For many years, Frequently Asked Questions have been a useful way to answer common customer questions and help people find information quickly.
They also have another potential benefit by making your website content easier for AI tools and large language models (LLMs) to understand and potentially reference your site in their answers.
People are increasingly asking tools such as ChatGPT, Google’s AI-powered search and other AI assistants questions that they might previously have typed into a traditional search engine. These tools rely on clear, useful and trustworthy information when generating their responses. A well-written FAQ can help provide that.
But FAQs shouldn’t be added purely for AI, and should be made to make pages easier for human visitors to scan, navigate and understand.
Why FAQs work well for people & AI
One of the biggest advantages of FAQs is their simplicity. A clear question followed by a direct answer is easy for people to scan, particularly on longer pages where they may be looking for one specific piece of information.
That same structure can also help AI tools understand the content of a page. Rather than having to interpret an answer buried within several paragraphs, an FAQ makes both the question and the answer explicit.
This is especially useful when the questions reflect the way people naturally search, such as “How long does a divorce take?”, “What is a trade mark?”, “How long does it take to get a boiler installed?” or “Are sliding and bifold doors suitable for UK homes?”
We have used this approach across client websites in different ways. For one client, we created a dedicated FAQ area that grouped questions to specific areas of their business. The result is useful content that helps visitors quickly find answers to specific questions, while also giving search engines and AI tools a clear question-and-answer structure to interpret.
Where should you add FAQs?
You don’t necessarily need to create one large FAQ page. In many cases, it makes more sense to add FAQs where they are most relevant to the reader.
That could be at the bottom of:
- Service or product pages
- Location pages
- Landing pages
- Guides
- Blog posts
On some sites having a large FAQ resource makes sense because there might be hundreds of questions spanning business areas, products ranges etc. This will need organisation so users can browse questions relating to a particular subject.
For other websites, FAQs can work well as an extension of an individual article, so on some client blogs, we’ve added short FAQ sections at the end of articles to answer related questions a reader may still have. These often expand on the main topic rather than repeating it, helping visitors find useful answers quickly while also giving search engines and AI tools clearly structured content to interpret.
What makes a good FAQ?
The starting point should always be a question that someone might genuinely ask.
That could come from customer enquiries, conversations with a sales team, Google Search Console data, keyword research or questions that regularly come up when discussing a product or service.
Then answer the question clearly. There is little value in adding an FAQ purely because you want another keyword on the page. The answer should contain something useful and, where possible, be specific enough to make sense on its own.
For example, rather than:
“Are bifold doors a good option?
Yes, bifold doors are a great addition to any home. Contact our team to find out more.”
A more useful answer would explain why they may be suitable, what benefits they offer and any important considerations.
This is better for the person reading the page, but it also gives an AI tool much more useful information to work with.
How FAQs can help with AI visibility
FAQs can make it easier for AI tools to identify useful information because the content is already structured around a specific question and answer.
That doesn’t mean adding FAQs will automatically result in your website being referenced by ChatGPT, Google or another AI platform. There are many factors involved in how AI tools select and present information.
What FAQs can do is make your content easier to interpret and extract.
A strong FAQ answer should ideally:
- answer one specific question;
- give the answer early;
- use clear, natural language;
- include useful detail rather than generic marketing copy;
- make sense when read on its own.
That last point is particularly useful. If an answer is clear without relying heavily on the surrounding page, it is easier for both a reader and an AI tool to understand.
It also helps to include information that is genuinely useful or distinctive. First-hand experience, specific examples, figures, processes and expert insight can make an answer more valuable than generic content that could appear on almost any website.
Write FAQs for people
FAQs are not a new SEO tactic, but the way people discover information is changing.
A well-written FAQ can help someone quickly find the answer they need, make a longer page easier to scan and give AI tools clearer information to work with.
The key is to start with the questions your customers are actually asking, provide useful and direct answers, and place them where they naturally support the rest of the content.
Done well, FAQs make your website more useful for people while also making your content easier for AI tools to understand.
The Technical Bit
By using the FAQ schema, you can make it much easier for AI and search engines to identify and understand your FAQ content. The schema is structured code marks each question and answer within a page, and looks similar to this:
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "FAQPage",
"mainEntity": [
{
"@type": "Question",
"name": "What does FAQ stand for?",
"acceptedAnswer": {
"@type": "Answer",
"text": "FAQ stands for Frequently Asked Questions"
}
}
]
}
</script>
