How can I utilize the “People also ask” questions on Google for SEO?

The “People also ask” (PAA) box is a search engine result page ( SERP) feature that has appeared on Google for quite some time.

When we perform a search on Google, a box of “People also ask” will appear (for both desktop and mobile).

*I will use the search keywords ‘external monitor’ as the example throughout this post.

The structure of “People also ask” contains around four related questions to the keyword you search, followed by the title + URL and “Search for” keyword at the box.

If you click on the question, it will expand and add more questions at the bottom of the box. So it’s like never-ending questions appear on Google search results.

It’s a bit different from the regular organic Google search results:

In fact, the answers provided in the “People also ask” box are helpful if you are looking for a quick and simple answer. This is a useful feature especially for mobile users as they no longer need to click to enter any website to get the answer they want. Instead, they can instantly read the text/answers straight from Google search.

I (Most of us) hate slow website loading speed and the fact that we need to read the entire page/article to find the answers we want. And that’s why the preview answers are quick to provide hints to users to decide whether the website is worth visiting or not.

The “people also ask” feature is available on mobile view as well.

How the “People also ask” questions help SEO?

1. Rank in Position “Zero” or featured snippet

Apart from Google Ads results at the top part of Google Search, the new rising force is the featured snippet. This rich result is taking over Google Ads to display the instant answer in short descriptions. It comes with images from the answer page and follows the heading structure in the article.

If the article or post is able to rank at this section, for sure you can gain an increase in organic traffic from the featured snippet. I am pretty sure this page will give you an abundant of traffic as it’s chosen by Google for the keywords ‘external monitor.

2. Content Marketing

As an SEO specialist who is always looking for multiple methods to improve websites, the “people also ask” box is considered a gold mine for content marketing.

From there, even a glimpse or glance at questions provides valuable insights on how Google reacts according to your choice of keywords.

Besides, it makes the keyword research process easier as you can find out the type/category of keyword search intent, such as navigational, informational, commercial or transactional.

Using the keywords “external monitor” as an example, when checking on the “people also ask” questions, you can clearly see that there is a need to produce tutorial related content about the external monitor, comparison and reviews, and technical know-how.

3. Website Content Enhancement

This is obviously simple and easy to improve the user experience when scrolling to your website.

Adding the frequently asked questions (FAQ) to the “people also ask” box is encouraged especially for landing pages for or Facebook Ads campaigns.

Besides, the questions are a good reference that tells you what to include in website content/copywriting. This means a page content that answers most of the FAQ can increase conversion rate, whether it’s a form for lead generation campaigns, product subscription or online ecommerce page.

Furthermore, the FAQ section will make users stay longer on the page, which in turn directly reduces bounce rate.

4. Voice Search Optimization

All big players such as Google Assistant, Apple Siri, Amazon Alexa, Samsung Bixby, Microsoft Cortana are investing in voice assistant technology.

In fact, the growth of voice and voice-enabled devices is increasing rapidly in 2019 and is expected to grow even faster from 2020 onwards and beyond.

All the questions and answers on your website are important when it comes to providing data for this technology.

Check https://developers.google.com/assistant if you want to learn more about Google Assistant.

Voice search is the next big thing where users will search online and buy/signup through voice-enable devices. As technology is experiencing exponential growth with artificial technology and voice recognition technology, it’s a matter of time voice search becomes the main thing.

Source: https://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2018/07/voice-search-facts-stats.html

How to export or scarp “People also ask” questions?

1. Scarpe — Chrome Extension Method

The first method is using a Chrome extension called Scarpe.

After installing Scarpe, type the keyword and right-click on one of the questions from the “People also ask” section:

Click Scape similar.

Delete [1] as shown in the screenshot above and press enter/click the Scarpe button.

Voila, now you can copy all the questions to clipboard and paste them into Excel or Google Sheet.

It’s pretty simple, right? Wait, before you initiate the scrapping process, make sure you keep clicking the questions at the “People also ask” section first. This will expand more questions and provide more data.

2. Chrome: Inspect Element > Sources > Snippets method

First and foremost, head to https://gist.github.com/PabloRosales/ef1fa00afcdc2549011d055447be954c

Copy the scripts from there.

Right-click anywhere in the browser and click Inspect.

1. Click Sources at the top tab
2. Click on the right-pointing double arrows to expand more options
3. Click the Snippets

1. Paste scripts to the empty box
2. Rename the snippet to ‘People also ask’
3. Click ‘play’

Surprise! Here are all the questions from “People also ask”. This method only scrape the questions.

Keep in mind you need to keep clicking the questions at the Google search to have more data. It will crawl exactly how many questions at your current Google search.

3. AlsoAsked.com*

*still in Alpha

Insert the term, choose languages and region > click Search.

The result will be displayed in infographic style with questions from the term you insert:

At the left corner of the same page, hover over the Save button and click Save CSV.

Congratulations! If you read and followed the above step-by-step tutorial until now, I am pretty sure you already have many “questions” about your keywords.

Amazing right? And time-saving too.

It’s not over yet, you can even implement FAQ structured data to your website.

What is FAQ structured data?

A Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) page contains a list of questions and answers pertaining to a particular topic. Properly marked up FAQ pages may be eligible for a rich result on Search and an Action on Google Assistant, which can help your site reach the right users.

Source: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/data-types/faqpage

How can FAQ structured data boost my SEO?

• Make it easier for Google to understand what your pages are and what your website is about. It will improve your search engine visibility.
• The extra rich content on your website — graphs, featured snippets and voice searches will increase your click-through rate (CTR).
• Add in new features as many websites are still not utilizing structured data. As usual, users are attracted to the new things they see on Google search results.

Still don’t have any idea about Structured Data? Read and watch my full video here: https://www.exabytes.digital/blog/developer-circle-penang-how-structured-data-boost-seo-website-rankings.

Takeaways

Always remember not to craft your content for Google but for real humans.

Keep learning user search behaviour and follow the latest trends in digital marketing. Aim for providing the best experience and answers to visitors on your website.

Okay, ready to start creating content now? I suggest that you get started from producing evergreen topics for your target keywords.

Hope this sharing helps you to boost your website SEO! Thanks for reading.

Originally published at https://www.exabytes.digital/blog/how-utilize-people-also-ask-questions-google-seo on December 11, 2019.