Not Obvious but Effective Website Practices (Part Three)

Do you have a website and wonder why, every time you check your Google Search Console metrics, there is no sudden surge in clicks? Does your webmaster publish all the content you provide them with, but still, you cannot achieve the desired traffic rates? It is quite possible that your site needs specific improvements, and you found this post from us at LocalTeam just in time.

We have already shared in our blog how the usage of keywords in headings can increase your ranking positions. It has also been explained how breadcrumb trails and tables of contents can boost user experience on your webpages. Also, we clarified how header sections should be designed and what elements they should include. So, if you missed any of the points above, make sure you find these articles on our site and read them.

Now, it is time to wrap up this blog series about effective website practices with a final one related to frequently asked questions and footer sections. Buckle up because you’ll have an informative read ahead!

Frequently Asked Questions & Website Practices Related to Them

How many times did you enter a question in the Google search bar and get an answer to your question right at the top of the search engine result page? How often did you have a chance to get your question answered without even clicking on any of the results offered to you and reading long paragraphs trying to find that exact sentence you need? There is a possibility that this has happened rather often.

People are happy to get quick results, and if they manage to satisfy their curiosity in a matter of seconds, they might also want to visit a website that provides them with a concise answer to learn more details about the issue. Under such circumstances, users make their voluntary decision to continue their research. They are happy to do it, unlike the situation when they are forced to read paragraphs of unwanted information just trying not to miss the text section they need.

Such quick answers at the top of SERP are called AI Overviews, and very often, they will be formed if a user puts a whole question in the search bar. Alternatively, if users search for specific keywords, they can see a list of related questions that include such words in the middle of the search engine result page. Both features are engaged due to the presence of frequently asked questions on webpages. So, below, we are going to give you an understanding of how you can boost your websites with them.

The Usage of Frequently Asked Questions for SEO

No matter how easy the whole idea might seem, creating a fully optimised FAQ section requires effort. Here are the tips you should keep in mind when designing the frequently asked questions section on the page of your site for better results:

Make sure users really ask such questions: You can use Ahrefs or Semrush to find what questions related to your niche people are searching for most often;
Keep it simple: You need to answer a question concisely for search engines to feature this entry on SERP;
Use keywords: You must include only suitable keywords in the FAQ section for Google to see that your answers are a hundred percent relevant.

By following these simple recommendations, you can increase your domain’s chances of being displayed in AI Overviews or FAQ lists on SERP.

The Usage of Frequently Asked Questions for UX

In addition to learning how to do a good job for search engine bots, you should also have users in mind. It definitely matters what your website visitors will see having landed on the page. Understanding that, we provide you with the following pieces of advice:

Make it interactive: Present your FAQ section as a collapsible menu. Firstly, users like interacting with the website content. Secondly, this section will look compact, and site visitors won’t need to scroll for a long time to find the question they are interested in;
Make it readable: Choose fonts and colours wisely. You can have truly valuable information, but no one will end up reading it if your text or background colour choices do not facilitate it;
Make sure everything is working: If you add external links to your answers, never forget to check that they actually redirect users to other pages. You, as any other business owner, do not want users to get discouraged and leave your site after clicking on a broken link.

Website Practices Related to the Footer Section

The lowermost section of the webpage is called the footer. In terms of the page design, you can view it as the polar opposite of the header. Unlike the latter, which can be seen by users from the very first seconds of their interaction with the website, this section will be shown to them only if website visitors end up scrolling till the bottom of the page. However, it doesn’t mean that you can overlook the footer. That’s because its correct design plays an important role in SEO and can also help user navigation.

Cross-Linking

A lot of SEO practices revolve around cross-linking. They can be divided into different groups based on various criteria. Right now, we are going to be talking about sitewide links since this particular type is used in the footer section. Such links are displayed on every page of a particular website. They interconnect webpages, conveying link juice and enhancing the authority of individual pages and the overall domain rate. Below, we’ve gathered the main points related to the usage of sitewide links in footers:

Add only unique links: Make sure you check all the links you use and omit duplicates at all costs. Even though cross-linking in the footer can help with page indexing, using identical links in this section is something all search engine bots frown upon;
Use relative links: When it comes to internal linking, all the SEO experts advise relative links over absolute ones;
Choose anchors from a relevant cluster: Anchor text must always be relevant to the content of the page it is linked to. It should be a short title for a particular category your users are likely to search for;
Stay within the limit: If you have an e-commerce website with hundreds of pages, there is no way you can feature links to all of them in the footer. The universal rule is to use category pages. However, if you have many categories, select the main ones to be displayed in the footer.

The Use of Logos

The footer section is a perfect spot for website owners to feature their brand’s and partners’ logos. This easy practice will improve the search engine optimisation of the whole site if applied correctly. One thing to always remember about adding logos is to enter alternative text to simplify the crawling process.

It is up to you to choose the way you want your logo to be represented. You can make it clickable for users to be redirected to the home page after interacting with it. This approach should be used if you do not have another link to the main page in the footer. Alternatively, if you have a sitewide link with a text anchor that leads to your home page, you can upload your logo as a simple image. This will promote brand recognition and pose no harm to SEO. However, the use of two identical links with text and image anchors in the same section is not advisable.

When it comes to featuring the logos of your partners, you can also turn them into anchors. Keep in mind that it will work only if you have relevant pages for every associate. If you just pursue the idea of showing your trustworthy partnerships, add non-interactable png files of the logos.

Choose Effective Website Practices to Stand Out!

There you go! Now that you have finished reading this blog post, you are well aware of the importance of FAQ sections and the main elements you should consider for your site’s footer. LocalTeam Australia’s experts aim to keep our clients in the loop about the website practices that really matter. Additionally, our professionals are always ready to incorporate any of these best practices you need for your site.

Nataliia Tarnavska
Nataliia is an experienced specialist in the field of SEO and a new LocalTeam member eager to optimise your website. Having a set of all the necessary skills, she knows what to do to bring more traffic to your site, no matter how competitive your niche is. She is the one to turn to if you want your website to be displayed at the top of the search engine result page.