How to Write the FAQ Page for Your Website that Does All The Things
When it comes to your therapy website there are a couple of pages that feel like they are more about your business than they are about your client. These pages feel particularly scary because they seem like they are strictly business.
For those of us that learned nothing about business in school that feels like alot. But in reality like the rest of your website these pages are about your clients.
For other therapist's the difficulty here can be figuring out what to include. There is a lot of controversy to navigate and making all of those decisions can be overwhelming.
The good news is, just like all your other website pages, (as a therapist) you have the skills and information you need to write your FAQs page. You are writing to answer common questions before they are asked.
Let’s dive into how to write the FAQs page your ideal clients want to read.
What is an FAQs Page?
When you think of an FAQ page most of us just think of a list of random questions and answers. But that isn’t really what’s going on. Your FAQ’a section serves multiple purposes that contribute to your efforts to bring in new ideal clients.
It answers your clients questions before they even ask, establishing your expertise and building trust as you go.
It utilizes a certain type of SEO keywords to help clients find you when they are looking.
Provides a place for clients to gain confidence and feel more comfortable with your business and what they can expect from therapy with you.
A resource that builds trust through transparency.
Like the rest of your website a thoughtful and well written FAQ page helps your client to get to know you.
Where Should You Place Your FAQs?
One of the biggest choices you need to make when it comes to your FAQ’s page is where should it go. There are two main options and each has benefits and to me the answer mostly has to do with who your ideal client is and what is going to work best for them.
Bottom-of-page FAQ Sections
The bottom of the page FAQ section is becoming more and more popular. Basically you put your Frequently Asked Questions at the bottom of the page where these questions would apply. For example, you would put questions about your practice in general at the bottom of your home page or questions about EMDR on that specialty page.
The benefits of this approach means that the FAQs happen naturally in the flow of your website. The clients can find the answers to their questions when they have them. For example, when they are reading about your practice or how you do what you do.
This style increases SEO by asking the questions on the pages they are about so it increases the mention of specific SEO keywords on the page and in headers (i.e. your Questions).
This makes it more likely that your client will click the consultation button because they don’t have to search for answers when they are already engaged in the content.
The cons of this approach can be that if the person has a question about your practice and isn’t already engaged in the content on your page they mighy have a hard time finding their answers. So for example, if an already established client is looking for your cancelation policy they might have to search if it's on your home or contact page.
This approach is best for the clients who are going to just be skimming your information before making a decision. So it works well for clients with ADHD, or clients who might have depression because it recognizes that they might not have the interest or attention to search out the FAQ section of your website.
Specified FAQ page
On the other hand, a specified FAQ page is where you put all your FAQs. You have a link to your FAQs in your menu so that when your website visitor has a question that the rest of your website doesn’t answer they have a central place to find an answer.
The biggest benefit of a specified FAQ page is that it is an easy-to-find place where the answers to all their questions exist. Your visitor can just hop over to the FAQs page anytime they have a question.
The organization of this type of page is pretty easy as you can divide it into easily navigated sections. It also can help your SEO because you can use question long-tail keywords for some of your questions (used as headers). Also if someone already knows they want to work with you and just have a couple of questions they can just go to the FAQs instead of searching all the way through your website.
The negatives of this approach is that the website visitor has to leave the page they are on if they have a question while they are reading your copy. This means that it interrupts the flow of their reading and can prevent the person from making the decision to schedule a consultation.
If you are repeating information from other parts of your website, you have to be careful not to duplicate content because that will negatively impact your SEO. So this can be more difficult with this type of FAQ page.
It can also be harder to keep these pages up to date as your FAQ page can get disorganized quickly if you are adding a quick question here and there.
So as you can see this type of FAQ page also has some benefits and consequences.
As I said earlier the type you choose has more to do with who your ideal client is and what they need. If your ideal clients tend to be detail-oriented and are the type of person to read a website thoroughly a single page is a good fit. This is also good if they are the type of person that makes up their mind quickly, but just needs a tiny bit of info to schedule the consultation. These are the clients that a specified FAQ page is a good fit for.
Some people decide to use both approaches. So they have some FAQs on the appropriate pages and then also on a separate FAQs page. If you do this just make sure that you don’t duplicate the things you say on both pages.
What to Consider When Deciding on Your FAQs
Figuring out which questions to answer on your FAQs can be a confusing and overwhelming task. Just like with all the other copy on your website, you want to make your copy clear, straightforward, and easy to follow. It’s important to also keep your ideal clients in mind while you are writing your Qs. Here are a couple of things to consider that will make picking your Q’s easier.
What are the questions your clients are asking?
The number one priority throughout your website is connecting with and meeting the needs of your ideal clients. What are they asking at this spot in their journey towards working with you? And what are they asking during your consultations. This is a starting point for choosing the questions you want to answer on your FAQs page.
What questions are your ideal clients not asking yet?
The next option to brainstorm are the possible questions that your client hasn’t quite thought of but are in the back of their heads. These are the questions they need answered but they just don’t know how to ask or haven’t put words to yet. They might be questions that they will come up with after the consultation. They might be questions they don’t even know they have. Answering these questions on your FAQ page is another way that you prove to them that you know what they are dealing with.
SEO
The last page to look to get your questions is on your SEO research tool. When you are researching your keywords look through the long tail keywords so that you can find questions both that your clients are asking and that will help them find your website when they type these questions into their search bar.
What to Include On Your FAQ Page
So we’ve discussed where to find the questions that you want to list in your FAQs section. But what are some of the things that are the absolute must have’s. You want to make sure that you include the details about your practice for example your price, whether or not you take insurance, whether you work with people for the short term or the long term. Then you want to share the details about how your help people. What kind of therapy do you do and how it helps. Who it might help with and who it might not help with. Last but not least you want to include information about the location of your practice. If you work online you want to talk about that and what state that you work in. If you have an in person location, you want to share where you are located and maybe some information about your office.
The Importance of Authenticity in Your FAQs
Your FAQs page first and foremost is to help your clients learn more about you. Your client read your website before they work with you. It really is their first impression of you. You want to set the tone for the rest of your relationship by being as authentic and honest in your FAQs as possible. This builds trust when you confirm the things that they have already read in your consultation and first appointment.
Maintaining Your FAQs
As mentioned above your FAQs and consistency builds trust with your future clients. If your website is not up to date if can be pretty difficulty for your future clients to trust that you will be able to be consistent for them. It’s important to make sure that you update your website regularly to keep your FAQs and other information as authentic as possible to what the reality of your practice is.
A Well-Written FAQs Page For the Win
Having a FAQ page that describes your practice helps your clients know what to expect and learn more about your practice. It also helps them to know that you have the expertise that they are searching for and that you are the therapist for them.
If after reading all of this, if you still feel overwhelmed by the idea of writing your own FAQ page I would love to help you. Schedule a consultation here.