Winning Website Strategy for Coveted ‘People Also Ask’ Ranking

In addition to organic search and paid ads claiming prominent spaces on Google search engine results pages (SERPs), you may have noticed an expanding People Also Ask (PAA) list. An experienced SEO agency knows the PAA box is as essential as ranking for organic search results.

PAA can promote site authority on a topic and increase traffic to your website, blog, or video channels. This guide will help you optimize for the PAA using winning strategies like:

• Create sample questions
• Make valuable content
• Improve content formatting

Start optimizing for PAA results. Let’s go!

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Create Sample Questions

Optimizing your content to become part of the PAA box starts by coming up with relevant questions. When you search for your primary keyword, you find various PAA questions with their corresponding answers. Each time you click on a question, the section expands to reveal more questions that users can explore.

Find questions that relate to your content. Use a spreadsheet to list these and try to rehash them, but keep your questions concise and relevant. In addition to Google search, you may also use free tools to analyze your keywords and look for popular terms in your industry.

Tools such as Answer the Public are easy to use. Begin by researching your niche keywords. If your website is about juicing, enter the primary keyword "juicing" in the search field.  Then choose the region and language you want to target.

The seed keyword "juicing" in the United States presents more than 80 questions; some start with are, can, how, what, when, where, and why. You also get comparison data results like "juicing or smoothies" or "juicing and cancer." It also displays related keywords to help you target the PAA box. "Juicing" yields "juicing recipes," "juicing benefits," and "juicing near me."

With all these ideas, you can create sample questions for your content. Remember these pointers before you start.

• Check answers as well. Look at the possible questions to rank for in PAA and keyword research tools, but check for their answers too. Not all answers are in article form. Some PAA answers are in video, infographics, podcast, and PDF form, so use these types of content as well.
• Use these questions as headings. One way to get Google to recognize your content for PAA is to use the questions you came up with as headings. You can also use a question as a title of your content or page if relevant, like "What Are The Benefits of Juicing?" or "10 Juicing for Weight Loss Recipes."
• Create concise, on-point answers. If you are using a question as your title or heading, provide a quick, accurate, and straightforward answer right after it. This shows Google that you have the most relevant response for the question and that your page should go into the PAA section.

Make Valuable Content

The essential technique for being part of the PAA box is to improve your content. You must produce relevant, informative, and helpful content for your audience. Remember how the PAA section expands to show more questions? You want people to find your page on the PAA, see your best answer, stay, and stop moving downward.

Let’s look at “juicing” one more time. This seed keyword yields PAA results like “Is juicing good for you?” “What happens to your body when juicing?” and “What are the pros and cons of juicing?” From these results, you can create a good outline for your content about "What Are the Benefits of Juicing?"

• What is considered juicing?
• What happens to your body when juicing?
• What are the benefits of juicing?
• What are the top foods you can juice?

These questions are what someone new to juicing needs to know to start practicing this diet or lifestyle change. Answer these questions with updated, well-researched content to make your pages more authoritative. Google will thus likely use your content as part of the PAA.

Aside from creating new content, check your existing posts and tweak them so they answer PAA questions. Remember, answers could also be in other content formats like video or infographics, so consider repurposing your content to increase your chance of getting featured in the PAA.

Improve Content Formatting

Even if you have great content, getting your pages into Google's PAA would be challenging if you did not follow proper formatting. Correct formatting helps Google better understand your content, index it, and show it once someone searches using your keywords.

The format of the content depends on the question on the PAA. If Google thinks the best response to a query is a video, it recommends a video, and if it thinks a list works better, then a list it is. Follow these formatting tips, so you know what Google will likely show for PAA questions.

• Make URL, title tags, and meta descriptions readable. Optimize these using your keywords. Make your URL concise and SEO-friendly by removing unnecessary directories, using a consistent format, and making URLs trustworthy. Watch your title and meta description length, include your brand name, and make these enticing.
• Add schema markup. These are coding labels to help Google categorize your pages. Use the Structured Data Markup Helper to add schemas. You can select from 797 types of schemas. The most popular ones are: event, organization, person, place, and product.
• Create multiple types of content. This ensures people understand your message and help you align with Google's expectations on what to present as answers in the PAA.

Summing Up

You can optimize your pages and rank in Google's "People Also Ask" section by formulating sample questions, creating valuable content, and improving content formatting. Your pages featured in the PAA show your authority in your industry and promote your brand, business, or organization.

Adding PAA optimization to organic SEO can promote your pages on SERPs, significantly increasing visibility and traffic. Do you want to learn more about how PAA can boost your popularity online? Call Digital Authority Partners and find out.