[AshWhite]

Hi all,

I've been toying with the idea of a FAQ page on my site, so I've just knocked it up and made it live. If a few of you could please take a look and see if you can recommend any changes, or if you think the page is a waste of time please say so (with your reasons why!).

Thank you

[AshWhite]

you'll be wanting a link  :

http://floors2show.co.uk/faq/

[derek west]

you'll be wanting a link  :

http://floors2show.co.uk/faq/

arrrrrr there it is.

running all the way ash

[AshWhite]

'twas a bit of a blonde moment..

[Carpet2Clean]

Hi Ash..Looks good..Tells customers everything they need to know.Was going to have the FAQ on my website but only got a 3 page site  .Will give customers more trust in your services than the (vaxs) cowboys......(Richard).

[Mike Halliday]

are you limited to space on the page?

I'm not sure if this is right but i don't think google can read text in a pop down so can't index what is written, it would help google searches if the answer  text was just under the question

also write the answer to sell the point you are making, on the first question say... we would rather the carpet took a little longer to dry then not do the exhaustive deep clean our regular customers have come to expect ( BS like that) it helps sell the point

[wynne jones]

Cover all the common questions we get asked and concerns. I think the drop down answers are a little hard to read on my screen and you need darker text.

[AshWhite]

Thanks Richard.

Good point Mike, I hadn't really considered it from an SEO point of view, more of a sales tool than anything. Also, a bit of BS never hurt anyone  

I'm not limited to space, just like the neatness of a dropdown box.

[AshWhite]

I'm having a spot of bother changing the colour of the text, any pointers? It looks OK on my screen, but I suppose some older people may have trouble reading it (not that I'm saying your old or anything..I could see where there might be a problem on some screens )

[Simon Gerrard]

Ash,
Keep the answers short and to the point as they seem a bit to full of spiel to be genuine from a customers perspective.

Simon

[AshWhite]

Hi Simon, I did try and keep the answers relatively concise - is there anything in particular you would recommend losing?

[Simon Gerrard]

Ash,
How long does it take to clean my carpets?
No point in asking this question, or answering it as every job is different  and this question is usually covered during the phone call when you've agreed the job.
How long will it take for my carpets to dry?
Most carpets are dry in 2 - 4 hours.
How clean will my carpets be after cleaning?
Not a relevant question IMO
I have a quote for £x to clean my carpet, can you beat it?
Again, this is something that gets mentioned in a phone call and by asking the question on a website merely encourages them to ring around, the last thing you want.
Am I going to get hit a bill higher than I agreed to at the start? Not the best English, Ash.
Again, this is something you should mention in your sales call and I don't see an relevance on a website.

I'm not a fan of FAQ's. Surely you want people to ask you these questions live during a phone call. The whole point of them calling is to get their questions answered. How much? How long? When dry? If you've already answered all of those question, why would they need to ring you?

Sorry for being negative.

Simon

[AshWhite]

I appreciate any feedback Simon, however the reason for the FAQ is to sell the differences between myself and others in the area - they might not even realise that they want to know these things before reading, but if they read my page then carry on shopping, at least they might ask the questions of the next person they call - and I have set the standard.

My site gets between 5-15 views a day, but I don't get anywhere near this amount of calls off there (maybe 1 every couple of days), so whatever sets me apart from the rest has to help?

[Shaun_Ashmore]

What you are trying to do is get a pre qualified customer who just wants to book rather than enquire, you'll not drive more traffic to your site though and that's what you could really do with IMO

Shaun

[Mike Halliday]

Ash,
Keep the answers hort and to the point as they seem a bit to full of spiel to be genuine from a customers perspective.

Simon

I can't agree with this,

looking at it from the customers point of view they already have arrived onto your website home page and have stayed, they haven't bounced straight away, they have clicked further pages and gone deeper into your site, this shows they want to read what you have to say, they are hungry for information.

your answers can be a page long they will only read as much as they want but at least you've given the oppertunity to read.

perhaps as simon says try to cut out the spiel and try to keep it down to earth & genuine

[AshWhite]

What you are trying to do is get a pre qualified customer who just wants to book rather than enquire, you'll not drive more traffic to your site though and that's what you could really do with IMO

Shaun

I'd be curious to know how many visits ther CCers are getting to their websites?

My site has only been live a few months (since June), but I've noticed it's gone from 1-2 hits to 5-15 every day - so it's going in the right direction 

[Simon Gerrard]

Ash,
If I were you I would drop the whole idea of FAQ's. You clearly don't understand the purpose of them and are simply asking questions in order to give a sales oriented answer in the hope that people will see a difference between you and the rest.
Your home page is all but empty of content so why not take the points you're trying to make in your FAQ's and embed them into a well written and clear paragraph about your unique approach to carpet cleaning, which is really what you are trying to achieve.

Simon

[wynne jones]

Simon said.

'You clearly don't understand the purpose of them and are simply asking questions in order to give a sales oriented answer in the hope that people will see a difference between you and the rest.'

It's a pretty standard marketing approach, I see it all over the place used by companies who really know what they are doing. I'd leave them in.

[Simon Gerrard]

Mike,

My point was simple. If Ash's points are such a compelling reason why he is distinct from his competitors then why hide those USP features in a set of FAQ's that most people will never read because the Home page doesn't engage people sufficiently to keep them interested.
People want information: Who you are. What you do. Why you are distinct from the next company. When you do it. How much? When? And they don't expect to have to dig for it and that is why those points should be embeded into a well written papragragh on the home page.
Marketing is about putting people in a position where they can't get what you do anywhere else!
Buy hey, what do I know

Simon

[Adam P]

i've had a quick look and the below added to the end of the file linked should do the trick for the font colour

http://floors2show.co.uk/wp-content/themes/floors2show/css/jqueryui/custom.css

ui-accordion-content-active {
color: #000 !important
}

mike: google should have no problem reading the text that is partially hidden as this is a common jquery plugin and they will no doubt have come across it millions of times before so know how to read it. in fact it's shown before the javascript gets to hide it so there def will be no issues here

the issue though is disable javascript and see how much of the site appears. not that many people do disable javascript but search engines wont like it one bit



edit:

actually scrap what i just said about how to change the font colour. find the below file

http://floors2show.co.uk/wp-content/themes/floors2show/css/screen.css

line 40

body
{
   background: #f5f5f5;
   font-size: 13px;
   font-family: "helvetica neue",Helvetica,Arial,Verdana,sans-serif;
   padding: 0;
   margin: 0;
   color: #999;
   padding-top: 10px;
   visibility: hidden;
}

change color from #999 to #000

this will change all font through-out the site (unless it's given another colour) to black, but imo this is much easier to read