People Also Ask (PAA) is a Google search feature that shows a list of questions related to the user’s original query.
It provides users with additional information by showing related questions and their answers directly in the search results, making the search experience more relevant and helpful.
Clicking a question in the PAA box expands the drop-down and shows the answer. It also shows where the answer was sourced from, so you can click through to the webpage to read more.
That’s why SEOs and website owners want to rank in the “People Also Ask” section.
It allows you to rank for keywords you otherwise wouldn’t have and drive more organic traffic to your site.
What Will I Learn?
The “People Also Ask” feature is important because it offers valuable insights into user interests and searches.
Let me explain:
This information is great for keyword research and helping you improve your content. It also tells you what specific questions people are asking related to a particular keyword.
That means you can add those questions to your content outline and even generate a relevant FAQ section.
Think of “People Also Ask” like a treasure chest for refining content strategy and improving user experience.
But that’s only one side of it…
The PAA section is also important to the user. It provides quick answers to common questions that users might have.
This allows them to quickly get more information and a deeper understanding of a topic.
The answers in “People Also Ask” come from relevant websites and are presented as snippets in the search results.
Google’s algorithms determine the answers in the PAA selection based on:
Put Simply – The content that best answers the question has a higher chance of being featured in the PAA section.
These are the 4 steps to optimise for the “People Also Ask” section:
Identify common questions related to your niche.
Use tools like Ahrefs Related Questions to find questions that people are searching for related to your target keyword.
You can feature these within your main content or as a FAQ section at the end.
Use key questions as part of your content structure.
Including questions as headings in your content and answering them directly is a great way to get featured in “People Also Ask”.
It also enhances the quality of your content and allows you to cover a topic comprehensively.
Provide clear, direct answers in your content’s opening paragraphs.
Google will mostly pull answers from the beginning of a paragraph, so you should place your answer there.
Bonus Tip: Google the questions to see what’s being featured as a snippet.
If you see a short paragraph, then write a short paragraph. If you see bullet points, write a list of bullet points.
That way your answers to the people also ask questions are always formatted how Google wants them.
Here’s what I mean:
If the heading is – “What Is SEO?”
The start of your paragraph should begin with – SEO is…
That makes it easier for Google to understand your answer and increases the chances of being featured in the “People Also Ask” section.
Implementing schema markup can help Google understand the structure of your content.
This makes it much easier to get featured in “People Also Ask”.
Think of schema markup as a way of giving Google more context and information about your content.
Check out our complete FAQ Schema tutorial to learn more.
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