The Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) have seen many important transformations over the last few years. If you’re building a website these days you might have heard of the Featured Snippets, Local Packs, Knowledge Graph & possibly the People Also Ask (PAA) Boxes. All these features focus on improving your presence on the search engine results. 

You can’t think of a smart SEO strategy without positioning your website on these parameters. The Internet marketing aspects are continuously getting smarter and if you want to surpass your competitors you have to accept this. You have to change accordingly. After all, learning never ends for an IT professional. 

The ‘People Also Ask’ boxes are introduced to provide search engine users with a more reinforced form of results, where they could easily figure out other websites with related information. Visitors obviously don’t rely on a single piece of information, especially when going to buy an expensive product. This way, you can provide them a more reliable form of information, if you’ve got a fine content writing skill. And, the ‘People Also Ask’ box will essentially support you on this. 

With this article, we want to educate many aspiring web developers & internet marketers like you about the meaning and importance of the ‘People Also Ask’ box. We’ve covered the following queries to give you a detailed overview of the subject:

• What do we mean by the PAA box?
• What are the features & uses of this box?
• Do I really need to use the PAA box?
• How can I rank in the PAA box?

You can immediately start using the feature by merely going through the meaning of it. However, we suggest you get a complete overview by reading the whole article thoroughly. It will help you get rid of further doubts & difficulties. Without further due, let’s get started!

What do we mean by the PAA box?

There are billions of products and services available on the internet. Apart from that, the internet is the biggest source of information available on earth right now. Online traffic is the leading factor that has made it possible. And it is consistently increasing with the increase in the world population. Internet service providers aim to reach each and every corner of the planet where people reside. They want everyone to access the internet. Therefore you have to understand the significance of your website traffic. 

The ‘People Also Ask’ box is just another SERP feature that aims toward increasing your website traffic. The user search queries are not limited to the search bar anymore. Nowadays, you’ll find a PPA box in every 3rd search engine result for your questions and queries. As there are lots of websites to answer the user’s queries, Google provides them a box filled with the foremost web pages associated with the information. That’s what we call a ‘People Also Ask’ box. For improved SEO you can put your web page links in this box. Google crawlers often like these things.

What are the features of the PAA box?

To identify a PAA box you simply have to put a question in the Google search bar. Make sure to put a relevant & common question related to a product or service. It is not necessary that you only put one with a question mark. For example, look at this keyword- “best coffee shop in New Delhi”. It seems a query, however, doesn’t have a question mark. The Google search bar has nothing to do with the punctuation. Stepping ahead, you’ll find a box somewhere in the search engine results. It will be showing a couple of questions related to your query, each with a drop-down icon on the right side. When you click on the icon, you get a web page link & a meta description of the information within. 

That’s what we call a PAA box. It ensures visitors don’t have to type similar questions in the google search bar again & again to approach different information. Here’s a list of added features associated with the PAA box:

1. PAA boxes can be situated anywhere

The very first thing you’ll notice about a PPA box is that it could be situated anywhere in the SERP. It depends upon the keywords & queries you put. Google has to prioritize the search engine outcomes according to the keywords used. The following factors may affect the positioning of the PAA boxes:

• Product Categories the users look for
• Category of the service the visitor are looking for
• The requirement of the Search Engine Snippet
• Importance of the Search Engine Ads
• The requirement of the shopping platforms
• Significance of the SEO portion
• Significance of the web page & blog posts
• The need for the Image carousel
• Leading organic results etc

2. PAA Boxes include video content

The next amazing thing about PAA boxes is that it can show video results too. Certain questions require a detailed video explanation and millions of internet surfers approach such results. Moreover, if you’ve got a website with a substantial video collection related to your work, products & services, the PAA box is going to be your best friend. Video results are generally associated with curiosity or learning-based questions, like:

• What is the information structure of a renowned government website?
• How to install a water heater?
• Why is it important to apply AC systems for household supply?
• Why are planets spherical in shape? And so on.

In the coming future, video results are going to rule. With the commencement of YouTube, the popularity of video traffic has enhanced a lot. Even emerging webmasters & bloggers prefer to add small video clips & GIF files in their blogs & articles these days. To retain the reader’s attention you may go for such SERP techniques. 

3. You get a feedback

This is one of the most useful features of the PAA box. Though it is barely visible to a new user, it doesn’t remain an issue when they get used to it. If you look at the extreme bottom of the PAA results, you’ll find the hyperlink with associated anchor text. The hyperlink leads visitors to a feedback window that constitutes the enlisted queries:

• What do you think of the information?
• Was it helpful?
• Was it irrelevant?
• Is there something wrong with the result?
• Is it useful? Etc. 

Additionally, the visitors also get a separate section for comments and suggestions. As it’s an optional feature, visitors may decide whether to write something or skip. It is really helpful for your search engine rankings as Google crawlers analyze your SERP presence effectively. You may also figure out the drawbacks in your information and presentation skills. 

4. Queries related to the same answer

The users often have misconceptions about the usability of the PAA box. They think too many queries may lead them to wrong information. But that’s not true. If your web page answers a user query perfectly, you don’t have to worry. The PAA box will surely introduce you to prospective visitors. Furthermore, PPA questions also trigger your website’s featured snippet if any. The users get a quick summary of what you’ve included in your article or blog. 

Apart from that, a PAA question also provokes different keywords. That means your PAA box web page results get visible to different queries on the search bar. This will help you capture huge traffic within a small time frame. Quite smart, isn’t it?

5. PAA box results are unlimited

There are billions of questions related to a single topic. The ‘People Also Ask’ line itself depicts that people may question a common topic in an infinite number of ways. Let’s take an example of vanilla ice cream & its qualities. The following questions may arise:

• Why vanilla ice cream is so tasty?
• What’s there in the vanilla ice cream that makes it a favorite of many?
• How’s vanilla ice cream a better option than chocolate?
• What are the leading qualities of vanilla ice cream?
• What are the health benefits of vanilla ice cream?

So you see, there are multiple questions seeking one answer. As a web developer, you have to analyze how you could throw your web pages to answer multiple queries. You can also decide on creating multiple web pages and articles to answer interrelated problems. This way you can acquire more PAA box results for your visitors. 

Do I really need to use the ‘People Also Ask’ box?

The answer is yes. However, the data of the average number of ‘People Also Ask’ box users may surprise you. A study shows that only 3-4% of searches interact with the ‘People Also Ask’ box results. Additionally, the irony is that you can’t track your website’s PAA box performance on the Google Search Console. Still, you’ve got ample reasons to get started with the PAA box. Let’s know-how:

1. PAA box improves your SEO & search engine ranking

Always remember that SEO is nothing but creating a human as well as web crawling network around your website. The PAA box results help you intensify your web network with respect to your visitors & Google crawlers. Consequently, you improve your website SEO and Google starts recognizing your website presence. No matter how slow but you could raise your position on the SERPs. More visitors will start liking your content & your style of information.

2. The future could be different

Although there’s no considerable user traffic to expect from the PAA box results today, doesn’t mean the situation won’t change in the future. Unlike web developers & internet marketers, regular internet users are often unaware of the budding features of a search engine. Moreover, due to the unstable positioning of the ‘People Also Ask’ box they like to skip it. But Google may find a solution to this in the future. If you don’t innovate you could face nasty consequences on part of your competitor’s web solutions.

3. Specified interaction rates

With the right keywords, website category, and kinds of products and services you’re going to offer, you can achieve that 3-4% interaction through a PAA box. If you have not decided on your business plans yet, must review what users often approach on the internet. However, it can be a very unrealistic approach if you wish to create a single niche website. Multiple niche website owners can surely draw benefits out of this technique. Moreover, analyzing the most distributed search queries can help you achieve special interaction rates.

4. Source for multiple answers

Though the PAA box doesn’t seem an effective solution for generating online traffic, you won’t face much competition from other webmasters. Consequently, Google may consider your web page as a fine source for multiple answers & display you in the top results. For this, you have to hold patience and keep using the PAA boxes. It’s not necessary that you shine only before the users & visitors. Taking care of the search engine is equally important.

5. Source of multiple queries

Google can also help you alternatively. If you could concentrate on an important question that is widely distributed among the information seekers and create a web page solely dedicated to providing for those issues, you could win the game. Because Google often displays a common question in the ‘People Also Ask’ box to serve hundreds of queries on the main search bar. Try to include the most relative titles in your articles & blogs and go for it!

How can I rank in the PAA Box?

Now if you’ve decided to go for a PAA box result with your emerging web page, remember, the competition is low but not evitable. Around 547,000 new websites are created worldwide every day. So are the number of webmasters. As such, you must undergo a proper guideline to achieve a higher rank in the PAA box. In the last segment of this article, we are going to teach you how you can win the PAA box results with your web page ingredients. Stay with us!

1. Assess your web pages

Analyzing the relevant PAA query is your first step to triumph. On the basis of that only you can optimize your web pages accordingly. However, finding the right PAA box questions could be complicated without adequate keyword support. Questions with high monthly volume keywords shall make a difference. In simple words, you need to associate a question with numerous high volume keywords. And, then comes the website assessment part. Figure out your website pages that rank for different keywords. For better understanding, you can approach the Ahref Site Explorer. You can get started reviewing your Top Pages report. 

2. Assess your keywords column

The next step leads you to the keyword potential your top web pages acquire. You will see a keyword column dedicated to your top web pages. You can choose any web page URL & proceed for a devoted organic keywords report associated with that URL. After that, you can simply apply the following filters to squeeze the best keywords out of every web page URL. 

• Filter for keywords below 20
• Filter for keywords with monthly volume not less than 10
• Filter for keywords with PAA box in results

That’s it. You can export this keywords list to CSV format for further review. You can also make use of these keywords to enhance your web page performance in the future. 

3. Go back to PAA results

Coming back to questions, you might be keen to know which ones in the PAA box are showing up for your selected keywords list. For further assistance, follow these steps:

• Paste your keywords list into the Ahref Keyword Explorer
• Go to the ‘Export’ button and click
• Make sure to tick mark the ‘Include SERPs’ box concurrently
• Export the file

4. Finding frequent questions for your web page

Moving ahead you have to understand that Google always chooses a common source to answer inter-related questions, whether there are multiple queries in the search bar. Or you can say, multiple keywords could contribute to a common question in the PAA box result. You can optimize your web page considering this principle. 

For doing this, you can create a list of the most familiar questions to your web page content and merge it with the keyword’s list you’ve created earlier. The point is that you have to analyze each and every question with respect to the number of associated keywords. To make it further simple, you have to find out how many times each of those questions emerge in the PAA results along with all the keywords your specified web page ranks for. Open google sheet and create a pivot table if you want to make it quite systematic.

Final Thoughts

Before binding up you have to make sure that if Google has already made you the source or else it will be a waste of time. Though it doesn’t happen often. You can check anytime if you’re eligible for the PAA box ranking or not. Furthermore, never stop creating fine content to rank better on the PAA box. You can often find top brand queries to be your true companion. Keywords are again a powerful source of creating awareness for your website and web pages. Keywords are the backbone of SEO, never forget that. All the best!!