For any random or thoughtful questions in our mind that need suggestions or answers, we conduct a google search like it’s our second nature. The act seems almost intuitive. Google is the most convenient and accessible source to get information related to any topic. In this digital world, all the information is one click away. Observing users’ search behavior, Google continuously upgrades its features and algorithm to give users the best possible results that match their search query. The search engine result pages include many results like map pack, sponsored or ads results, organic results, video results, image results, news, knowledge panel, related searches, etc.
In April 2015, to enhance user experience, Google launched an amazing search results feature, this was the ‘people also ask’ box or PAA box. You must have seen this box while conducting a Google search. This box has become more prevalent over the past few years. It is now a vital part of SEO strategy that helps enhance your website visibility. It has endless questions and answers similar to users’ search intent.
In this blog, we look at the ‘people also ask’ box and understand why it is essential for websites to rank in it and optimize methods that will help websites get listed in the ‘people also ask’ section. Let us start!
What is the ‘people also ask’ box in search results
‘People also ask’ is a Google SERP feature that mostly appears on the first page of SERPs containing a list of questions and their answers. This section contains the results from the web pages with similar contents to users’ search queries. ‘people also ask’ box can appear in different SERP positions, but in 75% of searches, it appears in the top 3 search rank positions. This section contains answers in various formats like paragraphs, lists, tables and videos as per the search query. But around 78% of the answers are in paragraph format. It presents the most relevant piece of information that would satisfy the users’ search intent by triggering dynamic loading.
Now, the ‘people also ask’ box has become an interactive SERP feature as it appears on more than half of the search queries made. But searches in the form of questions have more chances to trigger the PAA box. Around 86% of the time queries starting with when, why, how, what, who, etc., trigger this box. Initially, ‘people also ask’ box used to contain 3 to 4 questions, but now, as you click on it, it dynamically generates more questions similar to the clicked one. Dynamic loading came into play in 2017. This process continues as there are endless questions in this section. When you click on one of the questions in the ‘people also ask’ section, it expands with the answer; it also contains the link and title of the website from where it is pulled. There is also a feedback button below the ‘people also ask’ box. By clicking this button, you can provide any suggestions or improvements in this section. Now, Bing search engine has also added the ‘people also ask’ box on its search engine results page.
Why it is important to rank in ‘people also ask’ box
- Increases organic CTR and conversion rate – Suppose you are not ranking in the organic search results as it requires a strong SEO ranking strategy but ‘people also ask’ box requires different optimization techniques. PAA box is the best opportunity to rank for less authoritative and new websites. Using particular optimization tactics will help you drive traffic to your website and the more your organic CTR increases, the more are the chances of increasing the conversion rate. Thus, ranking in the ‘people also ask’ box can increase your conversion rate and it also helps in enhancing brand awareness since the organic CTR is increasing, which means you are getting more impressions.
- Increase visibility – New or less authoritative websites often struggle to get a good SEO ranking as they have fewer opportunities to appear in Google organic search results. But they can optimize their website for PAA boxes to gain high visibility across search engine result pages. For this, conduct market research to learn the common queries that people search for on Google related to your business and provide relevant answers to these questions. High visibility automatically drives more traffic to your website.
- Reduces effort of repeated search – ‘people also ask’ box is a helpful feature to get quick information related to any topic because it dynamically loads more sets of questions related to your search query. It saves your time and effort for numerous searches for the same topics.
For example, if you want to get information about digital marketing then there are two methods; the first is the regular method, in which you can go to a website and read a whole blog related to your topic. It may include the information which you’re looking for or maybe not. It is also a time-consuming and lengthy process. The second approach is to use the ‘people also ask’ box, which contains a variety of questions related to your topic. In this method, you can get accurate and relevant answers associated with your topic in digital marketing. You can get more information in less time and save your effort to frequent searches for your queries.
- Improve organic search performance – As we’ve learned, ranking in the ‘people also ask’ box increases your organic clickthrough rate, conversion rate, increases visibility, drives traffic to your website, etc. These factors help improve your organic search performance and enhance your brand awareness, as they are an essential part of a digital marketing strategy.
- Generate content ideas – The PAA box is a great feature to learn about the search intent of the web users, like what type of questions people ask, what is their search behavior, etc. This helps a lot in conducting content and keyword research for your digital marketing campaigns. It gives an overall idea about content generation to make your marketing strategy powerful. Search your targeted keywords on Google and check the results or questions appearing in the ‘people also ask’ box. See what type of content and formats are used to answer queries, which websites are ranking for these keywords and how you can improve your content to get a better ranking.
- Provide an opportunity to rank twice – Every website owner wants to appear on the first page of Google search results. Suppose you have a good SEO ranking and already appear in the organic search result on the first page. In that case, you have an excellent opportunity to list yourself in the ‘people also ask’ box and rank twice on SERP. Optimizing your website according to Google SEO and ‘people also ask’ box can help to boost your SEO campaign at a much faster rate. It is possible to rank in the organic results and ‘people also ask’ box at the same time, which proved to be a very effective strategy to gain high website visibility.
How to rank in the ‘people also ask’ box
There are many benefits of ranking in ‘people also ask’ box. But you need to follow some strategies to improve your website ranking for this. Following are some points that help to enhance your website ranking for Google SEO:
- Select relevant ‘people also ask’ questions – The primary and vital task of getting your website ranking in the PAA box is selecting relevant questions. Google algorithm pulls the same web page every time for the questions that have the same intent. It means if an answer is pulled from your page for a specific question, then Google will alway pulls the same page to answer all queries that target the same question. All you need to do is make a list of questions that show up for many keywords used frequently by users. The benefit of this strategy is that you can target a large set of questions and need to write only one answer for these queries.
Ahrefs’ Site Explorer tool can help you in collecting questions that you can target. Now, try to write the best possible answer for your selected questions to get a better Google SEO ranking. Also, check your competitors’ ranking for the same set of questions.
- Include relevant keywords to target – Conduct keyword research to discover keywords related to your products or services and use them while answering users’ questions. Select only those keywords that match your content, don’t add irrelevant and numerous keywords as that may result in keyword stuffing which is a negative practice. You can use many tools for keyword research, like the Google keyword planner tool. You can also take help from ‘people also ask’ the box itself to find relevant search queries and keywords.
- Use question & answer schema – PAA box follows the Q&A format, so it is good for you to follow this schema to gain a website ranking advantage. Google search algorithm finds it easy to pull answers from your page. Try to write your answers so that they can be relevant to multiple questions and can be used to answer them. Use clear headings & sub-headings in an organized format that is intelligible for readers. You should use coherent language and answer format that is easy to understand for your audiences. Do not write answers in long texts; use fewer words, but it should be helpful and provide accurate answers to the questions. Spelling and grammar mistakes are the most common mistakes but can significantly harm the users’ reading experience. ‘People also ask’ boxes include answers in various formats like paragraphs, lists, tables, videos, etc. You can use any of these structures to answer that best suits users’ queries.
- Quality content – The quality and relevancy of content are the most vital factors deciding your website ranking on the search engine results page. There is no place for irrelevant and misleading content in the Google SEO ranking algorithm. It can ruin your whole on-page SEO Check your content meets the SEO guidelines as suggested by Google. Do not use duplicate content as it can penalize your website. Writing original and unique content that adds value to the users’ knowledge is helpful to enhance your search rank. Try to answer questions in a way that helps users to solve their queries. Many website owners make the mistake of prioritizing SEO and website ranking but this is the wrong method. However, you must think about users first, optimize content according to users’ points of view, and focus on improving your website’s SEO.
- Build positive user experience – Good user experience is one of the most crucial factors for ranking in the ‘people also ask’ boxes. Positive UX attracts new users as well as keeps you connected with the existing ones. So, you must try to think and write content by marking users’ ease in your mind.
Write complete answers to questions so that users have no need to visit any other website or look for other options. Try to write point-wise so that it is easy to understand. Avoid promotional or sales language while writing answers for the ‘people also ask’ box. Use a suitable format to answer users’ queries.
Answers in the ‘people also ask’ box include the URL and title of the webpage so that users can visit them if they need more information. Thus, optimizing your on-page SEO elements like page loading speed, keywords relevancy, well-organized website architecture, etc., is essential to enhance user experience. These factors also improve your organic performance on the search engine results page.
Conclusion
Nowadays, ‘people also ask’ box is a popular and useful feature of the search engine results page. It can be a great step to appear in Google results and boost your organic traffic. But unfortunately, there are very little data available about ‘people also ask’ box, related facts & figures and methods for improving your ranking in it. Google also keeps it secret and reveals no information on how its algorithm decides the ranking for this box. But in this blog, we discussed all possible reasons to gain a better search rank in it. These methods will surely help you to do better in this section.
Do not select any keywords or questions at random. Also, you cannot optimize for all keywords and answer all questions. Therefore, it is good to know your topic and answer only those queries which are related to your business. Use only authoritative websites to research and collect information or refer to Google blogs to get every update on algorithmic changes. As a website owner or a digital marketeer, you should be aware of these changes that you can utilize to upgrade your website to gain visibility across SERP continuously. You have to plan and implement a strong SEO strategy like conducting keyword research, link building, etc., to make yourself visible in organic as well as ‘people also ask’ box.
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