
There are many benefits to an ARM (or adjustable-rate mortgage) over a fixed-rate mortgage, and here are just a few....

The other search engine benefit is that you can work in search terms that might not be appropriate, but might be effective. For example, if you run a long-term care facility, but you find most people are searching for nursing homes, you can use the "inappropriate" or "competing" phrases to your advantage.

What's the difference between a nursing home or nursing facility and a long-term care facility?
The difference between a nursing home and a long-term care facility is mostly semantics. What was traditionally called a nursing home or nursing facility is now....

You can do the same if your keyphrase is often misspelled....

I've seen Hannukah spelled Hannukah, Chanukah, and Hanukka. What's the correct spelling?
Since Chanukah is a Hebrew word, there's no correct way to spell it. However, we chose to spell it Chanukah because....

Now, if you want to take your FAQ to the next level of effectiveness, take a couple of your best, keyword rich FAQs and put the question on the home page as a link to the answer. If you're interested in learning why creating these keyword rich links are important, read What Is Anchor Text?

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