Posted by mlangfeld on November 1, 2011 at 5:48pm
For the past few days, we've been discussing FAQs.
Should they be rewritten as About XYZ page? Are they fine, as is. Do questions rate higher in search? Etc.
So I wondered what your experience is with FAQs on your sites? So you use them? How often? Do you rewrite them? What's your experience?
Comments
FAQ's
I haven't used them with Drupal yet but have used them a lot for other sites. I base them on questions submitted to the site by users over the years. Yes, I ensure they use keywords and are relevant and not outdated. If they are kept updated it does seem to help with higher rankings in search, minimal, but I detest seeing any outdated info on a site.
Content Strategists don't favor them
This was just discussed recently on the Content Strategy Google Group. The consensus seems to be that ideally the info should be easily findable within the site, rathe than off on a separate page. Of course there are no hard and fast rules and many feel that FAQs can be appropriate depending on goals and audience. Personally, most of my Drupal sites don't have FAQs because the users wouldn't look for or expect them.
My own reaction to them is always, are these really the questions users are asking?
Jean Gazis
www.jeangazis.com
www.webhostny.com
That's one reason I asked
I'm a lurker/member of the Content Strategy group, really enjoyed the discussion, and have been discussing at the office. We decided to try to wean folks off of FAQs, too.
At the same time, my project may require it for a specific purpose (questions about specific retirement plans).
I've used the FAQ module, which works well, though we try to discourage using too many modules....
Best, Marilyn
Used Sometimes
Whether to use an FAQ on your site really depends on the needs of your user base and how much info needs to be presented. I mainly use FAQs for pages which display info on a particular product or service rather than a general site wide or page specific FAQ. If you are targeting a Product you know people will ask: How do get it? What does it cost? What are the features? How do I fix this common problem? ect. Making sure the questions are relevant is the hard part.
I tend to fuss too much over the correct way to make an FAQ (plain hand coded page vs content type vs FAQ module).
http://www.webbfx.net/
And remember…
It's best not to rely on FAQs unless the people using your site would expect them, look for them, and rely on them.
After all, as one participant in a usability test put it, "How should I know if it's a frequently asked question? This was the first time I ever had to ask it."
Having said that, as @wfx suggests, some groups of users would look for a site's FAQs first. So:
Love your list
Know your users is certainly top, as you've placed it.
Sometimes harder to do as they expect, especially during a major site upgrade. That's what we are facing now. Some sites (we are migrating a multi-site platform to Drupal) have FAQs, others would like to introduce them. We will present alternatives, and see how well they are accepted.
Best, Marilyn
Killing unhelpful FAQs…
can be like trying to stop a horde of locusts with a flyswatter.
You can stop a few while standing in the migration path, but most will get through. Once they settle down, you can pick the most vulnerable targets, sneak up on them, and thwack! (Gee, this metaphor extends better than I had thought it would.)
We've done two migrations in the last 10 years, and we're still overrun with pages that are built like typical FAQs, even if that isn't their title. One by one, I'm approaching them with a task analysis. But even then, they don't always see the light.
Fixing a site of any magnitude can take forever when your job is to serve, not to manage, the people who produce the content. I guess you could call that job security, but I'd rather get it done so we can then go on to make the website even better.
Oh, well.
Marilyn, good luck with your project!