Edit the page when the page is wrong or missing the fact, because your visitors read it too and the page is where the truth should live. Add a Q&A pair when the page is already right but the bot can't reach the answer: customers ask in different words, the fact sits somewhere the crawler can't read, or it's a one-line answer buried in a long page. That rule settles most cases in a few seconds.
Our guide to building an FAQ that doubles as chatbot training data covers writing a full FAQ. This post is the smaller daily decision: a bot gave a weak answer, and you have to choose where to fix it.
How a Q&A pair is used
In SpideyChat, each Q&A pair is stored as a single passage, "Q: your question / A: your answer", and searched in the same pool as your crawled pages, uploaded files and pasted text. When a visitor asks something, the five closest passages are used to answer.
Two consequences shape every decision below:
- A pair has no special priority. It wins only by being the closest match. That's often the case, because a short passage about one question matches that question very closely, while a page passage covers several topics at once.
- A pair doesn't replace anything. If a page says something different, both versions stay in the pool.
The decision rule
Ask two questions, in order.
1. Is the page wrong, out of date or missing this fact? If yes, edit the page. Then re-crawl, or edit the entry under Manage knowledge if you're on the Free plan, where the crawler runs once as a setup. A visitor who reads your site and a visitor who asks the bot should get the same answer, and only fixing the page does that.
2. Is the page right, but the bot still answers badly? Then a Q&A pair is the right tool. The usual reasons:
- Customers use different words. Your page says "visit fee"; they ask about the "call-out charge".
- The fact sits where the crawler can't read it: the footer, an image, a booking widget or text that loads with JavaScript.
- The answer is one line inside a long page about something else.
- The question needs a deliberate "no", such as "Do you repair commercial boilers?" when your site simply never mentions them.
- The answer is useful in chat but would clutter a page, such as "Can I bring my dog to the showroom?"
Examples
| Situation | Choice | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Returns page says 14 days, policy changed to 30 | Edit the page | The page is wrong; a pair would leave the old figure in play |
| Visitors ask "do you do weekends?" and the hours are only in the footer | Add a pair | The crawler leaves out footers; the fact is right but unreachable |
| A new service isn't on the site at all | Edit the page | Customers need a page to read, not just a chat answer |
| People ask "what's the call-out charge?" and your page says "visit fee" | Add a pair | Same fact, different words |
| "Do you sell gift cards?" and you don't | Add a pair | A clear "no" with an alternative beats "I don't have that information" |
| Prices that change every season | Edit the page | One home for volatile figures; pairs would multiply them |
Never use a pair to correct a page
The tempting shortcut after a wrong answer is to add a pair with the right fact and move on. If the page still holds the wrong fact, you now have two passages that disagree, and the visitor's wording decides which one wins. Correct or remove the wrong source first. A pair is a way to add reach to a correct answer, not a patch over an incorrect one.
The same applies to uploaded documents. If an old PDF says 14 days, delete that file's source under Manage knowledge and upload the current version.
Keeping pairs short and useful
A focused pair matches better and goes stale more slowly.
- One question per pair. "Do you deliver, and how much is it?" is two pairs.
- Answer first. Open with "Yes", "No" or the figure, then the detail.
- Include the condition. "Yes, free on orders over £50 to mainland UK" is better than "Yes, delivery is free".
- Write the question the way customers do. Use the words from your conversation logs, not your internal terms. Our post on writing Q&A pairs that sound like you has before-and-after examples.
- Keep it to one to three sentences. Long processes belong on a page.
- Avoid numbers that change often, or keep them in one pair only, so there's one thing to update.
Where to add them
SpideyChat gives you four ways in, and they all feed the same pool:
- Add a Q&A in the knowledge tools on your chatbot's page, for a single pair.
- The FAQ section further down the same page, where you can add, edit and delete pairs, or use Bulk import to paste a whole FAQ. It accepts questions ending in "?" with the answer on the next line, "Q:" and "A:" labels, numbered questions, or two columns copied from a spreadsheet.
- A CSV upload with
questionandanswercolumns, which is imported as Q&A pairs. - Answer gaps in the dashboard: click "Answer this" on a question the bot handled badly, write the answer, and it's saved as an FAQ.
If you're starting from nothing, our free AI FAQ generator drafts questions and answers you can edit before importing.
Review pairs when pages change
Re-crawling refreshes your pages but never touches Q&A pairs or FAQ entries. When you change a policy or a price on the site, open the FAQ section and read down the list for the old fact. A pair written last year is the most likely place for an old answer to survive.
To see which of your questions a chatbot already handles from your pages alone, try SpideyChat with your website address. Whatever it can't answer well is your first list of Q&A pairs, and anything it gets wrong points to a page that needs editing.