Your Website Doesn't Need 47 FAQs to Rank

Stop Writing FAQs Like You're Talking About Somebody Else

This is another thing that drives me crazy. This confuses your customer! Why are businesses writing FAQs about themselves in the third person?

Here's an example:

Q: Does Smith Roofing provide emergency roof repair services in Dallas, TX?

A: Yes, Smith Roofing provides professional emergency roof repair services to homeowners and businesses throughout Dallas, TX.

Who talks like that? You're on Smith Roofing's website. The customer already knows whose website they're visiting.

Now compare that with:

Q: Do you offer emergency roof repairs?

A: Yes, we handle emergency roof repairs throughout Dallas. Give us a call and we'll help you figure out what needs to happen next.

Same information. Completely different experience. The second version sounds like a business talking to an actual customer.

And that's what your website should be doing. There's nothing inherently wrong with third-person writing, and Google isn't going to penalize you for using it.

But constantly repeating your full business name in every question and answer feels forced. It can also make your website sound like someone else wrote it without understanding how your business communicates.

Write the way you'd speak to a customer. Use "we," "our," and "you" when they make sense. Ask questions from the customer's perspective. Give straightforward answers.

You don't need to repeat your company name and city six times to establish what business the page belongs to.

Somewhere along the way, someone decided that every website needed a massive FAQ section on every page to rank on Google. Now we're seeing service pages packed with 15, 20, sometimes 30 questions that all seem to ask the same thing in slightly different ways.

And for what?

I'm not against FAQs. They can be useful. They help customers get answers, understand your services, and decide whether your business is right for them. But there's a difference between answering real questions and filling a page with unnecessary content because someone told you it would help your SEO.

More FAQs don't automatically mean better rankings. And a longer page isn't necessarily a better page.

Google Doesn't Count Your FAQs and Reward You With Rankings

There is no magic number of FAQs that will make your website rank higher. Google doesn't require five questions per service page. It doesn't hand out bonus points because you managed to squeeze 25 into an accordion at the bottom of your homepage.

What matters is whether your content is relevant, useful, and actually answers what someone came looking for.

Google's own guidance on creating helpful content encourages website owners to focus on people rather than producing content primarily to manipulate search rankings. That doesn't mean FAQs are bad. It means they need a reason to exist.

You could have five well-written questions that answer genuine customer concerns and provide more value than 30 repetitive ones. And if your service page already answers a question clearly, you don't necessarily need to repeat that information in an FAQ at the bottom.

Sometimes the answer is already where it belongs.

Where Did the FAQ Obsession Come From?

There's a reason FAQs became popular in SEO.

People search Google using questions. They want to know how much something costs, how long a service takes, whether a business serves their area, and what to expect before making a purchase.

Naturally, marketers started creating content to answer those questions.

Then came featured snippets, Google's People Also Ask section, voice search, and eventually AI-powered search.

The idea was reasonable enough. Answer the questions people are asking, and you may have a better opportunity to appear in relevant search results.

The problem started when that advice turned into "Every page needs an FAQ section."

Suddenly, websites were getting loaded with questions that nobody was actually asking.

Just because you can turn a keyword into a question doesn't mean you should.

When FAQs Actually Make Sense

Let's be clear. I'm not suggesting you remove every FAQ from your website. There are plenty of situations where they're genuinely helpful.

A roofing company might answer questions about insurance claims, estimates, warranties, or what happens during a roof replacement. A cleaning company might explain whether customers need to provide supplies, how appointments are scheduled, or what's included in a standard cleaning. A medical practice might answer questions about appointments, preparation instructions, or what patients should expect during a visit.

These are things customers may genuinely want to know before reaching out.

Some businesses have complicated services or processes and need extensive FAQ resources. That's perfectly reasonable. The point isn't to limit yourself to a certain number of questions. It's to make sure the questions you're answering are actually useful.

When FAQs Become Nothing More Than Keyword Stuffing

Here's where things get ridiculous.

Imagine a plumbing company with these questions on its service page:

• Does ABC Plumbing offer drain cleaning in Dallas?

• Can I hire ABC Plumbing for professional drain cleaning in Dallas?

• Where can I find drain cleaning services in Dallas?

• Is ABC Plumbing a drain cleaning company serving Dallas?

Those questions are practically identical. And if every answer says some variation of "ABC Plumbing provides professional drain cleaning services in Dallas," what has the customer actually learned? Not much.

A far more useful question might be:

"Why does my drain keep clogging after I've already cleaned it?"

Now you have an opportunity to explain a real problem, share useful information, and help someone understand when professional service might be necessary. That's content with a purpose.

And if you're trying to reach customers in specific locations, repeatedly stuffing city names into FAQs isn't a replacement for a proper local SEO strategy.

What About FAQ Schema?

Let's get one technical term out of the way: schema.

Schema is code added to a website that helps search engines understand what certain information represents.

FAQ schema specifically identifies questions and their answers. For years, Google supported special FAQ displays in search results, which made this type of markup particularly attractive to website owners. But that changed.

Google significantly restricted FAQ rich results in 2023 and officially discontinued the feature on May 7, 2026, as documented in its Search documentation updates.

The FAQ schema format itself still exists. But adding it isn't going to magically improve your Google rankings or guarantee your business appears in an AI-generated answer. And it certainly isn't a reason to manufacture dozens of questions.

Schema has legitimate uses, and properly implementing structured data is part of technical website optimization. Just don't confuse adding code with creating useful content. One doesn't replace the other.

What Should You Do Instead?

Before adding another FAQ section to your website, take a look at what's already there.

Here's where I'd start:

1. Look at the questions customers actually ask. Think about phone calls, emails, appointments, and conversations you've had with customers.

2. Review your existing content. If you've already answered something clearly on your service page, you probably don't need to repeat it.

3. Get rid of unnecessary repetition. If five questions essentially have the same answer, consider combining them.

4. Write naturally. Your answers should sound like they're coming from your business, not a keyword research spreadsheet.

5. Put information where it makes sense. Sometimes a question belongs in an FAQ. Other times, the answer deserves its own section on the page.

6. Give customers somewhere to go next. If an answer relates to another service or topic, link to the appropriate page so they can learn more.

This is also why I believe in improving what a website already has before recommending more content. Sometimes a page doesn't need another 20 questions. It needs a clearer explanation of the service, better organization, or stronger links to related information.

That's a big part of what I focus on with content optimization and strategy.

The goal isn't to see how much content we can squeeze onto a website. It's to make the content that's already there work better.

Stop Counting Questions. Start Answering Them.

Your website doesn't need 47 FAQs to prove it's useful. It needs accurate information, clear explanations, and answers that help people make decisions. Not every service page needs an FAQ section. Not every question needs its own paragraph. And not every keyword needs to be turned into a question.

Good SEO isn't about checking boxes or following the same formula on every website. It's about understanding what your customers are looking for and making sure your website gives them a good reason to stick around.

So before you add another FAQ, ask yourself something. Am I actually helping my customers, or am I just adding more words to the page?

If you're not sure whether your website content is helping or just taking up space, let's take a look at it.

You might not need more content at all. You might just need to fix what you already have.

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