Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs): Win Now at AI and SEO
Question: What’s the best format for your website content if your goal is to be found online?
Answer: Questions – and answers.
With Siri, Alexa, and now voice conversations in ChatGPT, we are regularly asking questions of our AI assistants in hopes of receiving short, accurate answers.
How many times have you said, “Hey Siri, what’s the weather today?” Or “Alexa, what time does Costco open?” It’s the most natural and effective way to converse.
Mission-driven marketing directors need to recognize this shift in how your community members are looking for information, and be ready with the answers to these questions.
Search Engine Optimization Has Already Evolved
For so long, marketers focused on getting to the top of Google search results, as it was an almost guaranteed way to drive traffic to your site and convert it into donations, sales, or leads. If you made it within the first few results, it could single-handedly keep visitors coming to your site.
Now, Google’s AI overviews – the answers that appear above the search results – are having a massive impact on click-through rates, essentially cratering them. According to Search Engine Land:
Organic click-through rates (CTR) for informational queries featuring Google AI Overviews fell 61% since mid-2024, while paid CTRs on those same queries plunged 68%, according to the latest study by marketing agency Seer Interactive.
Even on queries without AI Overviews, organic CTRs fell 41%. This suggests users are simply clicking less, everywhere.
Why would you hunt to find the answer to your question within the structure of another website when Google is telling you what you need to know right away?
The AI overviews are the natural evolution of Google’s “People Also Ask” questions, which have been showing up in results since 2015:
These are almost always in the form of a question, and have even sparked services dedicated to creating content around “related” content.
FAQs About Your Organization
So how do you actually create frequently asked questions about your organization?
The best place to start is with what your community members are actually asking:
- “How do I donate to …”
- “What volunteer opportunities are available in …”
- “What are the membership dues for …”
The FAQ content you create doesn’t need to re-invent the wheel – it simply needs to answer the common questions your organization receives in a short, easy-to-understand way. The folks at Global Reach have a great list of best practices for creating FAQs:
- Use real customer questions
- Keep answers clear and concise
- Use the FAQ schema correctly
- Link internally
- Update regularly
- Monitor performance
- Avoid overuse or vague questions
When you create FAQs, it’s recommended to integrate Google’s structured data / schema markup in order to specify (without a doubt) which is the question and which is the answer. It’s a relatively simple markup to add to your site, and looks like this:
<div itemscope itemprop="mainEntity" itemtype="https://schema.org/Question">
<h2 itemprop="name">How to find an apprenticeship?</h2>
<div itemscope itemprop="acceptedAnswer" itemtype="https://schema.org/Answer">
<div itemprop="text">
We provide an official service to search through available apprenticeships. To get started, create an account here, specify the desired region, and your preferences. You will be able to search through all officially registered open apprenticeships.
</div>
</div>
</div>
Answer Questions – But Don’t Stop There
Okay, so if FAQs are the best way to be found in ChatGPT and now search, should your website just be questions and answers?
No – definitely not.
You have to be able to expound on everything your organization does – its mission and its impact – so that when community members come to your website looking for more, you’re giving it to them. Continue to tell stories, and continue to push people to take the next step in their journey.
But you certainly can integrate FAQs into multiple pages on your site (in addition to having a dedicated FAQ page). If you’re explaining one of your areas of impact, include a section that features questions and answers about what your organization has done or plans to do. Consider adding one or two of your most common questions in the footer of your site, so it appears on every page.
The new world of AI and SEO focuses on immediately answering the questions your potential community members have, so provide the answers they seek – and make it easy for the tools highlighting your responses to share them.
Have questions about FAQs? We have answers. Reach out and let’s talk.
