People Also Ask: How to Optimize and Rank the PAA Section

Need to rank in the People Also Ask section of Google results? So keep reading.

Google often introduces new SERP (Search Engine Results Page) features to improve the user experience. A SERP is generated by Google to provide a useful and relevant response to a user's query.

Some of the most notable SERP features include featured snippets, image carousels, shopping results, product star ratings, site links, and more.

One of Google's dynamic SERP features that is becoming increasingly popular these days is “People Also Ask SEO or Other Questions Asked”.

As a website owner, you can optimize your pages for People Also Ask SEO snippets to get more traffic from Google.

In this detailed guide, we will therefore cover the following points.

People Also Ask SEO: The Beginner's Guide to Optimizing and Ranking PAA-Related Queries

What is the Google People Also Ask SEO section?

The “People Also Ask” option, also known as PAA, is a SERP feature that contains series of questions related to the user's query.

“People Also Ask” questions are usually additional questions related to the user's request. They appear as a drop-down list on the first page of Google search results.

For example, if you type “CEO of Google” into Google, you get the following results:

As you can see above, in the “Other questions asked” section, Google shows us some of the most frequently asked questions around our keyword.

When you click on one of these questions in the PAA section, the PAA section expands to show a text snippet containing a brief answer relevant to the query.

For example, if you click on the question "What is the salary of the boss of Google?" ', you will get the following text snippet along with the URL of the original source.

The value of the “People Also Ask” snippet is that it helps to understand how Google processes the search intent of users to suggest related queries.

From this example, you can easily understand that users will instantly get relevant answers to their questions without having to browse a ton of links online.

Ultimately, the AAP-related queries SERP feature provides a BETTER and FASTER experience for users who use Google Search for their queries.

Why is AAP so important?

Over the past two months, search engine results pages (SERPs) have changed dramatically.

From Featured Snippets to Knowledge Graphs to PAAs (People Also Ask), Google is clearly striving to improve and speed up the user experience.

Among all the features recently introduced in the SERPs, the PAA is particularly interesting. The latest data from Mozcast suggest that the PAA appears in about 88,2% of the queries they monitor.

Take a look at their data.

As you can see above, PAAs have a big impact on the SERPs. Therefore, if you want to increase your visibility in searches, you need to target related questions and optimize AAPs.

One of the main advantages of PAA sections for research users is that they save time. Yes, the “People Also Ask” boxes are useful if you are looking for quick and direct answers.

They're especially useful if you're looking for something on your mobile device, as they save you from clicking through multiple website links to find answers.

Here are some other benefits of PAA.

You can get search traffic from PAA even if you are not ranking in the first page results.

Did you know that you can rank for queries related to the PAA section for some keywords even if you don't rank in the first page results?

Yes, it's true. For example, you don't rank in the first page results for the keyword "how to increase website DA", but you may still receive traffic for that keyword because you you rank for queries related to the PAA section.

So if you optimize your pages for AAP-related queries, you'll get search traffic even without ranking on the first page of search results.

You can improve user experience

Google's ultimate mission is: "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful".

Therefore, if you optimize your content for AIP-related questions, you will provide useful and relevant answers to user queries, which will lead to higher search engine rankings.

Better voice search optimization

Whether you know it or not, voice search is the next big thing. All the big players including Google Assistant, Apple Siri, Amazon Alexa, etc. are using voice search to make people's lives easier.

In fact, 50% of all searches will be voice searches in 2020.

So, if you target AAP-related questions, you will likely optimize your SEO for voice search, which will ultimately improve your organic visibility.

If you use People Also Asked data to find related questions to include in your content, you can also get rankings for featured snippets.

Featured Snippets can trigger PAA (in most cases).

In the majority of cases, a Google search of the questions in the "People also ask questions" results yields a page snippet.

For example, if you search for “home decor ideas” on Google Search, the following results will appear in the “People Also Ask” section.

As you can see above, the keyword “home decor ideas” triggers the AAP and its questions, if used as a primary search query, can trigger a featured snippet.

How do you rank in the “People Also Ask” section?

So how can you rank in the “People Also Ask” section? Here is a simple tutorial on how to rank in the PAA section in your niche.

CIP Question Finder (3 FREE tools for you)

The first step in ranking PAA snippets is to create a list of questions people are already asking.

The best way to find questions related to your keywords target (or subjects) is to use tools.

When it comes to finding related questions, you can use the following THREE tools which are extremely helpful. The good thing is that they are free. Their use is free.

1. AlsoAsked

Voici comment conceals features.

Once on the site, enter any search term to uncover AIP-related questions. You can also choose your preferred language and region and click the "Search" button to continue.

It instantly generates a list of all queries related to that search term in a visual form.

Take a look ;

Do you see that? This is a fast, simple, easy and FREE way to retrieve all Search Engine Optimization (SEO) related queries for any topic.

2. Answer The Public

Answer The Public is a great topic search tool that you can use to find a ton of queries related to any search term. Although it has a premium version with unlimited searches, its free version is also useful for fetching PAA queries.

Voici comment conceals features.

Once on the site, enter the keyword of your choice. Choose your region and language and click the "Search" button.

It will immediately do a search for you and present you with a list of questions in the form of a visual board.

Take a look there ;

As you can see, there are tons of PAA ideas you can use to create content.

Moreover, this amazing tool provides you with data in different ways including;

• Questions
• Prepositions
• Comparisons
• Alphabetical
• Related to

3. Scraper Browser Extension

You can also use the free Chrome browser extension called “Scraper” to save user queries in Google Docs.

All you need to do is install and activate this Chrome extension and once you are in the PAA section for a search term, right click on any of the questions and from the context menu , choose “Scrape Similar”.

This is what it looks like;

That's it, now you can grab all those queries and copy them to Google Docs.

Here's a quick video on using Scraper to extract queries and copy them to Docs for free.

Learn how to optimize content for people who also ask questions

Once you have selected the AIP questions, you need to create content the right way.

Use subtitles wisely: Be sure to use captions that end with questions. For example, if you're writing a blog post about "Macbook repair," you can use subheadings like;

• How to repair the battery of your Macbook?
• How to improve the performance of your Macbook?
• And many more

Use simple language: Most people who use voice search devices like Siri, Alexa, etc. ask detailed questions to find answers in the PAA section. Write in simple language. Do not use jargon. Your content should be easy to consume.

Use jump navigation links: You can create a “table of contents” to easily divide your content into different sections (use subheadings). These quick links allow your site visitors to quickly navigate to the answer they are looking for.

Analyze the other results: You should carefully analyze the related questions that appear in the PAA section. Learn how other websites in your niche get rankings for these AAP queries. Some may use bullet points, subtitles, etc. You can follow the same approach to have a higher chance of appearing in the PAA section.

Add the Q&A schema

You can use Question from schema.org to enable FAQ schema tagging on your website. If you use WordPress, you can install a free plugin called schema FAQ to easily add schema markup.

Another thing you can do to rank in the PAA is to use an FAQ section in most of your content. If you are a regular reader of our blog, you will notice that we often use an FAQ section in most of our blog posts.

FAQ sections not only help the public of your blog, but they can also increase your chances of ranking for the SEO from the People Also Ask section.

Keep it up to date

One important thing you need to keep in mind is that PAA related queries are updated with useful content. This means that if your competitors are already ranking for certain PAA-related questions, you can also try to create better content around those questions to outrank their listings.

Even if you are already ranked in the PAA section, your answer lists may disappear sooner or later. So the main thing is to keep them updated with useful content and answers.

How do you track your results in the AAP?

The best way to track your results in the PAA snippet is to use tools like Semrush. We currently use Semrush (it's the same tool used by over 5 million people worldwide) to track our ABP-related questions.

FAQ

Final Thoughts on SEO for the People Also Ask Section

Google is constantly changing its SERP features to provide better user experience. People Also Ask SEO is a very interesting SERP feature that is not going away anytime soon.

In fact, with the rapid growth of SEO voice search, AAP-related queries are also increasing. Therefore, if you already run a blog or website, you should definitely optimize and rank your content for “People Also Ask” queries.

What do you think of SEO “People Also Ask”? You have questions ? Share your views in the comments.