February 2023 Newsletter

Updated on March 6, 2023

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The 3x3x3 of FAQs

In our line of work, we tend to see a lot of frequently asked questions – about who we are and what we do, about regulations and advocacy, and about hosting best practices. In 2022, we put a special focus on answering these questions and rediscovered the power of FAQ content. 

Why are FAQs important?

Among many others, our favorites are:

1. SEO: Whether someone’s Googling something about your business, your organization, or your destination, you can be the best person to answer their question. Publishing content that provides the answers they need increases the probability your site appears in the top search results. For example, our article on FAQs about service animals at short-term rentals became the fifth most popular piece of content across our entire website in just 90 days.
   
2. Efficiency: When you proactively answer FAQs and make the answers easily accessible, you’ll save the time of answering the same questions over and over (and over.) For example, answering your top guest questions right in your listing reduces the friction of a guest needing to reach out to you prior to booking.
   
3. Trust & Reputation: Anticipating your audience’s FAQs shows that you understand them and want to meet their needs. FAQs also proactively overcome potential objections and match their question (their pain point – their problem) with your product (a rental, an alliance membership, an ordinance provision – your solution).

What FAQs should I have?

We love the Rule of 3: As soon as you hear or see a question three times, add it to your FAQ content.

1. Keep your antenna up on your inbound messages from guests, alliance members, and website users.
   
2. Keep a pulse on community conversations, both online and off, and watch for common points of confusion or misinformation. These observations are especially helpful with advocacy and engaging positively with your city, such as providing a myths-vs.-facts piece with data about STRs to your policymakers.
   
3. Leverage search keyword tools like SEMRush and Answer the Public to see what people are asking. (The questions in this newsletter were written using both!)

What are FAQ best practices?

1. Be positive, clear, and honest. And don’t be afraid of the tough questions! Your audience will appreciate you answering them with transparency instead of avoiding them. (Another proof point, 10 ways to respond to difficult guest questions in a friendly (but firm) way [+ templates!] has been the #1 post on our site for two years running with more than 10,000 readers alone.)
   
2. Make them easy to access. That means making them discoverable on your website or in your listings but also proactively dripping them to your audience at the right time during their customer journey. The San Diego STRA’s STRO Permits page is a great example.
   
3. Keep them fresh. Add to them each time you experience the rule of three, and audit them for any needed updates every 6 months or so.

See you in the FAQ section,

Alexa Nota
COO & Co-founder

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