Questions & Answers (Q&A) are one of the best and least used keyword research tools. Why? Because the questions and answers are localized, which means you’ll find out and see how questions are asked in a specific local market. You’ll also see what types of words are being used, and it gives us really important Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) that tools might miss because they don’t register high enough search volume. We can use these on the FAQ page as well as FAQs that you nest on other core pages.
How are the questions prioritized?
We recommend prioritizing the questions that get the most upvotes.
This is real-time feedback from other potential customers in the market. The positive rating shows which questions are most helpful to users and could be most useful to include in your content.
More than just frequently asked questions:
This information can be used for more than just FAQs. You can also see individual keywords and the way people relate to things in that market. Researching keyword data is very important to determine which pages to optimize and what to optimize for. Pairing the GS Location Changer and Keywords Everywhere Chrome extensions gives you local keyword data, but Q&A keyword research takes that “local” and “relevant” keyword research to the next level.
In the example below, this person asks this children’s hospital if they have a “holistic pediatrician” on staff. So this is a great opportunity to optimize the site content for a “holistic pediatrician” if they actually offer that service.
This can also serve as a research tool for the content of local location pages or city pages. You might find that people in one place ask for specific things, but not so much in other places.
In the example below, this person is trying to schedule an autism test for their child. We noticed that this site received this question frequently. This lets us know that where this question is being asked, we should optimize for it.
Sourcing Q&A Challenges:
There are many companies that don’t get many questions. If so, you can look at the competitor’s listings to see what questions they’re being asked. You can also look at someone in the same industry but in a different market. You can bring up a list in the local finder and scroll through all the questions and answers by clicking on the pins on the map.
Identify services customers believe you offer:
Another great use is to use the questions to determine what services customers think you offer but don’t.
In the example below, this children’s hospital does not offer dental services to children, but they keep asking about dental services in the Questions and Answers section. So if you notice a consistent pattern like this, you can use things like Google Posts to let customers know you don’t offer that service.
The example below shows another example of this hospital being asked for dental services. So we need to find a way to get this message across to the community. This relieves the front office staff, who process these requests both online and on the phone.
Additional tips:
- Make sure you enable your Google Business Profile (GBP) notification settings.
- GatherUp has a nice dashboard to manage the questions and answers.
This blog post is part of my November LocalU Advanced presentation.