Own content types for Tutorials and FAQs
I want to follow up on this idea regarding Google Rich Results for FAQs and How-Tos from a few years back and add new feature ideas because:
- I believe it is still relevant → and even moreso based on the direction Google is taking its search results page
- inSided / Gainsight are focussing their product vision to position the platform as a 360 degree customer hub with more and more content types
Customer education content (i.e. self-service content) typically comes in the type of a tutorial (how-to) or an FAQ. Both of these types differ from a classic article, both in structure and in content.
An article usually is a continuous text separated by paragraphs and sub-headlines.
A tutorial / How-To usually is a step-by-step instruction about how to use a product or a function.
An FAQ usually consists of several questions and their answers regarding a product or a function.
I therefore propose to create separate content types for:
- Tutorials / How-Tos → Add steps (title, body, image) within one piece of content to complete an instruction
- FAQs → add questions and answers within one piece of content
I furthermore propose to enrich both of these new content types with the Google Rich Results enhancements:
Having these new content types and enhancements will give inSided customers the opportunity to:
- create well-structured customer education content → for better self-service
- be highly visible on Google → because Google is pushing very hard towards moving away from the classic search results page towards integrated rich results (content widgets)