What the FAQ? Do's and Don'ts of FAQ's

'FAQ' itself is usually a misnoner. I remember one website of the late 1990s which entitled its page something like "Presumed questions we found easy to answer'', which seemed more honest.

More often FAQs these days are just product promotions ( even the linked article subtly suggests doing this ).

Some guidelines I'd propose:

1. Don't have any 'questions' starting with 'What is...'. Your FAQ page should not be a marketing or promotional page, it should focus on 'How do I...' and proceed from the assumption that the customer has your product in their hands, but can't make it work.

2. Don't be afraid to link from the FAQ answer to really gritty, technical explanations. SOme of the best sites I've used have these step-by-step techie pages filed under 'Knowledge Base' but easily found through a FAQ.

3. For Pete's sake, prune your FAQs! Frustrating to pick through a page that has been static for five years and references out-of-production products.

4. Close the feedback loop from your helpdesk to the FAQ page; add answers to questions which are, in fact, frequently asked by real customers.

FAQs with categories often annoy me. Maybe I've just had bad luck or I have a selective memory, but it just doesn't seem to work that well when I've used them. I understand that they're often necessary depending on the volume of content, but I very much prefer just reading down one simple page even if tends toward the long.

It's reasonably quick to scan, or use CTRL-f to look for keywords (without worrying that they might be on another page), and often times simple single-paged FAQs are written better and more cohesively.

Furthermore, even if I'm scanning over a question I wasn't specifically looking for, it answers other questions I might have, gives me a broader picture of whatever I'm trying to do, and informs me of subjects I hadn't even thought to consider.

Well the first don't has to be the apostrophe.

(I've learned my lesson.)

Susan Green gave a good overview of why should we give importance to the FAQ page.

I appreciate the Adobe example about what their FAQ.

To find out what you can do to optimize your own website FAQ's page.