1. Collect the questions people actually ask
Read what customers send you, not what you wish they'd ask.
The questions are already in your support inbox and chat, in what your sales team hears, in product reviews and in your site's search box. Copy the wording from the message rather than tidying it up: the way a customer phrases a question is the way the next one will look for it.
Two traps. Teams tend to write the questions that are easy to answer, rather than the ones people ask. And page-visit numbers show which answers people opened, not what they came to ask, so use them to prune the FAQ, not to fill it.
2. Keep the ones that come up again
A question earns an entry when many people ask it, not when one person asks it loudly.
Count over a month, so the questions that only come at month end or in a season show up too. Caroline Jarrett, who writes about forms and usability, says a question that's truly frequent comes up at least once a day. Merge the different wordings of one question and keep the most common.
If a question comes up because a page is unclear, fix the page first. A FAQ entry that patches a confusing checkout or a vague shipping page is one more place for the answer to go stale.
3. Write the question the way customers ask it
A full question, in their words: "Do you ship to Canada?", not "International shipping".
Write one question per entry, as the customer would type it. A topic label makes the reader turn their question into your category first. Vary the openings, too: ten questions in a row that start "How do I" are hard to scan.
4. Put the answer in the first sentence
Yes, no, a number or a date first, then the detail.
Start a yes-or-no question with "Yes", "No" or "It depends", and a how-long or how-much question with the figure. Then add the condition or exception that matters, in a sentence or two. Answer in full in the entry, and link to the policy for the fine print: a reader who has to click away for the answer itself didn't get one.
There's no right length. Google's guidance on helpful content asks whether you're writing to a word count because you've heard it prefers one, and answers itself: "No, we don't."
5. Group them by what the customer is doing
Before they buy, while they wait, after it arrives.
Order the groups the way a customer meets them: the product, ordering and payment, shipping, returns and exchanges, their account. Within a group, put the questions asked most first. Shipping costs, delivery times and returns usually belong near the top, because people check them before they buy.
Once the page runs past a screenful, add a way to find a question: a list of links to each group at the top, or a search box.
6. Put answers where the question comes up
A sizing question belongs on the product page, not only on the FAQ page.
Keep the full FAQ on its own page, and put the three to five questions that matter on the pages that raise them: sizing and care on product pages, plans and billing on the pricing page, delivery on the cart. A reader who gets the answer where they are doesn't leave to look for it.
7. Say how to reach a person
Name the channel, and when someone answers.
Every FAQ runs out. End the page, and any answer that might not cover someone's case, with how to reach you: an email, a phone number with its hours, a contact form, and how soon you reply. If there's no phone line, say so; it saves a search.
8. Keep it true
Whenever a price, a time or a policy changes, check every answer that repeats it.
An answer that repeats your shipping policy goes wrong the day the policy changes. Keep those answers short and link to the policy, so there's one place to update. Watch for dated phrases ("new this year", "due to current delays"): they're how a FAQ shows its age. And read what people asked that the FAQ didn't answer, because that's the next entry.
A template for one entry
Copy it, then fill in each line:
Question: [the customer's words, as a full question]
Answer: [Yes / No / the number or date], [the one condition that matters].
Details: [the exception, in a sentence or two]
Next: [where to go next: the policy, order tracking, or how to reach you]
Filled in, for a store that ships to Canada:
Question: Do you ship to Canada?
Answer: Yes, in 5 to 8 business days.
Details: Duties are paid at checkout, so there's nothing more to pay when it arrives.
Next: Shipping policy, for costs and tracking.
A template for the page
- One line on what the page covers, and how to reach a person.
- The three to five questions asked most, answered.
- Groups in the order customers meet them: the product, ordering and payment, shipping, returns and exchanges, your account.
- How to reach you: email, phone with hours or a form, and how soon you reply.
Where Actually Asked fits
We make Actually Asked, and it does steps 1, 2 and 8 for you. It reads the questions visitors ask on your site, answers them from your own pages, help center and files, and adds to your FAQ the questions several visitors ask. Every Monday it sends you what your pages couldn't answer. Anything you edit stays as you wrote it.