In this webinar Milestone’s experts Ritika Chugh, Sr. Director – Product and R&D, and Tushar Prabhu, Director of SEO, discussed top tips to leverage the power of FAQs to drive engagement and traffic to your digital assets. They briefly reviewed why answers are the key to driving your prospects forward on their journey. Customers seek answers in search engines, on your website, and from their network, and you want to be the source of those answers to maintain engagement across the journey. Investing in answers will pay off attractively, but doing so successfully means you have to understand what they are asking and their intent. This webinar covered the following: - Source and curate questions - Organize questions and answers like content - Mark up FAQs with schemas - Engage and convert customers - Learn how to evaluate your FAQs - Track and report FAQ performance

1. MilestoneInternet.com | +1 408-200-2211
Be everywhere your
customers are
Power Your Business with…
June 24, 2021

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Your Speakers
Ritika Chugh
Sr. Director Product & R&D
Milestone Inc
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ritikachugh/
Tushar Prabhu
Director SEO and Content
Milestone Inc
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tusharprabhu/

3. Milestone Platform – Built-in Search Technology Drives Experience and Visibility
Digital Discovery
Local Listings • Reviews • Insights • Analytics
Digital Experience
CMS • Schemas • FAQ Manager
Digital Marketing Services
Design • Content • SEO • Paid • Analytics
Drive online customer acquisition by amplifying content to reach the right audience
Increases traffic, leads,
and revenue by 15-25%
Bridges the resources
and skills gaps
Lowers customer
acquisition costs
Hospitality • Restaurants • Retail • Finance • Automotive • Healthcare • Technology

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Milestone Inc.
• Milestone founded in 1997, based in
Silicon Valley with development centers
in India
• Customers include major Fortune 100
brands across multiple verticals
• Engineering and innovation focused
organization
• Won over 300 innovation awards

5. Agenda
1. Search Trends
2. Why answering questions is important
3. Challenges of answering questions
4. Milestone’s solution for answering questions at scale
5. Tips for your FAQ and voice strategy
• Tips To Get Voice Search Ready
• Common Mistakes
• Tips For Your FAQ Strategy
• Tips For Answering Questions
Agenda

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Putting the Evolution of Search in Context
Era of popularity
Era of combating spam
Era of enhancing experience
Growth of mobile,
Longtail explosion
Emergence of entities
Page rank algorithm
Panda
Penguin
Page layout
Interstitials
Hummingbird
Mobilegeddon
Rankbrain
BERT
SMITH
LaMDA
MUM

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Putting the Evolution of Search in Context
All search queries are “questions”
and the search results are “answers”
Search engine algorithms evolving to provide answers
(and not just links to websites that might have the right answer)

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A Few Search Stats…
There is a growing disconnect between what marketers put out
and what searchers need
Search engines are trying to bridge this gap
by finding and providing most suitable answers
80%
10%
10% 10%
90%
17%
83%
23%
77%
80% of all searches
are informational
90% of all content
has no audience
17% of daily searches
have never been done before
23% of SERPs are around
Q&A type content

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Percent Appearance of Key Rich Result Categories in Search Results Pages Through May 2021
• Question-answer oriented content at 23%, so questions and FAQs are integral to successful content
• Knowledge Panel on the rise to 14%, so local consistency, listings, and GMB critical
• Reviews appearance trending up to highest level over 12 months
• Local Pack at 8%, highest level in last 15 months
Data from MPC based on 575 Milestone customer websites, Feb 2020 to May 2021
Q&A Content
Knowledge
Panel

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Google Favors Content That Answers Questions
QUESTIONS IN KNOWLEDGE GRAPH
QUESTIONS IN LOCAL LISTINGS
ENHANCED LISTING WITH FAQ
FEATURED SNIPPET PEOPLE ALSO ASK
Answering questions can help you maximize brand exposure

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Answering Questions Can Help You Build EAT
Brand verified
content with
voice & entity
optimization
Answer your
customers’
questions
Be the source of
truth for potential
customers
Ensure consistent
messaging across
all channels
EXPERTISE
UTHORITY
RUST
“Consistent brand presentation across all platforms increases revenue by up to 23 percent”
- Forbes Magazine
When Google features your
answers in featured snippets,
FAQs and People Also Ask
Improved SERP visibility helps
you emerge as the authoritative
source of information
With your answers visible
everywhere, you earn the trust
of your audience
A
T

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Answering Questions Improves Search Visibility
FINDINGS
• 42% better CTR in Mobile devices
• 70% more likely to show up in People Also Ask
• FAQs with FAQ schemas achieve an average of
5.5 position better rank
• 11.5% increase in impressions
https://go.milestoneinternet.com/l/679863/2021-03-08/28f4rt
Improved
CTR
Better
Rankings
Improved
Impressions &
Clicks
Milestone Research on FAQs

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The Channels Where Your Audience Is Most Likely To Ask Questions
This is a sample text.
Insert your desired text
here.
Search Engines
This is a sample text. Insert
your desired text here.
Community Forums
This is a sample text. Insert
your desired text here.
Local Business Listings
Social Media
Voice Assistants

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Challenges of Answering a Large Volume of Questions Across Multiple Channels
• How do you find questions your audience is asking
about your brand on…
• Search engines
• Social media
• Local channels
• Forums
• How do you find questions being asked about your
products, services, policies and more?
• When new questions are asked about your business,
how do you make sure you find and answer them
before someone else does?
Providing Consistent Answers
Across Touchpoints
Updating Answers Everywhere
Scaling Across Multiple Locations
Finding Questions

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Challenges of Answering a Large Volume of Questions Across Multiple Channels
• How do you manage the workflow of answering
questions at scale
• Drafting answers
• Getting internal reviews (including legal in many cases)
• Optimizing answers for search friendliness
• Adding images and links to other content where meaningful
• How do you make sure consistent answers are posted
across various touchpoints and devices?
Providing Consistent Answers
Across Touchpoints
Updating Answers Everywhere
Scaling Across Multiple Locations
Finding Questions

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Challenges of Answering a Large Volume of Questions Across Multiple Channels
• If the answer to an already answered question
changes, how do you make sure it is consistently
updated everywhere?
• You need to make sure the answer is consistent across
• Your website
• Your Google My Business Listing
• Chatbots
• Voice Assistants
• Having a different answer in different places can have
an adverse impact on credibility
Providing Consistent Answers
Across Touchpoints
Updating Answers Everywhere
Scaling Across Multiple Locations
Finding Questions

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Challenges of Answering a Large Volume of Questions Across Multiple Channels
Finding Questions
Providing Consistent Answers
Across Touchpoints
Updating Answers Everywhere
Scaling Across Multiple Locations
• For multi-location businesses, the complexity is even more
• Deciding which questions need global answers across all
locations and which are location specific?
• How do you scale answering questions across all
locations while maintaining consistency and accuracy of
answers?
Milestone has been working on solving these problems for
more than two years.

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To Solve the Problems, We Needed A Solution That Would…
1 2 3 4 5 6
Listen and curate
questions from
multiple sources
Perform Bulk
operations
Organize FAQ
content
Add, publish,
update answers
at scale across
channels
Workflow
tools(moderation
workflows)
Report on
performance of
FAQs

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Website Chatbot Voice
Local/GMB
• Bulk upload questions
• Organize & answer once
• Built-in Schemas
• Bulk publishing
• Scales for multi-location
• Reporting
Keyword Research Google Search Console Google My Business Answer the Public
FAQ Manager
Curation Engine & Publishing Engine
Milestone’s FAQ Manager Solution

20. Voice Search Answers.
Can You Influence Them?

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FAQs Help Optimize for Voice Search
FAQ
MANAGER
Your central
repository of FAQs
Voice Search Answers
FAQs on your
site’s landing pages
(with embedded schemas)
Featured Snippet
People Also Ask
Enhanced FAQ Listing

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Using FAQ Manager Helps Build on FAQ Strategy Website Chatbot Voice
Local/GMB

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Manage FAQs on Local Business Channels Chatbot Voice
Local/GMB
Website

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Scale Operations with Multi-Location FAQ Publishing
• Once click publish
capability
• Publish to 1000’s of
locations at once

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FAQs Help Optimize for Voice Search
FAQ
MANAGER
Your central
repository of FAQs
FAQs on your
site’s landing pages
Intent recognition
Natural Language Processing
Unanswered Questions
Website Voice
Local/GMB Chatbot

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Measure Your FAQ Performance
Demonstrate the effectiveness
of your FAQ strategy through
reports around:
• FAQ powered search traffic
• Rich results visibility
• Featured snippets visibility
• Voice search queries
• Answer/response rate
* Probable voice search queries reported in Google’s Console

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A Quick Summary of How Milestone FAQ Manager Works
Crowdsourcing
Voice App
Website (any
CMS) & mobile
Create FAQs
OR
Crowdsource & Curate FAQs
Research, organize
and answer FAQs Local Channels
+
Auto suggestions
Chat bot
Google Assistant
Unanswered
Questions
Curation Engine Publishing Engine
FAQ Manager
Bulk
Upload Reports
One line of code added to your tag manager powers the solution

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FAQs With Schema: Technology Company Success Story
0 100000 200000 300000 400000 500000 600000
Clicks 2020
Clicks 2021
0 4000000 8000000 12000000
Impression 2020
Impression 2021
151% Increase in Clicks 361% Increase in Impressions
Data for last 3 months of 2020 and 2021

29. Tips and Tricks
To Help You Get Your
FAQ and Voice Strategy Right

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10 Tips To Get Voice Search Ready
1. Be mobile-first
2. Focus on page speed & experience
3. Go HTTPS
4. Create local listings
5. Research questions that people ask for
6. Keep your content conversational
7. Build strong FAQ pages
8. Use structured data
9. Implement speakable schema markup*
10. Monitor on Google Search Console
* Only accessible to news publishers

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7 Common Mistakes To Avoid
1. Answer inconsistency
2. Ignoring user questions on local business Q&A channels
3. Disorganized page structure
(headings, bullets, image alts, hyperlinks etc.)
4. Not using structured data
5. Poor speed and experience
6. Bad mobile usability and responsiveness
7. Lack of internal linking

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10 Tips for Getting Your FAQ Strategy Right
1. Do question research
2. Invest in the trust value of answering questions
3. Look for brand questions on social and local channels
4. Answer questions about your brand, products and services
5. Share knowledge and build thought leadership
6. Add FAQs to your landing pages
7. Internal linking from FAQs
8. Competitors’ rich results
9. Turn People Also Ask listings into featured snippets
10. Maximize visibility of page 1 listings

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5 Things To Keep in Mind While Answering
Questions
1. Be concise -- not too wordy yet informative
2. Think beyond sentences and paragraphs
(Images, Tables, Lists, Headings and Sub-headings, Links, etc.)
3. ‘How-to’ content
4. Think beyond your website
5. FAQs are a great way to earn trust
• Be empathetic
• Be conversational
• Be authoritative

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Sign Up for a 2021 FAQ Analysis
First 10 attendees* to
register will get a
complimentary FAQ
potential analysis. Select
SEO and Content.
* Available to first 10 to respond, not available
to agencies, consultants, or individuals
https://www.milestoneinternet.com/resources/request-audit

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Engage 2021 Transform, Grow & Enhance for Digital Breakthrough
Free and virtual August 17 and 18, registration information coming very soon by email and on site

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QUESTIONS

37. +1 408-200-2211
MilestoneInternet.com
Silicon Valley | Bangalore | Ahmedabad
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