How to write FAQs that customers and Google both use
Most small business FAQ pages are a dusty corner of the site full of questions nobody asked. Done properly they are one of the few pages that answers a real search and closes an objection at the same time.
What a good FAQ page actually does
Three things at once, which is unusual for a single page.
- Matches the exact question people typeSearch queries are increasingly phrased as questions. An FAQ answers one directly, in the same words.
- Gives people a reason to staySomeone who finds their answer keeps reading. Someone who does not goes back to the results and rings a competitor. That is a conversion argument rather than a ranking one — Google does not use your engagement figures as a signal.
- Handles objections before they are raisedThe questions customers hesitate over are the ones costing you enquiries. Answering them in public removes the hesitation.
Start with questions you are actually asked
Not questions you wish people asked. The things that come up on the phone, over email, and in the van on the way to a job. Those are the ones already being typed into Google.
A plumber in Cornwall gets asked whether they do emergency callouts. A florist in Manchester gets asked whether they deliver on Sundays. Neither of those is a marketing question — they are the actual barrier to booking.
Answer in forty to sixty words
Google will sometimes lift a short, self-contained answer into a featured snippet or an AI Overview. It can only do that when the answer stands alone without the surrounding page.
So answer the question, then stop. If it genuinely needs three paragraphs, it is not an FAQ — it is a page, and the FAQ should link to it. The same principle applies to length generally: write what the question needs.
That is 24 words, answers the question, includes the location, and tells someone what to do next.
Use the words your customers use
This is where most FAQ pages fail. The business writes in its own vocabulary; the customer searches in theirs.
- What the business writes“We offer bespoke floral arrangements tailored to special occasions.”
- What the customer searches“wedding flowers manchester”
- What the answer should say“Yes, we provide wedding flowers in Manchester, including bridal bouquets and venue decorations.”
Same meaning. One of them can be found. Plain English is not a compromise on quality — it is what people type.
Put your location in the answers
If you are a local business, FAQs are a natural place to reinforce where you work — because the question often carries the location anyway.
“Do you offer gym memberships in Leeds city centre?” answered with “Yes. Our Leeds gym is near the train station, and we welcome both day passes and monthly members” does two jobs in one sentence.
Format it so both can read it
Each question a clear heading, each answer a short paragraph beneath it. That is scannable for a person and parseable for a search engine, and it is most of the job.
Google. For years the pitch was that FAQPage markup earned you an expandable block in the results. That stopped being true for ordinary businesses in August 2023, when Google restricted the feature to authoritative government and health sites, and on 7 May 2026 Google removed it entirely. Nobody gets FAQ rich results in Google now. Be wary of anyone still selling it on that basis.
Bing and the rest. This was a Google decision, not an industry one. Bing still parses FAQPage and still uses it, as do DuckDuckGo and Brave, which run on Bing’s index. Microsoft has said on the record that structured data helps Copilot understand content. If Bing sends you any meaningful traffic, the markup is still earning its keep.
AI search. Treat the claims here carefully. AI crawlers do read the markup, but Google’s own generative search guidance from May 2026 says structured data is not required for AI Overviews or AI Mode and there is no special schema to add. No AI vendor has confirmed that FAQ markup improves your odds of being cited. It may help. It is not established, and anyone telling you it is has gone beyond the evidence.
Practical answer: keep it if you have it, add it if it is easy, and do not pay anybody much for it.
Keep them current
Services change. Prices shift. Opening hours move. An out-of-date FAQ does more damage than no FAQ, because it answers confidently and wrongly.
Review them every few months, and always after you add a service or a service area. It is a ten-minute job that most sites never do — and it is part of the same problem as the rest of a site nobody has touched in years.
An FAQ page will not rescue a bad site
It is a good page, not a strategy. If the rest of the site does not say what you do or where you do it, adding twelve questions underneath will not change that.
Where FAQs earn their keep is on a site that already works — filling the gap between what a service page says and what a customer still needs to know before they pick up the phone.
If this was useful
- Content and copywritingIf you would rather we wrote them. Service page copy from £55, blog posts from £45.
- Readability checkerPaste an answer in and check it reads as plainly as you think it does.
- Local SEOThe rest of getting found by people in your town.
- Free SEO auditTells you whether FAQs are worth your time, or whether something else is the constraint.
Want them written for you?
We research the questions customers actually ask in your sector, write the answers, and format them so both people and search engines can use them.
More articles · Content & copywriting · The full diagnostic guide · Pricing