- Owner
- Writer with front-desk staff
- Cadence
- Quarterly, after the panel review
- Time box
- Two hours per 10 questions
- Output
- Published FAQ and passage test
Why FAQ answers get quoted
An FAQ is a page of plain questions with direct answers. Assistants quote these answers when a customer asks the same question, because the work of matching question to answer has already been done. A well-made FAQ is the most compact form of answer-ready content: each entry is a self-contained passage with the question in the customer's words and the answer in the business's.
Bay Area AEO's own site shows the shape. Its FAQ asks "How long does answer engine optimization take to work?" and answers in three sentences: listing fixes within weeks, content and reviews over two to four months, re-tests monthly. A customer, or an assistant, gets the whole answer without reading anything else.
Where the questions come from
Use three sources, in this order. First, the prompt panel: every condition customers attach to their questions ("open Saturday," "takes Medi-Cal," "for an older home") deserves an answer. Second, the front desk: ask whoever answers the phone for the ten questions they hear most, word for word. Third, the reviews: when customers praise something unexpected ("they explained everything before starting"), that is an answer to a question someone else is asking.
| Part | Rule | Example for a dental practice |
|---|---|---|
| Question | The customer's wording, as a question | Do you see patients with Delta Dental PPO? |
| First sentence | The direct answer, yes or no or the number | Yes, we are in network with Delta Dental PPO. |
| Detail | One or two sentences of condition or context | We check your benefits before the first visit and tell you what is covered. |
| Next step | What the customer does now, when it applies | Call or book online and have your member ID ready. |
Procedure
- Collect
Gather 20 to 40 candidate questions from the three sources.
- Group and choose
Merge duplicates. Keep the questions that a customer would decide on, not the ones about company trivia.
- Answer in the pattern
Write each answer to the four-part pattern. Keep most answers between 40 and 80 words.
- Place them
Put service-specific questions on the matching service page and general questions (hours, parking, payment, languages) on a general FAQ page.
- Mark them up
Add FAQPage structured data that matches the visible questions and answers exactly, following the structured data SOP.
- Run the passage test and publish
Tick every line below, get owner approval and publish.
Passage test: tick each line for every page
REWRITE CARD
Before. Q: Insurance? A: We work with many insurance providers. Please contact our office for more information.
After. Q: Which dental insurance plans do you accept? A: We are in network with Delta Dental PPO and several other PPO plans listed on our insurance page, and we offer a membership plan for patients without insurance. We confirm your benefits before your first visit.
The first answer gives an assistant nothing to repeat. The second names a plan, a policy and a step, which is what the customer's question was really about.
A note on FAQ markup
In 2023 Google limited FAQ rich results in its search results to a small set of authoritative government and health sites, so most businesses will not see the expandable FAQ display. The markup is still useful as a clear machine-readable statement of the questions and answers on the page. Keep it accurate, and never mark up questions that do not appear on the page.
Upkeep
Read the FAQ after every quarterly panel review. Add answers for new conditions customers mention, and update any answer whose facts changed, such as a plan the practice joined or left. A dated FAQ with current answers keeps assistants from repeating last year's policy.
Done when
Questions that reveal a gap
Sometimes the honest answer to a common question is no: the practice does not take a plan, the plumber does not work on commercial buildings. Answer those plainly too, and point to what the business does offer. A clear no saves the customer a call, and it keeps an assistant from guessing. If the same no comes up often, take it to the owner; it may be a service worth adding, and the next panel review can test it.
Length and format
Keep each question as a heading or a bold line followed directly by its answer, with no images or accordions that hide the answer text from the page source. Long answers belong on the service page; the FAQ entry can answer in two sentences and link to the page for the full detail. Group entries under short sentence-case headings such as "Insurance and payment" or "Scheduling," so a reader scanning the page finds them, and so the page's structure is clear to any system reading it.