Google’s People Also Ask, a hidden gem of SEO insight
First appearing in 2015, Google’s People Also Ask box has become a familiar feature on search results pages, so much so that it has also been taken up by Bing. It is essentially a box of common questions related to the user’s search query, bringing up quick answers from various sources. While originally created to improve people’s search experience, this feature has strong utility for SEO strategies as well, both because it provides a visibility opportunity for those who succeed in ranking their content and because it offers valuable insights for refining our content strategy, increasing our visibility and attracting qualified traffic.
What is Google’s People Also Ask
The People Also Ask (often known with the acronym PAA) feature on Google is a segment of the SERP that contains a series of questions related to the user’s query, each of which expands to provide a concise and relevant answer.
These are dynamic FAQs that expand to show concise answers, extracted (at least in intention and promise) from quality content, aiming to provide immediate and relevant information, enhancing the user experience when searching.
The mechanism behind the process isGoogle’s algorithm, which selects questions and their answers by evaluating several factors such as relevance, authority, and informational value of the content. Understanding this works allows us to optimize our content to intercept these user micro-motivations and increase user engagement.
People have also asked, how the feature works.
PAA is one of the many features in Google SERPs that are added to the classic blue links. When a user enters a query in the search bar, the algorithm not only returns traditional organic results, in fact, but very frequently also generates a list of queries that other users have asked related to the initial query.
The “People Also Ask” box appears in various locations among the search results, containing a series of related questions, each with a preview of the answer. The questions – carefully selected for relevance and frequency – can be expanded to display additional information, including complete answers and links back to the web pages from which Google extracted the information.
The answers within the PAA boxes are extracted from web pages that Google deems authoritative and relevant: Google’s algorithm analyzes the context of the phrases in the selected pages, looking for concise and direct answers.
When a user clicks on one of the questions in the PAA box, it precisely expands showing the full answer and related links. In addition, the expansion of a question often leads to the addition of additional related questions below, creating a cascading effect that further enriches the browsing experience. PAA boxes are dynamic and continually update based on new questions posed by users and new content on the web, ensuring that the answers provided are always relevant and up-to-date.
As technology has advanced, Google has continuously refined its algorithms to improve the relevance and accuracy of the answers displayed in PAA boxes. In particular, the use of artificial intelligence and algorithms such as BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) allows for a better understanding of the context of user queries, further refining answer selection.
The features of People Also Ask
According to some international studies, cited for example in an in-depth study by Search Engine Land, the feature appears on average in 49 percent of all searches, about four times more frequently than featured snippets, which instead appear in just over 12 percent of SERPs.
As mentioned, the location of the box is variable: often it is in the middle of the page (after three organic results), but in other cases it appears in a prominent position (just below position 1), and more rarely at the bottom of the page. The number of questions also varies: usually, the PAA box includes three or four questions related to the topic of the user’s query that can then be clicked and expanded.
Google may bring up the PAA box for all kinds of search intent, although then in practice the questions frequently lead back to informational or commercial interests. When a user clicks on a question in the box, a short answer appears to him or her along with a link to the Web page hosting the content. Usually the answers are provided in text form, but video tests have been noted in the box People have also asked.
Also, in addition to revealing an answer, clicking on a question will dynamically generate other questions related to the one the user clicked on, and there appears to be no limit to the number of times a user can click on a question and generate multiple PAA questions.
The use of the PAA feature significantly improves the user experience, as it provides immediate answers to common questions and satisfies users’ curiosity without requiring them to navigate away from the Google results page.
Which sites are featured in People Also Ask? The study from the United States
We said that, at least in intention, PAA should provide answers from reliable sites. Indeed, a recent study by NewzDash, cited by Search Engine Roundtable, reveals the dominance of Wikipedia as an answer source in Google’s People Also Ask feature in English and U.S. localization.
To be precise, analyzing an entire month of searches, expert John Shehata found that Wikipedia provided 16 percent of the answers found in PAAs. In addition to the site of the most famous online encyclopedia we find other sources such as NASA.gov, accounting for 2 percent of the responses, followed by Britannica with 1.7 percent, and YouTube with 1.6 percent. These data focus mainly on news sites, encompassing various areas such as sports, health, business, and entertainment.
This data underscores the enduring importance of Wikipedia as a primary information resource for Google, albeit with variations from other sources.
It also confirms that the PAA module is highly interactive and engaging for the user: each time a question is clicked, two more related questions are added, thus increasing interaction and providing additional ranking opportunities for content.
For SEO professionals, this study provides several crucial insights:
- Importance of Authoritativeness and Quality of Content. Wikipedia dominates in PAAs due to its recognized authority and abundant amount of accurate and detailed data. This highlights the importance of creating informative, authoritative and easily understood content to improve the chances of appearing in AAPs.
- Focus on News and Sector Specific Content. To increase presence in PAA boxes, it is useful to focus on content related to news and specific industries that are among the most represented in SERPs, such as health, sports, and business.
- Interactivity and Content Update. The interactive nature of the PAA module requires that content be updated and optimized to accurately answer user questions. Algorithms prefer concise but complete answers, making it crucial to constantly update and refine the information provided.
Google’s People Also Ask and SEO: an opportunity for visibility
Through the People Also Ask feature, Google not only offers immediate and relevant answers, but also provides marketers with significant visibility and traffic opportunities for their websites.
For this reason, People Also Ask can really become a powerful tool for digital marketers and SEO specialists, who can find in this box a significant opportunity to increase their site visibility and organic search performance.
Even in more practical terms, the PAA box can become more simply a resource for finding new topic and keyword ideas for content creation and more.
A real hidden gem, as this other Search Engine Watch article said, revealing that only 13 percent of the sites that enter the box are ranked in the top three in the classic ranking for the query, while 74 percent are not even on the first page of the SERP!
This means that the PAA feature opens up traffic and visibility opportunities for sites that fail to increase their organic rankings in the traditional way, and instead may have an opportunity to appear on the first page of search results.
Know the feature to gain visibility
In order to take advantage of this opportunity, however, one must first understand the inherent characteristics of PAA and also know its (continuous) evolution: since its introduction, the box has in fact been updated several times to provide users with more accurate answers and questions to answers they may actually not even have (yet) thought of.
For example, since 2017 Google’s PAA box has gotten dynamic loading, which grows the number of questions shown to the user beyond the initial three or four, adding related topics to those the user first clicked on. This system allows users to explore search results in an alternative way, clicking on multiple questions to find the information they are looking for instead of clicking on traditional results and then flipping through the page.
In addition, as the interaction continues, the box extends and moves the organic results further and further down the page, to almost hidden positions.
External factors for optimizing content for the People Also Ask box.
The steps to get a piece of content to appear in the People Also Ask box must therefore begin with trying to meet some of the key requirements that can be identified, the pattern of content factors behind Google’s choice of sites to show.
The criteria used to determine what content might be shown as an answer in a PAA box are part of search engine algorithms, so we don’t know exactly what it takes beyond the patterns that SEOs have identified.
But some common traits-when analyzing the English-language feature for Google USA-were nonetheless highlighted, between elements that are directly managed by the site and others that are external, so to speak, centered on the keyword that generates the box.
- Query length
Usually PAA boxes are triggered by longer keywords or complex search queries, and there seems to be a clear correlation between the length of a query and a PAA; in particular, a 10-word query triggers a PAA 72 percent of the time, while search results for a two-word query show a PAA only 28 percent of the time.
- Query type
Direct questions or question-type queries tend to produce SERPs with a PAA box: queries that begin with “what,” “why,” “when,” “where,” and “who” activate a PAA in 86 percent of cases.
Internal factors, the characteristics of the content that make it appear in PAAs
Instead, there are three internal content factors identified by the analysis, as 79 percent of PAA boxes are filled with paragraphs from site content, followed by lists (13.8 percent) and tables (4.3 percent).
- Paragraph length
The average number of words within a paragraph submitted in PAA is 41 words, so brevity is a valuable asset when creating content for a site.
- List length
When lists appear, they do not exceed 8 elements, while the minimum length is only two elements.
- Table length
A standard PAA box has room for 14 rows and three columns, although there are tables that showed only one column and two rows. Since they are less frequent, there is not enough data to give precise guidance on this element.
How to optimize content to intercept a PAA box
In reality, the work of optimizing a site’s content for the People Also Asked box comes down to a few key steps that should be basic to editorial strategy; specifically, one must:
- Do a review of existing SERP features, checking whether target keywords currently trigger any PAAs.
- Uncover missing opportunities by exploring whether one’s own site or that of competitors ranks for keywords that generate a PAA box within the SERP, but do not appear in the PAA box.
- Find ideas for PAA-worthy content by integrating keywords within the PAA box into the strategy and using the PAA block as a gold mine for content ideas.
- Ensure that your content is optimized for SEO.
- Specifically, it might also be helpful to write in the form of full Q&As, using simple language, avoiding a blatantly promotional tone, and adding Q&A schema markups.
The SEO benefits of the People Also Ask box.
The People Also Asked box can really become a decisive element in achieving greater results in terms of traffic, but also brand awareness.
When users click on questions, they are exposed to brands identified as “information providers” and may click on the answers to learn more, and thus these brands have an opportunity for visibility in a crucial section of the results page.
Moreover, unlike featured snippets that were deduplicated a few years ago, it is possible for the same URL to appear both as a traditional organic result on the first page of Google and in the PAA box. The opposite is also possible, that is, web pages that do not rank on the first page of SERPs are included in the PAA box, and this means an opportunity for less strong sites to gain highly competitive space and visibility on the first page.
As mentioned, then, discovering the PAA boxes and the questions/answers generated for one’s industry can become a method for improving content strategy or overhauling existing content: this is both to try to appear within the box, but also (and more importantly) to understand what the true search intent highlighted by the questions is and what users might have been thinking about when they typed in those particular search terms.
To discover and monitor the performance of any PAA listings, one can use the Google Search Console, but it provides data on impressions and incoming clicks only when the PAA box is expanded to display one’s response. In addition, all links within a single PAA element have the same position in SERP according to the tool: that is, if the PAA box appears in position two, one’s response form within the PAA box will be reported in GSC as position two, regardless of whether the response appeared as one of the originals or is the twentieth dynamically generated by the user.
Why working from an SEO perspective on the box People also ask.
And so, Google’s PAA feature offers a number of significant benefits for SEO practitioners, and there are some key reasons to integrate query analysis within our SEO strategy.
- They are present in so many SERPs
The People Also Ask box appears on a wide range of search results pages for numerous queries. Its ubiquity means that there is a great opportunity to reach a wide audience, covering various industries and search types.
- They can also be found at the top of SERPs.
The PAA box is often placed very high in search results, sometimes just below paid ads and among the top organic results. This prominent position provides immediate, high-value visibility, increasing the likelihood that users will interact with the answers and visit our site.
- It costs nothing in terms of additional effort
Integrating strategies to optimize content for PAA does not require significant separate effort from regular SEO optimization. It involves clearly and completely answering the most common questions related to our industry or topic. This type of optimization does not incur additional costs in terms of resources, it just requires more attention to content creation.
- They make our content better
Optimizing for PAA incentivizes the production of high-quality, detailed and useful content. Because PAA boxes are powered by concise but comprehensive answers, we clarify and simplify the complexities of the topics covered, making our content more accessible and useful to users. Content that is well optimized for PAA is generally content that effectively answers user questions, which is rewarded not only by PAA boxes, but also by Google’s algorithms in general.
- They expand ranking possibilities
Appearing in PAA boxes provides an additional ranking opportunity beyond traditional SEO. Being present in these boxes increases the chances of occupying multiple positions within the same search results page, extending our visibility and improving the likelihood of users clicking. In addition, PAA boxes generate additional click-throughs via related queries, further amplifying our reach.
- They allow us to predict (and anticipate) new searches
Optimizing for PAAs requires careful attention to the questions users might ask in a given context. This forecasting exercise allows us to anticipate new trends and emerging searches, adapting our content to respond to these new needs in a timely manner. Monitoring the questions that emerge in PAA boxes can provide us with valuable insights into the evolving needs of our target audience.
SEOZoom’s tools for query research.
Our software has long since integrated useful information gleaned from the Google feature within several tools.
The main reference is undoubtedly Question Explorer, which focuses precisely on analyzing the queries shown in Google SERPs: this feature helps identify all the keywords that Google’s algorithms consider relevant to meet users’ search needs, enabling the creation of targeted and optimized content. Question Explorer is designed to reveal exactly when and in which queries Google shows certain questions and quickly shows us what information needs users have and what questions they ask most frequently.
Once the scan is launched, Question Explorer displays a complete list of keywords related to the entered query, which includes the queries that trigger the “People Also Ask” box in Google’s SERP, along with a range of detailed information about the entire set of keywords and individual keywords. This information includes the total number of keywords related to the query, the overall volume of searches generated by these keywords, and the average Keyword Difficulty, Keyword Opportunity, and average CPC values, which provide an overview of the cluster’s level of competition.
Each query refers to a specific need, and the keywords that make up the query cluster represent the search path users take to satisfy their needs. Different questions may generate different answers and pertain to different intents, requiring specific answers and content. With Question Explorer, we can find out exactly what our users are looking for when they need to solve a real problem, so that we can structure useful and specific content with a higher chance of ranking in Google SERPs.
Even more specific is Google FAQ, which allows us to display all user questions regarding the content covered by the projected website listing all the questions that appear in the “People also ask” box of the SERPs in correlation with each keyword for which the site is ranked in the top ten results. This feature is extremely useful in understanding whether the content of the site actually meets the needs of users searching on Google and also allows us to optimize pages and improve the overall quality of the content to make it more useful and relevant to users. Google FAQ then helps us discover common issues that search engine users are looking to solve, providing an excellent opportunity to structure articles and content to fully meet their needs.
For broader research, again, we can use the Survey Industry tool, which takes us to analyze a target niche: in the “questions” tab, in particular, we can view users’ frequently asked questions with respect to the selected niche, with an indication of the impressions generated by each question.
How to leverage People Also Ask for SEO: tips and best practices
Optimizing content to appear in Google’s People Also Ask section is an effective strategy for improving online visibility and increasing organic traffic. This section of the SERP offers quick answers to questions related to the user’s query, and is an increasingly relevant area for SEO practitioners to consider.
By summarizing the advice given so far, we can have a detailed guide on how to make the most of this feature for our strategies.
- Analyze what the questions are
The first key step is to understand what queries are being asked by target users. Our support is, of course, SEOZoom, which helps us identify the most frequent queries and related questions typed by users, thus finding out what are the main relevant needs for our target audience and what areas of our site could be optimized to answer these questions.
- Doing an editorial assessment
Once the questions have been collected, it is crucial to make an editorial assessment by asking key questions such as:
- Can the questions become a comprehensive resource? Some questions may merit a dedicated page or blog article to fully answer them.
- Can the questions be integrated into an existing resource? In many cases, new sections or paragraphs can be added to existing pages to answer users’ questions.
- Can category pages be enhanced with FAQ text? Placing an FAQ section on category pages can not only answer users’ questions, but also improve SEO ranking.
- Can product sheets be enriched with text with FAQs? Adding FAQs to product sheets can increase the relevance and completeness of information, improving user experience and search engine rankings.
- Enrich pages
Optimizing pages for PAA does not require mandatory inclusion of exact-match questions (especially if they are not worded correctly in Italian): it is more important that the answers are short, in focus, and use natural, consistent language. Lists are always useful, but we must choose the most functional and clear format for users. The question-and-answer format is particularly effective for making content easily extracted by Google’s algorithms. Writing clear and comprehensive headings and subheadings helps make the content easily understandable. In addition, careful attention to spelling and grammatical errors is crucial to maintaining the reliability and quality of the text.
- Reinforce content with different formats
To increase the chances that responses will be extracted from our content, we can use various response formats such as paragraphs, bulleted lists, tables, and videos. Each format offers a different way of presenting information and may be better suited to answer specific questions. The goal is to ensure that answers are relevant to multiple questions, offering quick and accurate solutions to users.
- Anticipating new needs
The more useful and comprehensive our content is, the more likely we are to be the “answer” to new questions that Google will identify for users. We must not just follow our competitors: proactive analysis and content optimization will allow us to anticipate and respond to new search needs. In other words, we must focus on creating original and valuable content that readily responds to emerging queries.
- Thinking in terms of problem research
Keyword research must be reworked in terms of problem research: the goal is (no longer) just finding keywords, but rather identifying problems that our website can solve. For each search intent, we need to understand the main problem and the relevant topics that describe the answers to the problem. This approach allows us to create content focused on real user needs, offering precise solutions and increasing user engagement.
