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Too often, we take the easy path to creating FAQs (Frequently-Asked Questions).

The team sits in a conference room and brainstorms the questions they’ve heard (or think they’d receive) about the product, service or site. The writer crafts the questions, creates company-friendly answers and runs them past the team for accuracy.

The project manager marks the task as completed, and the team moves on.

As Jakob Nielson pointed out (way back in 2002), there’s a major flaw with this approach:

Too many websites have FAQs that list questions the company wished users would ask. No good. … Infrequently asked questions undermine users’ trust in the website and damage their understanding of its navigation.

Are your FAQs responsive, relevant and real? Or do they create more frustrations than they solve?

Earlier this week, A List Apart published a must-read post on creating and maintaining FAQs. Among the recommendations:

• Ensure the FAQ isn’t merely a way to avoid your larger content issues.
• Make the FAQ concise, simple and usable.
• Base the FAQ on actual customer feedback from multiple touchpoints (inquiries, support requests, etc.).

Like all of your content, FAQs shouldn’t be a one-time effort that’s forgotten until the next time you redesign. They require ongoing review, care and maintenance as customer needs – and questions – evolve.