Everything You Need to Know About Google’s People Also Ask

Sometimes, the increasing variations in Google search engine result pages (SERPs) feel frightening for SEO executives as well as business people. But this too brings along some benefits with it.

The silver lining is that with all these varieties in the SERPs, plenty of ways have also emerged of getting exposure apart from search. Now the eventual goal of SEO might not be acquiring the #1 position in the SERPs.

Getting featured as an answer to the PAA (People Also Ask) questions is an excellent chance to get ahead of your competitors and grab the attention of your target audiences.

In this blog, we will discuss all about Google’s emerging trend People Also Ask and ways in which you can research and optimize for PAA in order to boost your site visibility.

What is the People Also Ask (PAA)?

People Also Ask appears in the form of boxes in the Google SERPs. They are a dynamic feature and contain a series of questions relevant to the initial search query a user performed. Most probably, you have encountered them often when browsing Google.

Once a user clicks on any of those questions, the box extends and shows a text fragment containing a concise answer to the question. It also displays the URL of the source of the text and an alternative link, as “Search For,” to conduct another Google search for the same question directly. The PAA box usually comprises a series of four questions, but every time a user clicks on any of these questions, two or more additional questions are incorporated in the box. Thus, the People Also Ask boxes are continually growing, with new questions being added to it boundlessly.

Let’s discuss why you need to make these questions a crucial part of your SEO strategy.

Why is the People Also Ask (PAA) Essential?

Back in 2015, when Google first tested out People Also Ask (PAA), they noticed that the number of SERPs has skyrocketed with these questions, and ever since, it hasn’t stopped increasing. However, the majority of that increase has taken place in the past few years, converting PAA into a priceless business opportunity for websites to boost their visibility in the Google search results and step up their game.

Researching PAA Questions for Your Targeted Set of Keywords

If you think that targeting PAA questions will be beneficial for your business as per your niche or the industry you operate in, the first thing you need to do is find out the questions that are appearing in the search results that you are also focusing on currently.

To do this, you will have to do a little spreadsheet work, but nothing very challenging.

All you need to do is take out the top ranking sites in the search results for all the keywords you are targeting and also extract the PAA questions. You can use any online tool or software to help you do this faster.

Once you have prepared the list of all the People Also Ask questions appearing in the search results for all the keywords you are targeting, all you have to do is ensure that the content you are creating actively addresses these questions and is also optimized for the People Also Ask boxes.

Optimizing Your Content for People Also Ask

Since Google produces these People Also Ask questions with the help of its algorithm, there is no definite way to get featured as an answer to these PAA questions in the search results.

However, that doesn’t mean that there is nothing we can do to make sure the search engine considers us for PAA. There are a few tips and tricks that can help us become an ideal choice for the PAAs. Let’s take a look at them.

• Write short and crisp but complete questions and answers
• Use non-salesy and straightforward language in your content
• Keep in mind the questions you discovered during your research while writing your content

Basically, when it comes to optimizing for PAA, it all comes down to three main steps:

• Make sure to research a topic thoroughly before you start writing about it. Your content must be providing answers to all the questions that the users might have in mind regarding your topic. There are many tools for keyword research that will further help simplify this process.
• When creating your content, try to use an informal Q&A writing style and answer the questions in a concise and easy to digest manner.
• Lastly, once you have published your content, try to keep it as current as possible. Research new questions that you think you should be including in your content or try to optimize your original content according to the sites that are presently occupying the PAA boxes. Go back and update your content frequently to stay relevant.

In many cases, people have observed that there is a connection between the PAA boxes or the Answer boxes, i.e., the Featured Snippets appearing on the top of the search results. If you notice in several cases, the text snippet appearing in the PAA boxes is the same as the one featured in the Answer boxes for related search queries.

In this case, we think it is safe to presume that the rules that apply to the Answers boxes also go with the PAA boxes.

However, you should not stress too much on optimizing for PAA directly. There are no official guidelines for getting featured there, and a lot of SEO experts believe that it is something that just happens at times when your content ranks highly for a question that is related to another search query. Being featured in the People Also Ask box should not be in your top priority because trying to influence an area that Google’s algorithm generates on its own is not sustainable.

So you shouldn’t worry much about it. However, if you pay attention to what content Google is displaying in this section, and then implement it in your content as well, it can be very profitable for your rankings and visibility.

Tracking Your PAA rankings

There are numerous effective free as well as paid online tools available in the market that you can utilize to monitor your Google’s People Also Ask rankings. These platforms will help you see how far your efforts have taken you. If you don’t see yourself there, don’t be disheartened. Instead, go through the content that is being featured as answers in the PAA boxes and analyze the key points that they are including, but you are not. The key to your success lies in your research, and tracking your PAA rankings will help you find your way there.

Conclusion

This was all about Google’s PAA and why it has become so popular as well as important in the SEO world. Keep these few tips in mind that we have mentioned in this blog while creating your content. Be sure to update your content, often with new Q&As that you think should be a part of your content. Research your topics well and observe the content your competitors are sharing. Last but not least, track your PAA rankings using any third-party software to see your progress and make the necessary changes. We hope this guide helps!