A well-crafted Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) page on your tourism website will make life easier for you, your staff, and guests. It alleviates the pain of answering the same questions repeatedly.
However, there are many more benefits of having a FAQs page on your tourism website.
Benefits of a well-crafted Tourism FAQs page include:
1. FAQ pages can save you time and money on customer service
By providing a single place on your website to find answers to commonly asked questions, you are enabling visitors to quickly gain an understanding of your tourism business. This can be especially handy when you cannot promptly answer the phone or online queries.
2. FAQ pages can improve consumer experience
By compiling answers to common questions related to your tourism offering, a FAQ page gives visitors a central place to find the answers they need quickly. FAQs pages enable visitors to make informed decisions and possibly position your business above competitors because their online user experience has been responsive, relevant and uncomplicated.
3. FAQs pages establish trust and can overcome obstacles to conversions
Because of your site visitor’s ease of gaining an answer to their question quickly, they understand you are invested in helping them. This will go a long way toward creating a sense of trust for your tourism brand. Providing answers to common questions also demonstrates thought leadership, plus an understanding of the user experience, making your site visitors more confident about purchasing your offerings.
Also, a common reason for a site visitor not converting into a sale is unanswered questions or a thirst for more information. So, by including a well-crafted FAQs page, you can bridge that conversion gap.
4. FAQ pages can help users navigate your site
Most of the answers on your FAQ page may already exist elsewhere on your website.
You don’t have to re-invent the wheel, but you need to understand your website’s customer journey. In 2022, it’s common practice for visitors to use the menu bar to navigate through a website. But, with the high use of mobile devices, website design trends tend to advocate fewer pages and more on-page optimisation practices such as links.
A FAQs page can point visitors to where they need to go – whether that’s a blog post, other relevant information, CTAs and booking or sales pages.
Not only does a FAQs page with links to related content provide your site visitor with a more effortless user experience. It also boosts your internal link-building – a vital search optimisation ranking factor.
5. FAQ pages are great for organic search
A FAQs page offers an opportunity to provide answers to questions not just about your tourism offering but general questions about other complementary tourism experiences and your region.
Answering these questions can bring in people who may not even know about your tourism business but found a solution to their search query on your site and clicked through to learn more.
Thus increasing traffic to your site and brand awareness of your business.
When it comes to increasing website traffic through search engines, a great FAQ page holds a lot of potential.
Bonus:
A FAQs page is also a great location to capture voice search queries. Voice search queries tend to be longer and phrased in a more natural, conversational style. So the FAQs page is a natural fit for those sorts of queries.
6. FAQ pages can be a great source of content ideas
Content marketing is a hungry beast. Continually producing relevant, on-brand content is hugely time-consuming. But, by solving problems, answering questions, or improving your customers’ experience in some way, you are adding value to your audience.
What better place to find content ideas than a page containing every problem or question your audience might have?
What should be covered on a FAQ Page?
That all depends on your target audience. Each tourism business will have different questions depending on what your target audience wants to know and what products/services you are offering.
At the very least, a well-written FAQs page should cover the basics of addressing operating times, requirements to enjoy your tourism offerings, and the common concerns, questions and possible objections of customers.
What are the questions that you are most frequently asked by your customers?
These might be practical questions about where to find you, operating or check-in times, what to bring and even the weather.
Site visitors may also be curious about the sustainability of your tourism business, your ethics, procedures and even your qualifications to provide the service you do. Consider why someone might hesitate to book and use your FAQs to put their mind at ease.
Research other businesses in the same market as you to find out what they have included in their FAQs. Perhaps you can even build on their version.
Other FAQ ideas
- Business policies including bookings, cancellations, shipping and returns
- What your business does to cater for people with accessibility needs (wheelchair ramps, accessible bathrooms etc.)
- What areas your business services
- Any COVID-19 related policies
- Information to help your customers to make the right purchase
- Common misconceptions about your product or industry
- Definitions of industry-specific terminology that your guests might not know
How should you layout your FAQs page?
As simple as possible. One of the best options is a question and answer section that can be clicked to expand on the question.
Tips on Writing a FAQ Page
- Add contact details – always give site visitors a way to contact you if they haven’t found the answer they need. The FAQs Page should never replace good customer service.
- Break up your Q & A into categories. This makes it easier for the site visitor to find information easily under categories & headings.
- Keep your FAQs page updated by regularly checking if customers are asking new questions about your tourism business.
- Where possible, write your question, well.. as a question! Questions should be written from the perspective of your customer and the answers from the perspective of the business. Writing in the first person is also more likely to align with what people are likely to search on Google.
- And keep answers conversational and clear. Do not just answer with a Yes or No. Expand on the answer but keep to minimal and link to other areas of your website if there is more information.
- Avoid jargon unless it’s particular to your industry. Then you might also need a FAQs section on the terminology of your industry.
- Do inject your brand character and voice into your answers.
- Be honest and straightforward with your answers, even the tough ones.
FURTHER READING: How to Write Great Tourism Website Copy
Bonus Tip
Even though it is good practice to title a FAQs Page as FAQs on a tourism website, sometimes it just won’t work as well as a Visit Us Page. The Barossa Farmers Market has several FAQs under different areas on their website, i.e. Membership, Stallholders etc. So to make answers easily accessible to their tourism market, they have created a Visit Us page with Frequently Asked Questions for first-time visitors.
Wrapping it Up
Crafting your FAQs Page will give you deeper insight into your customers’ needs, desires and challenges. The page will make life easier for your and your customers, increase your online searchability, and increase conversions by building confidence and trust with readers.
And remember, your tourism FAQ page deserves its own piece of real estate on your website. Make sure it is not tucked away underneath your contact information or your “About us” where your site visitors have to hunt for it. Make it easy to find on your main menu, even as a sub-menu. Another spot that site visitors will check is the website footer. A good trip is to have it linked in both these areas – making it easier still.
Need More Help?
As you now understand, the FAQs page is an integral part of your tourism marketing arsenal. Don’t leave it off your website; if you need help, reach out.
