People Also Ask (PAA)
Definition
‘People Also Ask’ (PAA) is a feature displayed by Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs). These are the dynamic boxes that appear when users make a search query. Each PAA box contains a collection of related questions that people often ask concerning the searched topic. They serve to offer quick insights without requiring the user to navigate away from the search results page. Each PAA box can be expanded to reveal a brief answer and a link to the source of the information.
People Also Ask (PAA) Relevance For SEO
PAA is crucial for SEO as it provides an opportunity for your content to be directly displayed on the SERP. This can improve website visibility and potentially increase organic traffic. PAAs commonly appears towards the top of Google’s results, often outranking several traditional organic listings. By targeting and ranking for PAA boxes, your website can gain substantial exposure and provide users with direct answers, improving user experience, and credibility. Additionally, being listed in a PAA box may increase your page’s click-through rate.
People Also Ask (PAA) Best Practices for SEO
- Address common questions: Creating content that answers common questions around your topic can help it appear in PAA. Use keyword research tools or look at the questions currently in the PAA boxes related to your primary keyword to get ideas.
- Structured content: H2/H3 headers can be utilized to pose important questions that your content answers. Google may use these to extract questions and answers for PAA boxes.
- Use schema markup: Using schema and structured data markup can help Google understand your content’s context more effectively, which might help your site’s chances of appearing in PAA boxes.
- Monitor and adapt: As PAA boxes are dynamic and can change over time, regularly revisit the targeted queries to ensure your strategy is still effective.