Last week saw a big change in the SERPS. According to Moz, Google increased the rate they show their “People Also Ask” search feature by 34%.
This sudden increase means that “People Also Ask” results are now shown on 43% of all searches!
To get a better understanding of how this percentage compares to other search features, let’s look at a visual representation of all the search features and how often they are shown:
Related Questions is now the fourth most shown feature in the SERPS, showing just slightly less than AdWords.
This feature makes the search results far more accessible for users as it brings the information directly to them without the need to click on organic or paid listings, however, this may cause a decline in traffic for webmasters who rely on this traffic if their pages and content are not up to scratch.
Above you can see an example of the “People also ask” feature in action.
Each drop-down arrow opens up to reveal a search snippet from different websites, websites that provide the most relevant and informative answer – this is where your SEO opportunity lies.
The rise of “People Also Ask” appearing signifies that webmasters may want to change tactics; rather than targeting highly competitive keywords and queries you should instead think of all the different ways users may write a question into Google.
It is likely like a related question to the primary question would be less competitive and easier to achieve.
Do you appear for any “People also ask” questions in your industry? This is another way you can get your website at the top of page 1 and should be incorporated into your strategy.