📍People Also Ask (PAA) is a Google SERP feature that displays a box of related questions linked to a user’s original search. Each question expands to show a brief answer pulled from a web page, plus a link to the source.
How People Also Ask Works
When you search on Google, you may see a section titled “People Also Ask” — usually below the top few results. This feature is dynamic: when you click a question, new related ones appear, creating an expanding list of queries.
Google selects these based on:
- Common user behavior;
- Related search intent;
- Content relevance from indexed pages.
Each answer shown is taken from a page that Google considers authoritative and closely matched to the question.
Why It Matters for SEO
- ❓ Increased visibility – Appearing in PAA can put your content above many organic results.
- 📈 More traffic opportunities – Users may click through to your site from these expanded answers.
- 🧠 Insight into user questions – PAA helps marketers understand how people explore a topic.
- 🔍 Topic coverage signals – Answering common PAA queries in your content can improve topical depth.
- 🧰 Content strategy tool – Useful for identifying subtopics and structuring headings or FAQs.
Example Use Case
Someone searches “how to start a podcast.” Below the top results, they see a “People Also Ask” box with questions like:
- “Do I need a microphone to start a podcast?”
- “How much does it cost to host a podcast?”
When they click a question, they see a short answer pulled from a blog — and may click through to learn more. If your site provides that answer, it’s a chance to attract extra traffic.
What You Should Remember
People Also Ask is a SERP feature that shows users follow-up questions with instant answers. Optimizing your content to match these queries can increase visibility, traffic, and relevance in Google Search.