Why Frequently Unasked Questions (FUQs) Matter

Why Frequently Unasked Questions (FUQs) Matter: Garrett French on the Future of Content & Visibility

Why should we care about why Frequently Unasked Questions (FUQs) matter? In this excerpt from his talk at World IA Day, Garrett French—Founder of Citation Labs and co-author of The Ultimate Guide to Link Building—dives into the powerful role that FUQs (Frequently Unasked Questions) play in content strategy, user experience, and AI discoverability.

Summary
Frequently Unasked Questions (FUQs) are the blind spots—those crucial bits of information your audience doesn't even know they need to ask. In this clip, Garrett explains why proactively uncovering and answering FUQs positions you as a true ally during a user’s decision-making journey. He argues that addressing FUQs not only improves the usefulness of your content for humans but also increases your visibility in LLMs (Large Language Models) like ChatGPT, which are actively seeking unique, net-new content.

Explainer
This segment makes the case for investing in FUQs:

Preventable Setbacks: Answering FUQs helps users avoid missteps they didn’t know were possible.

Prelection: Garrett introduces the term to describe the joy of gaining a time-saving insight—often born from a well-answered FUQ.

Visibility in LLMs: Because FUQs are rarely addressed online, they represent original, high-value information that LLMs are more likely to cite and surface.

Strategic Impact: Anticipating FUQs and integrating answers into your site architecture is a key move for marketers, content strategists, and information architects.

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Full Transcript (Formatted) of Garrett French, Founder of Citation Labs:
So—why should we care? Why should we do this?
Why should we answer these questions? And I feel like… why should we discover or predict and then answer these questions?

Not even “Why should we answer them?”—we don’t even know what they are yet!
So we'll get there, but that’s where we're going now.

This is where we really do enter into the theory space—or the mission space—of this talk.
Proactively answering their Frequently Unasked Questions—finding and answering FUQs—makes you an ally during their transition. As they try to solve a problem or achieve a goal, you're there guiding them forward.

This is Garrett ideation here, but the idea of preventable setback prevention—saving people the pain and anguish that could've been avoided if they'd just asked the right question?
That’s huge. Like: “Oh, the batteries weren’t included.” Good to know—wish I had asked.

I like making up phrases, so here’s a new one: Prelection.
It’s like the dopamine thrill of solving a puzzle—like getting Wordle in two guesses.
I feel that thrill when someone gives me an idea that saves me time. That’s what a good FUQ can do.

And—they’re going to be citable in LLMs.
Why? Because by nature, Frequently Unasked Questions aren’t said out loud. They’re not asked directly. They're not known to be asked. So this is net-new information.

We're entering an era where everything’s been said.
This vast ocean of knowledge—ChatGPT grabs it, structures it, presents it. It’s amazing.

But there are still things missing.
And that’s where we come in. That’s our job now.

As a marketer, I see it as our duty to understand what people don’t know to ask.
Doing so helps your audience—and also helps you become more visible in LLMs…
As long as you’re studying and doing statistically significant research.

Listen to more Citation Labs Podcast episodes for more on information architecture, SEO strategy, and user-centered content design.