{"id":142209,"date":"2020-10-14T14:37:03","date_gmt":"2020-10-14T14:37:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.searchenginewatch.com\/?p=142209"},"modified":"2020-10-14T14:40:36","modified_gmt":"2020-10-14T14:40:36","slug":"people-also-ask-paa-feature-uncovering-googles-hidden-gem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2020\/10\/14\/people-also-ask-paa-feature-uncovering-googles-hidden-gem\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;People also ask&#8217; (PAA) feature: Uncovering Google\u2019s hidden gem"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"well\">\n<h3>30-second summary:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Signaling rapid growth, PAA boxes are now present across half of all SERPs.<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With 75% of PAA results appearing within the top three results in Google, the PAA block opens up visibility opportunities for sites that are struggling to make it to the first page of Google\u2019s SERP.<\/li>\n<li>The key to PAA success lies in producing PAA-friendly content that meets PAA best practices &#8211; from tackling longer search queries to focusing on brevity and including question words.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>With the rise of voice assistants and Google\u2019s mission to turn into a \u201cknowledge engine\u201d, we can spot the proliferation of Google\u2019s SERP features that support these shifts. Embracing these trends, SEMrush decided to take an in-depth look at Google\u2019s \u2018People also ask\u2019 (PAA) feature and analyze its ins and outs to help businesses get more visibility with PAA boxes.<\/p>\n<p>Presenting the key highlights from a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.semrush.com\/blog\/how-to-maximize-people-also-ask-seo-opportunities-study\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">recent SEMrush 2020 \u2018People Also Ask\u2019 study<\/a> that analyzed over one million keywords for the US, this post provides insights into building a PAA-centered SEO and content strategy.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The rise of the \u2018People also ask\u2019 feature<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.semrush.com\/sensor\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">SEMrush Sensor<\/a>, the number of SERPs containing a PAA box has grown by 40-42% since the feature was first introduced back in 2015.<\/p>\n<p>PAA appears to be present within half of the search results pages, with a slight increase when looking at mobile search results. In fact, Google is now six times more likely to return a SERP with a PAA box than with a <a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2019\/07\/12\/how-to-get-featured-snippets-no-link-building\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">featured snippet<\/a> result.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-142212\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Featured-Snippets-v-People-Also-Asked-1024x769.png\" alt=\"People also ask feature vs Google featured snippets\" width=\"640\" height=\"481\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Featured-Snippets-v-People-Also-Asked-1024x769.png 1024w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Featured-Snippets-v-People-Also-Asked-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Featured-Snippets-v-People-Also-Asked-120x90.png 120w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Featured-Snippets-v-People-Also-Asked-768x577.png 768w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Featured-Snippets-v-People-Also-Asked-1536x1154.png 1536w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Featured-Snippets-v-People-Also-Asked.png 728w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Note: The drop on the chart comes as a result of Google\u2019s March 2020 adjustment<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Although remarkable, this trend towards PAA expansion is not consistent across all industries. With the lowest presence of PAA within the Real Estate industry (9.5%), the highest number of PAAs was spotted within the <em>Computer &amp; Electronics <\/em>category (64.2%).<\/p>\n<p>The full industry breakdown can be found in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.semrush.com\/blog\/how-to-maximize-people-also-ask-seo-opportunities-study\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the study<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The nature of PAA<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>On average, the initial PAA block includes four questions:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-142213\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Number-of-questions-in-the-PAA-box-1024x556.png\" alt=\"Number of questions in the people also ask (PAA) box\" width=\"640\" height=\"348\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Number-of-questions-in-the-PAA-box-1024x556.png 1024w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Number-of-questions-in-the-PAA-box-300x163.png 300w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Number-of-questions-in-the-PAA-box-768x417.png 768w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Number-of-questions-in-the-PAA-box-1536x834.png 1536w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Number-of-questions-in-the-PAA-box.png 728w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>While in 58% of all cases analyzed the PAA box appears after the first organic result &#8211; be it a regular blue link or a featured snippet &#8211; in 75% of cases, it is featured within the top three results.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Hidden opportunities<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Although 13% of sites making it into the PAA box have a top three ranking, 74% aren\u2019t even present within the first page of the SERP. This implies that the <a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2020\/06\/08\/10-advanced-seo-tactics-to-drive-more-traffic-to-your-website\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">PAA feature<\/a> opens up opportunities for sites that cannot immediately boost their organic rankings to appear on the first page of search results.<\/p>\n<p>To leverage this opportunity, though, they should understand the inherent features of PAA and meet some of the key requirements we managed to spot.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Unleashing the power of \u2018People also ask\u2019 <\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>To understand how to leverage the PAA feature for your site and overall business, we have to examine which features impact the occurrence of a PAA block and which \u2018content factors\u2019 effect Google\u2019s decision to include this or that piece of content within the PAA box.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>\u2018Outside\u2019 factors, or PAA-centered keyword optimization <\/strong><\/h3>\n<h4><strong>1. Search query length <\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>PAAs normally get triggered by longer keywords or complex search queries. With a clear correlation between the length of a search query and a PAA, we can see that a 10-word keyword triggers a PAA 72% of the time, while search results for a two-word query only showcase a PAA in 28% of the cases:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-142210\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Probability-of-triggering-a-Featured-Snippet-together-with-PAA--1024x644.png\" alt=\"Probability of triggering a Featured Snippet together with PAA\" width=\"640\" height=\"403\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Probability-of-triggering-a-Featured-Snippet-together-with-PAA--1024x644.png 1024w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Probability-of-triggering-a-Featured-Snippet-together-with-PAA--300x189.png 300w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Probability-of-triggering-a-Featured-Snippet-together-with-PAA--768x483.png 768w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Probability-of-triggering-a-Featured-Snippet-together-with-PAA--1536x967.png 1536w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Probability-of-triggering-a-Featured-Snippet-together-with-PAA-.png 728w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n<h4><strong>2. Search query type<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Questions or question-type queries tend to produce SERPs with a PAA block. 86% of the time, search queries starting with question words like \u201cwhat\u201d, \u201cwhy\u201d, \u201cwhen\u201d, \u201cwhere\u201d and \u201cwho\u201d trigger a PAA.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-142211\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/2302-SEMrush-PAA-Blog-Graphics-20200930_Types-of-Queries-That-Trigger-PAA-1024x542.png\" alt=\"SEMrush PAA Blog Graphics 20200930_Types of Queries That Trigger the 'people also ask' (PAA)\" width=\"640\" height=\"339\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/2302-SEMrush-PAA-Blog-Graphics-20200930_Types-of-Queries-That-Trigger-PAA-1024x542.png 1024w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/2302-SEMrush-PAA-Blog-Graphics-20200930_Types-of-Queries-That-Trigger-PAA-300x159.png 300w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/2302-SEMrush-PAA-Blog-Graphics-20200930_Types-of-Queries-That-Trigger-PAA-768x407.png 768w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/2302-SEMrush-PAA-Blog-Graphics-20200930_Types-of-Queries-That-Trigger-PAA-1536x813.png 1536w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/2302-SEMrush-PAA-Blog-Graphics-20200930_Types-of-Queries-That-Trigger-PAA.png 728w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><strong>\u2018Inside\u2019 factors, or PAA-worthy content features<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>79% of PAA boxes are filled with paragraphs taken from website content, followed by lists (13.8%) and tables (4.3%).<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-142214\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/PAA-results-format-1024x597.png\" alt=\"People also ask (PAA) results format\" width=\"640\" height=\"373\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/PAA-results-format-1024x597.png 1024w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/PAA-results-format-300x175.png 300w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/PAA-results-format-768x448.png 768w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/PAA-results-format-1536x896.png 1536w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/PAA-results-format.png 728w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n<h4><strong>1. Paragraph length<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>The average number of words within a paragraph featured in PAA stands at 41 words, implying that brevity is a valuable asset when crafting content for a site.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>2. List length<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Within our dataset, we found no lists that went over 8 items, with the minimum length standing at a mere two items.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>3. Table length<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>A standard PAA box has space for 14 rows and three columns, although we saw tables that only showed one column and two rows. Since the tables are less popular, we couldn\u2019t make any conclusions regarding best practices when it comes to creating tables specifically for PAA.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Action plan for businesses willing to optimize for PAA<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>If today optimizing for PAA is a matter of wants, tomorrow, it could be a matter of needs, as search is already moving towards providing users with instant answers at their first command, be it voice or text.<\/p>\n<p>The best feature of PAA is that it\u2019s often a quicker win strategy than a more long-term traditional &#8220;blue link&#8221; ranking optimization.<\/p>\n<p>In a nutshell, PAA optimization comes down to the following key steps:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Reviewing existing SERP features,<\/strong> where it all starts with analyzing if your target keywords currently trigger any PAAs.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Discovering<\/strong> <strong>missing opportunities <\/strong>by exploring whether your or your competitors\u2019 site ranks for the keywords that generate a PAA block within the SERP but do not appear within the PAA box.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Uncovering ideas for PAA-worthy content<\/strong> by integrating the keywords within the PAA box into your keyword strategy and using the PAA block as a goldmine for content ideas.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ensuring your content is as SEO optimized as it gets.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Olga Andrienko is SEMrush\u2019s Head of Global Marketing. Olga can be found on Twitter <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Olgandrienko\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@Olgandrienko<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SEMrush\u2019s Head of Global Marketing, Olga Andrienko, reveals all the ins and outs of Google\u2019s \u2018People also ask\u2019 feature to bring optimization insights for businesses willing to leverage PAA to their advantage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1092,"featured_media":142215,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[369,37,27968,7848,986,27966,27967,27103,232,22,32],"content_type":[],"class_list":["post-142209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-seo","tag-evergreen-content","tag-google","tag-google-features","tag-google-research","tag-keyword-optimization","tag-paa","tag-paa-box","tag-people-also-ask","tag-semrush","tag-seo","tag-serps"],"acf":{"tad_independentcommercial":false,"tad_content_format":false},"post_info":{"name":"idris.nagri@blenheimchalcot.com idris.nagri@blenheimchalcot.com","title":"","thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Search-Engine-Watch-Uncovering-Google\u2019s-Hidden-Gem.png","category":"SEO","timeago":"5y"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1092"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142209"},{"taxonomy":"content_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content_type?post=142209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}