What is a website FAQ?

How to edit the images you use for your website

When you’re building a website, there are a number of things you need to include on your site. One of the main features of a website is an FAQ – frequently asked questions – section. Although website builders provide ready to go sites for you to use, they don’t write FAQs for you, as it is up to you to make this personal for your business.

Put simply, FAQs are a set of questions and answers which tell site users important bits of information about your website and company, and guide users through your site’s content. So, why is a website FAQ section so important? Not only does it help people find specific questions about your product, but it also is good for SEO. We take a look at how to build a website FAQ section, so you can start building your site with all the necessary information.

1. Structure your FAQS right

Frequently asked questions tend to follow the structure of a question, followed by an answer. The questions – and answers, – need to be short and concise, using plain language that is easy to follow and understand. As people are likely to skim read your website – the average page visit lasts less than a minute – you’ll want to be able to quickly convey all the key bits of information about your website that the site user needs to know.

When writing your FAQs, you’ll want to include long tail key phrases (commonly searched questions on Google relating to your industry) in your questions, as well as high-ranking keywords in your answers. If you don’t know where to begin, look at other FAQ on site competitors to get a general idea of what people are searching for in your industry.

2. Don’t overlap with other areas of your site

An FAQ section is different to that of your landing page and your ‘About Us’ section. When building your website, imagine you’re selling a cake in a bakery. Your landing page is the main appeal – it should have an attractive website design, just as a cake should look irresistibly appealing, drawing people into the bakery. Your ‘About Us’ section should tell your story and add a personal touch, just as the design of the bakery might do. 

Your FAQ section is different to this – it needs to contain key bits of information related specifically to your website, just as a dietary note might tell customers what ingredients are used in the cake. Writing a clear list of questions, and titling it FAQ, shows site users that this is the section which can tell them everything they need to know about your services or products. 

3. Make your FAQ section visible 

Whilst you want your FAQ content to be different from that of other sections when building your site, you still want your FAQ section to be visible. This helps the site user navigate their way around your website, and answers any basic questions they might have quickly and efficiently.

Although you might decide to have a separate page entirely for your frequently asked questions when using a website builder, there’s no harm in placing your FAQs on the bottom of your landing page. This ensures that people can quickly find out useful information about your site without having to hunt for it.

4. Include internal links in your FAQs

By internally linking, you can direct site users to other parts of your website. For example, including a link to your ‘contact’ section in one of your answers prompts users to directly click on to this section. Not only is this useful for the user, as it helps navigation around the site, but it’s also good for SEO because it keeps people on your site longer, meaning search engines see your site as more relevant and useful.

When building your own site, internally linking the answers to your FAQs to other sections of your website helps Google index your pages. Frequently Asked Questions, which include links to other sections of your page mean Google can index these pages and list you higher on Google’s search engine results page as it’s more useful to the site user. 

5. Call to action 

Forgetting to add a call to action on your FAQ section is one of the main mistakes many people make when building your own website. Encouraging site users to buy your products, or register interest in your services, is paramount, especially if you phrase it to show that what you offer can answer their question. Calls to action are easy to add in, and can help increase conversion rates, turning visitors to your site into customers. 

Although they might be easy to add in when building your site, FAQs play a key role in the success of your website. If you’re using a website builder to build your own website, look at how easy it is to update and edit your FAQs when you’re on the go.

Go Sitebuilder is an extremely easy-to-use website builder, which lets you adapt your website on any device. Go Sitebuilder website builder doesn’t compromise on quality so why not try today: our free 14-day trial and explore all the benefits it has to offer yourself!

Do I need a privacy policy statement on my website?

Three businesswomen looking at laptop and smiling as they have confirmed the privacy policy statement on website

If you’re building a site which requires people to give you their personal details, it is now required by law for you to provide a privacy policy statement. This is especially important if you’ve built a website with an ecommerce platform, as you are handling sensitive payment information and people need to be reassured that their details won’t be misused by your site. 

However, even if your website doesn’t take payments over the internet, but still requires people to give you their phone number, email address, home address etc then you still must include a privacy policy statement.

This is covered in EU law under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), as well as a UK Act of Parliament: the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA). A privacy policy statement isn’t just to look professional: the penalties for breaching someone’s privacy rights can be up to 4% of your global revenue, or €20 million – whichever is the highest. Don’t worry if you’re worried you might write an incorrect privacy policy statement: we’ve broken down how to tackle it, so you can build your own website stress-free!

What is a privacy policy statement?

A privacy policy statement is a written statement that details how your company uses and manages a customer’s details. It is necessary if you’re collecting personal information from your site visitors, and it needs to be clearly visible on your site, as well as on a mobile app if you have one. 

Covered under both EU and UK law, a privacy policy statement is legally binding: you must tell your site visitor what kind of information you’ll be gathering from them, what you’ll do with these details, and how you’ll keep them safe. Not only does the law state that you must display this notice, but you also must not breach any of its regulations. This ensures the privacy of your site users is protected, and you can’t use their personal information for other purposes without their consent.

Why do you need a privacy policy statement?

Whilst you need to include a privacy policy statement when building your site as you are legally bound to do so, it also is important from a marketing perspective. If you have an ecommerce platform, then people are not going to want to give you their personal details without being reassured that they are completely protected. 

If you have an online store, then people aren’t going to put in their credit card details if they think there’s any risk of you stealing this information, meaning you’re less likely to sell products online. 

Personal information doesn’t just mean card details: it can include even seemingly trivial details, such as an email address. Without a privacy policy statement, a site user may be unsatisfied that their email address will be properly protected, thus deterring them from giving you this information. This means you can’t add them to your mailing list, barring you from sending them emails about the latest deals and updates to your website. 

How to structure it 

Don’t worry – you don’t have to trawl through the GDPR and the DPA to try to work out how exactly to structure your privacy policy statement. There are plenty of free resources to use online which can help you: SEQ Legal has an easy-to-follow template that you can download for guidance, or for official guidance, the EU template can also be downloaded for free. Of course, you’ll have to edit some of the details so that it’s relevant to your business, but it is a handy guide to refer to if you’re not sure where to start. 

If you need a breakdown of the language used, then the EU has produced a guideline to the wording. If you want to read the legislation to see the exact wording in the legislation, then read Articles 12, 13 and 14 of the GDPR. 

According to the GDPR, a privacy notice must be:

  • Written in concise, legible language 
  • Written in clear and unambiguous language, with special care taken if the site is directed to a child
  • Provided for free

When building your site, you’ll want a website builder that is easy to use, but still delivers stunning website designs for a professional result. Go Sitebuilder includes an ecommerce platform within our bundle, making us one of the cheapest website builders with this feature in the UK. Don’t let creating a privacy policy statement deter you from building your dream website; once you’ve downloaded one of the free web design templates, Go Sitebuilder makes everything all the more simple – try it today, with our free 14-day trial!