Editorial Staff
People Also Ask or PAA is one of the SERP feature that released by Google to show a set of questions related to the query you search.
For example, when you search for “sports that make you taller”, you’ll see a PAA box that shows set of related question such as “Can sports make u taller?”, and etc.
Around 43% of search engine queries contain the PAA box.
In this lesson, you’ll learn more about how to rank in people also ask SERP feature and gain more traffic to your site.
Facts About PAA Box
Before we get into the tips to rank for PAA, let’s cover a few important things about how does this PAA box works:
1. PAA Location is Not Fixed
According to our research, PAA boxes can appear in any position in the search result.
It can be position #2, #4, or even appeared in the second page depending on the query.
There is no exact formula on which position the PAA boxes will appear in the search result.
2. Whenever The User Clicked on The Question, The New Question Appeared
Here’s the fun fact about PAA box.
It seems like there is infinite set of questions to it, if you reveal the question.
For example, let’s say you’re seeing 5 set of questions on the PAA box.
The moment you click the first question, there are new sets of questions that will appear on the bottom of PAA box.
Same goes when you click second, third question, and so on.
3. PAA Presented in Various Format
PAA can show different type of answer when the user click it.
It can appear as short paragraph, list, and sometimes videos.
4. Google Trigger The Same Source of Answer
You might notice sometimes there are same question that appeared in the PAA box with the different search query.
For example, when you search for “Sports That Make You Taller” and “Sports for Height”, you’ll see the same question appeared in PAA box: “Is sports make you taller?” for both queries.
However, you’ll find that the answers are from the same source for both.
How Likely People Interact With PAA?
People also ask section might not offer as much result as featured snippets.
In fact, the internet users interact with PAA much lower as compared to featured snippets.
According to the research, there are only around 3% to 10% of Google users that interact with PAA box.
This number is the estimation for the whole PAA box.
So, if the PAA box is showing 5 question, you’ll need to divide the estimated percentage by 5.
But don’t get discouraged yet, as we haven’t tell you the best part of why ranking in PAA box is worth it!
Benefits to Rank in People Also Ask Feature
From the fact #4 above, you’ve learnt that Google is pulling the same source for the same questions that appeared in multiple search queries.
This means, once you rank #1 on one PAA, it means that you’ll also rank on another PAA that shows in another queries!
According to our study, Google can shows the same question in the PAA boxes across hundreds of queries.
Get into one, and you’ll get another hundreds for free!
Isn’t that amazing?
How Do You Get on Google People Also Ask?
In order to rank in PAA box, there are several steps you’ll need to follow:
Step 1: Choose Your Well Performing Page
You can either choose to write a new content to rank for a PAA question, but it is better to choose the existing page that already performed well.
The reason is that you’ll need to wait few months and even year for a new content to rank, while the existing well performing page will cut that process and get you straight to the PAA box.
Choose the existing content that have a lot of word counts, well written and fully on-page SEO optimized.
Step 2: Choose The Right PAA Question
Google might release a new set of PAA question over the time, but it is not recommended for you to assume what are the new possible questions that Google will show in the PAA boxes.
This is why, you’ll need to gather the list of PAA questions that are already existed.
From the well performing page that you choose, find for existing PAA boxes that related to your page.
Step 3: Optimize Your Content for PAA
Now, it is time to synchronize your selected page and PAA question.
See if you have answered the PAA question in your page?
If no, add the answer inside it.
Adjust the formatting that Google expect to see.
For example, if the question is about listing, make sure to make the points as header.
If it is a question, make the question as the header and followed by a paragraph that answer it.
