Wondering how to rank in People Also Ask? Well, you can start by giving helpful answers to the additional queries people also search for. But the discourse doesn’t end here, and it isn’t as simple as it seems.
In this blog, we’ll talk all about the PAA search feature, how it improves the search experience, and the goldmine of ranking opportunities it offers to users. So, let’s start from the top!
What is the People Also Ask box?
While surfing Google, you may have come across Google’s People Also Ask related questions in the middle or at the bottom of the search results. And more often than not, they give you the ideas about what more could be asked about the stuff you’re looking for. In other words, Google’s People Also Ask presents you with additional search queries related to your original query. Indeed, helpful, they are!
For instance, if you type in best lip gloss in the Google search bar, then scroll down to your results, in PAA, you’ll find supplementary questions to look into. For instance, the OG lip gloss query leads you to analyzing options in color, brand, what’s the most bought product in your country, and it goes as far as checking out what lip gloss famous people wear all the time. Interesting, isn’t it!
Lately, we have also started to see AI Overviews in some of the PAA tabs as well, which didn’t used to occur before. In addition, every click on one of the PAA tabs adds more relevant questions to the entire section. And with every PAA entry, the answered text is linked to the source, depicting a clear mention.
As a matter of fact, the whole thing allows you to pay attention to the important details you may have been missing all this time, helping you to make a better purchase decision.
So now it’s established that PAA is a cornerstone in a user journey and helps form a better opinion about products and stuff, and helps you make an even better purchase decision, we’re moving to understand how to rank in People Also Ask. And how it is a massive optimization opportunity for sites and brands out there.
Why is “People Also Ask” SEO important?
It might sound a little strange, but your site doesn’t have to rank number one to appear in the PAA tab. Google’s algorithm works a little differently when it comes to citing your site in one of those additional questions. While scouring the millions of pages to feature an apt snippet, if it comes across a blurb of text that rightfully answers the PAA query, the algorithm component picks the excerpt up and ends up featuring it. And it doesn’t even matter if you’re ranking for the particular main keyword or not.
According to the Google search central document,
“Google systems determine whether a page would make a good featured snippet for a user’s search request, and if so, elevates it.”
In another source, it says,
“The featured snippets come from websites that Google finds. It picks them based on how well they answer your question and how helpful they are. If you give Google feedback, it can learn to find even better answers.”
Why Should Site Owners Care About Ranking in People Also Ask?
Apart from the concept of Google working differently to pick up feature snippets from your site, it also stands true that the same complex algorithms can pick up your page as a source for multiple answers. And in case that happens, this can be conducive to increasing your impressions, clicks, and average traffic to your site.
Now, if a certain brand optimizes its high-value product or service page for the PAA boxes, then the multiplied impressions and clicks can trickle down into increased conversions and eventually sales. And this is one of the many benefits of PAA optimization.
In addition, when it comes to SERP Feature occurrence, the Semrush sensor data shows that PAA pops up around 64.48% for a range of queries in the top 20 results. Means they do show up for a lot of queries around here.
On the other hand, from the user’s perspective, PAA broadens the search spectrum and nudges the searcher toward essential information by offering a range of related queries. In this process of diving deeper into the topic, the user can conveniently come across questions they might not have thought about during the initial search journey. This also gives them the porthole glimpse into the new brands and products they wouldn’t have shortlisted in the first place.
Benefits of PAA Optimization
Optimizing for PAA offers a range of benefits that can do absolutely wonders for your brand. For instance,
- PAA is an amazing ranking opportunity for all the brands out there, especially for those that are not ranking in the first ten results.
- Coveted space directs organic traffic to your site, without you spending a single dime on it.
- By studying the specific pattern of questions in the PAA tab, you can learn more about the user intent and buying psychology of your target audience, which, in fact, can help you go deeper than the surface-level queries and create better content around the more specific search terms.
- PAA optimization enhances your visibility and adds to your brand’s digital footprint.
- Showing up in PAA snippets further cements the credibility of brands and helps them outperform the ever-growing competition.
- And it goes without saying that these Q&A snippets do give you a major competitive advantage if your competitors are not showing up for most of the queries.
Moving on, let’s discuss how to rank in People Also Ask and related optimization strategies that can help your site land a spot in these coveted spaces.
How can your site rank in PAA results?
Despite the varying opinions, range of methodologies and tools, and complexities surrounding PAA optimization, it is rather simple to try and make an effort to secure a spot in those golden snippets.
You have to stick to a single rule, and that is to provide answers to people’s questions.
Look around, do some research, and figure out the questions that people want answered, in addition to knowing more about the said topic. Then, proceed to create helpful content around it on the existing or new pages and hope for the best.
Let’s break down this basic action plan into more detail now.
Make better content
As we know that PAA boxes let us know about what other things people are looking into, adding the same queries to our existing content enhances its depth and helpfulness, which provides more value to the users.
And of course, in order to have your content featured in the PAA snippet, you will have to create better content than what’s currently being featured in those spots.
It’s a smart move to analyze the answers PAA is showcasing and identify if there are any content gaps to be filled and any outdated information popping up.
If you catch any of such elements in those answers, then it’s your chance to fulfill those informational gaps. Moreover, think about all the ways you can give a better answer to that query; maybe there’s room to back it up with some essential data or the visual assets. If that’s the case, go ahead; this will only increase your chances of debuting your content into those PAA tabs.
Find new keywords to target
As a rule of thumb, to optimize for the PAA snippet, you need meticulously picked keywords to start. This, in return, requires thorough keyword research, competitor analysis, and the usage of some SEO tools as well.
Well, there are three ways you can actually do this,
Starting with a manual search on Google, you can scour the web for all the related PAAs for your main query. You can search and pick the additional People Also Ask SEO queries that you have not optimized in your content. Add them to the separate Excel sheets to craft an individual content strategy around. And Viola, you’re good to go!
When it comes to a more advanced technique, you can choose to use Also Asked. All you have to do is go to Also Asked, type in your main query, and the online generator will give the intricately intertwined network of PAA that are most searched and cited through its extensive database. Here’s an example:
In addition to it, commonly used SEO Ranking tools can also be helpful here. With Ahrefs, you can pull the ranking keywords for any page, and that also includes the keywords that trigger PAA boxes in the results. Check out this article in which Joshua Hardwick explains the step-by-step process to figure out the most frequently occurring PAA questions for your targeted page.
Pay special attention to the Branded Queries
If your goal is to appear for the branded PAA queries, you need to categorically pay extra attention to the snippet you’re optimizing. Because, as compared to the informational ones, transactional or branded queries can mean the user is somewhere near the bottom of the marketing funnel and maybe close to making a purchase decision.
Speaking of which, any inaccurate piece of information or outdated fact can make your audience abandon the purchase and look for something else over their original choice. So, you see, a small blurb of text does hold the power to help users pick and buy something or completely drop it.
Answer concisely
Brevity is the key when it comes to crafting the PAA answers that have the most potential to get featured. There’s no need to write long essays and add filler fluff; just to the point, abridged informational snippets can literally do wonders for your brand.
In case you’re still skeptical, here’s a Semrush study on ‘People Also Ask’ from 2020, which states that, “as with other types of rich results, brevity is key with paragraph results averaging only 41 words.”
It was interesting to come across this study while researching for this blog, because we matched it with multiple snippets featuring in PAAs, and the fact stands quite true. So, keep in mind, shorter the better.
Use questions in headers
It’s a common occurrence that most PAA queries start with “what, why, how, where, who,” etc.. These prefixes in search queries act as triggers to display PAA tabs in the search results.
Therefore, using question-based headings in your content can send signals to the Google algorithm that your content perfectly matches the popular search queries people mostly ask about a certain topic.
In addition, a smarter way to do this would be to use the right long-tail keywords. As they are the more specific search terms, they reflect the niche and focused search intent of the users. Using them rightfully in your content can significantly increase your chances of getting featured in PAAs.
Create FAQ schema
If your site is in the government or health industry, you can add the FAQ schema to Frequently Asked Questions pages to amp up the visibility of its content in SERPs.
In case you’re not aware of the schemas, they’re the HTML codes that leverage pre-defined labels to signal search engines about the contents of the page, specifically, what the page is about, and help algorithms to categorize and rank them accordingly.
FAQ rich results used to function for all sites in varying industries. But by 2023, Google decided to reduce its visibility to only established and authoritative government-focused or health-focused sites.
Use tools to scrape PAA questions
And there are multiple tools you can conveniently try when it comes to scraping PAA questions. These tools scour their humongous databases and collect helpful data points to garner the apt PAA queries that can help your brand grow. You can utilize these PAA lists to create robust content strategies and have a better idea about what keywords to incorporate.
Speaking of the PAA scraping tools, we have Also Asked that we discussed in the above section. Then we also have Answer The Public, which also functions in the same way. Like all you have to do is type in your focus keyword, and it will give plenty of related queries you can target.
And if you want to do more with these tools, you can try the Surfer’s Content Editor. Because this particular tool not only gives you a range of popular questions, but it also suggests appropriate titles, outlines, and more.
Match User Intent
It’s a no-brainer that your PAA-optimized content should reflect and match users’ search intent. And for that to work, one is supposed to determine the true purpose of every search query, informational, commercial, or navigational.
And remember, if you’re perplexed about the true nature of the queries and end up delivering the unwanted information to the users searching for something specific, then it can throw them off, and they might bounce back from your site. On the contrary, conveniently finding the right information can push them further down the marketing and sales funnel.
Pay attention to Images
While implementing the right PAA optimization tactics, don’t forget to optimize for images. And that’s because the visual assets hold immense value and often pop up in the coveted PAA tabs along with the key answers. Graphs, pie charts, and comparison tables; hence, all types of infographics should be optimized accordingly. Some of the optimizing tips involve,
- Using apt alt texts
- Keeping informative file names
- Applying appropriate captions
- Sandwiching the image with the descriptive texts.
Use numbered & non-numbered listicles
It’s a common occurrence to find listicles and roundups related to a range of topics in the PAA search snippets. They mostly get triggered for the specific keywords in your search queries, for instance, “Top 10 smartwatches”, or “Top restaurants in LA”, etc.
Therefore, it’s essential to include listicle-style content in your strategy for relevant search queries. Listicles are easy to skim, highly shareable, and deliver information in a clear, structured order that matches what users are looking for. In short, overlooking this format would mean missing out on a valuable opportunity to engage your audience effectively.
Observe & Analyze Competitors
Also, keep an eye on your competitors’ PAA appearances. Check out what exactly they’re doing differently that’s making the complex Google algorithms pick their answers over yours. A thorough comparative analysis can help you unravel new content ideas and optimization techniques that can amp up your ranking opportunities.
Track your PAA Rankings
Now, when you’re done optimizing your content and putting in maximum effort to optimize your PAA tabs, it’s time to start tracking your PAA rankings.
And it’s utterly important to keep a record of them, and there are three ways you can do it. You can do the manual searches and check if your site is starting to pop up for the queries you’re targeting.
Or you can use Google Search Console and run a query report of different keyword variations. Then, identify the most searched queries and use them to look for your PAA results manually.
With Ahrefs and Semrush, you can simply check what pages of your site are appearing for the PAA tab in the respective sections.
Conclusion
With the rise of AI mode and AI Overviews, the competition for ranking on the first page of Google is through the roof. While it keeps getting harder to acquire a coveted spot in the top results for your desired keywords, you can still feature in the PAAs if your answer delivers what users are seeking. It’s all a matter of picking up the right search terms, matching the user intent through meticulously crafted content, and optimizing it. And of course, keep improving the content and keep a close eye on the evolving search trends in your niche.
To conclude this piece, it’s only right to say, don’t overlook PAA optimization—it can accelerate your brand’s growth by leaps and bounds.
