ChatBuildAn FAQ page that actually answers something
Most are a graveyard: questions nobody asked, at a length nobody reads.
Most FAQ pages are a graveyard. Questions nobody asked, answered at a length nobody reads, written to fill a page rather than to settle anything.
A good one does something specific: it removes the reasons people hesitate before contacting you. That makes it one of the highest-value pages on a small site, and one of the easiest to write, because you did not invent the content.
The questions are already written down
You do not brainstorm an FAQ. You collect it.
Go through the last twenty enquiries, messages and phone calls, and write down what people actually asked before committing. Not what you wish they asked — what they typed at eleven at night.
That list will contain three or four questions that repeat, and they are almost always about price, availability, what is included, and what happens if it goes wrong. Those four are your page.
Answer the awkward ones
The temptation is to answer the easy questions and leave out the ones that might put someone off. That is backwards: the awkward question is the one stopping them, and you cannot remove an objection by hiding it.
"Why are you more expensive than X?" is a better FAQ entry than "Where are you based?" If you cannot answer it honestly on a page, you have a business problem rather than a copy problem.
Rules for the answers
- Answer in the first sentence, then explain. Someone scanning should be able to stop after one line.
- Forty to sixty words. Longer and it becomes an article, and articles do not get read on an FAQ page.
- No "it depends" without the next step. If it depends, say what it depends on and what to send you so you can answer properly.
- Use their words, not yours. People search for "how much" and "how long", not "pricing structure" and "lead times".
Where it belongs
An FAQ page is a fine thing. But the four questions above earn their place on the pages where the decision happens — the service page, the contact page — and the FAQ page collects the longer tail.
If the same question appears in every enquiry, it should be answered before someone has to look for it.
Answers change; the page should not be a project. Prices move and policies change. With ChatBuild an updated answer is a message, which is what keeps an FAQ page true rather than slowly becoming a liability. How updates work.
The maintenance rule nobody follows
Every time you answer the same question in an email for the second time, add it to the page. Every time you read an answer that is no longer true, fix it that day.
An FAQ page that is not maintained is worse than no FAQ page, because a confidently wrong answer about your prices is something a customer will hold you to.
Related: the same removal-of-friction thinking drives getting more enquiries, and if you are writing these answers with AI, know which parts to rewrite.
Frequently asked
- How many questions should an FAQ page have?
- Start with the three or four that genuinely repeat, and let it grow only as real questions arrive. A page of twenty invented questions buries the four that matter and signals that none of them came from a customer.
- Should FAQ answers live on the FAQ page or on the service page?
- The handful that stop people from buying belong on the page where the decision happens. The FAQ page is for the longer tail — useful, but not load-bearing for the sale.
Sjors Hooijen Builds ChatBuild and writes about getting a business online without turning it into a project. Questions about this article? Email hi@chatbuild.com.