Could your plumbing company’s website use more organic traffic? If so, you should know about People Also Ask, or PAA for short. This handy Google feature helps users find your business while establishing your plumbing company as an authority. It’s a powerful tool you’d be smart to take advantage of.
Below, learn how to optimize for People Also Ask from our SEO company for plumbers.
What Is People Also Ask?
If you use Google to look up information (and who doesn’t), you’re probably already familiar with People Also Ask. This Google feature shows users a list of questions and answers relevant to their query. Users can click on a question to see a brief answer. If they’d like to learn more, they can click on the link to the site from which the answer came.
The PAA box usually features three or four questions. When a user clicks on one, Google might add some more related questions to explore. For example, if a user clicks “How do I file business taxes?” Google might display a question such as “What documents do I need to file business taxes?” next.
PAA results aren’t always text. Sometimes, Google will display a video result. For instance, if a user searches for “how to build a bookcase,” PAA might contain a video discussing the topic.
Not every query yields a PAA box. Queries that start with “who,” “what,” “why,” “where,” “when,” and “how” tend to trigger the highest number of PAA results.
The number of words in a query can also affect the chance of PAA showing up. Less than half of queries with three words will trigger PAA. Queries with 10 or more words, on the other hand, trigger PAA 72% of the time.
Why bother learning how to optimize for People Also Ask in the first place? It’s all part of Google’s goal to become a “knowledge engine.” Google wants users to find answers to their queries quickly, and to help achieve that result, People Also Ask was born.
Where Does PAA Appear in the SERPs?
The People Also Ask box typically appears highly in the SERPs (search engine result pages), often above the fold (the part of the screen visible without having to scroll down). This is great news for plumbing companies with websites that don’t rank well.
Imagine you have a website that’s stuck on the second page of the search results. You’ve tried everything you can think of to outrank your competitors, but your position hasn’t budged.
Then one day, Google selects some of your content for the People Also Ask box. Overnight, you’ve got more visibility than you ever had before. This lets you take advantage of being on the first page of Google despite your website only ranking on page two.
Which Industries Get the Most PAA Results?
Interestingly, certain industries get more PAA results than others. The top industries for PAA results are arts and entertainment, computers and electronics, and travel. The real estate industry is at the bottom of the pack. Queries related to this industry trigger PAA results only about 9% of the time.
What about plumbing? Plumbing may fall under the “Business & Industrial” category, which triggers People Also Ask results about 43% of the time. This might not seem like a big percentage, but when it comes to turning leads into customers, visibility is king.
Why It’s Worth Scoring a Spot in the PAA Box
So, why should you care about People Also Ask? We’ve already mentioned that PAA can give you the benefit of ranking on the first page of Google. But there are several other reasons PAA is worth paying attention to. Let’s go over those reasons next.
Can Improve Your Organic Ranking
When your website shows up in People Also Ask results, you’ll inevitably get more clicks and impressions. The more clicks you get, the more Google sees you as an authority. It may reward you by bumping up your site’s position in the SERPs.
Helps You Avoid Brand Degradation
You may not think that competitors would go so far as to besmirch your good name, but you’d be surprised by what some plumbing businesses will do. If a competitor says something bad about your business and that info shows up in the People Also Ask results, this is a problem.
For instance, let’s say you have a plumbing company called Wonder Plumbers of Atlanta. A user searches for “Wonder Plumbers of Atlanta reviews.”
An underhanded competitor puts content on their site that paints you in a less-than-favorable light. The user’s query triggers a question such as “Is Wonder Plumbers of Atlanta any good?” with an answer taken from your competitor’s site.
The answer might be something like, “Wonder Plumbers doesn’t offer 24/7 emergency plumbing like we do. If you need speedy plumbing services, call XYZ Plumbers.”
You can see how this causes a problem for your business. Thankfully, you don’t need to take such attacks lying down. If you can craft a better, more engaging answer to the question, “Is Wonder Plumbers of Atlanta any good?” Google will show your content in the PAA results instead,
Allows You To Attract Users at Various Stages of the Buying Journey
If a user lands on your website, they probably know they need a plumber. But what about those users who aren’t sure whether they need your services? PAA gives you the perfect opportunity to convince them.
For instance, you could write a blog post titled “Five Signs Your Plumbing Is on the Fritz.” You might also target PAA questions such as “Why is my shower not draining?” and “How do you get rid of stubborn clogs?”
Optimizing for People Also Ask
So, you are convinced of the power of People Also Ask but aren’t quite sure how to take advantage of it. If you’d like some tips on how to optimize for People Also Ask, you’ll find all the details to get started below.
Choose a Powerful SEO Tool
You know the importance of SEO when ranking your site on Google. But did you know SEO also plays a big part in People Also Ask results?
You’ll find many great SEO tools out there to help you, quite a few of which are free. For WordPress users, one of the best is All in One SEO, or AIOSEO for short. It comes with awesome features perfect for businesses that want their content highlighted in PAA. These features include the following:
- Advanced robots.txt generator for speedier crawling and indexing
- AI-powered generator for meta descriptions and SEO titles
- Google Search Console integration
- Automatic internal link builder
- SEO audit recommendations
- Sitemap generator
Find Relevant Keywords
Making content based on low-performing keywords doesn’t do you much good. And even if a keyword does perform well, that doesn’t mean it’s relevant to your plumbing business.
Want an easy, free way to find questions to rank for? Simply choose a focus keyword, such as “plumbers in Houston” or “leaking toilet.” Type that keyword into the Google search bar, and you’ll see a list of relevant long-tail queries. Each query likely has its own set of PAA results. Choose a few questions from these results and rewrite the answers, but better.
You might also consider using a paid tool like Semrush to speed up your keyword research. Semrush is a great choice because once you’ve entered a keyword, you only have to click a tab to see a list of related question-based queries.
Create Content That Shines
As any good digital marketing strategist will tell you, content is king. If you want your answers to show up in the PAA box, you can’t just slap any old content on your site and call it a day.
To optimize your content, you must understand the user’s search intent. For plumbing companies, the user’s search intent is probably either commercial or informational. For instance, if a user is looking for a local plumber to hire, that’s a commercial intent. If they want to know how to stop their toilet from running constantly, they have an informational intent.
Don’t Focus Solely on Text
It’s true that Google takes nearly 80% of PAA answers from text-based content, so that’s what you’ll want to focus on the most. However, don’t discount other answer formats, such as video, tables, and lists.
Videos are great for answering “how to” questions, especially in the plumbing industry. You could make videos that show users how to:
- Snake a drain
- Extract objects from a garbage disposal
- Troubleshoot their water heater
- Fix a small leak under the sink
Best of all, you can repurpose your videos by tossing them up on YouTube, Instagram, or another social media site. This is a smart way to attract more organic traffic to your site.
Structure Your Content Well
The structure of your content plays a big role in whether Google selects it for People Also Ask. Always answer questions concisely in as few words as possible. If you answer questions using long, rambling paragraphs, Google probably won’t highlight your content in PAA.
Headings can help, too. Structure your content with H2, H3, and H4 headings when appropriate. This helps Google visualize where a question’s answer begins and ends.
Not sure where to put these headings? Use H2 tags for main sections and H3 tags for subsections. For instance, you could give a section called “Signs You Need a Plumber” an H2 tag. Subtopics, such as “Your Water Bills Are Too High” and “You Hear Water Running Behind the Walls,” can take H3 tags.
H4 tags are ideal for covering less important content. You may find them helpful for breaking up lengthy H3 sections.
Choose the Right Number of Words
Writing long paragraphs about a topic you’re familiar with is tempting, especially if you’ve been in your field for many years, but if you want your content to show up in People Also Ask, you must prioritize brevity.
Research suggests that the average number of words in a paragraph chosen for PAA is 41. Very few PAA answers have more words than that. Keep this in mind if you ever feel the urge to get wordy.
What about lists? The average PAA list has six items. If your list has more items than that, Google probably won’t show it in the PAA results.
As for tables, PAA results can display tables with up to 14 rows and three columns.
Use the FAQ Schema
If you’re wondering why so many websites seem to have a Frequently Asked Questions section at the bottom of the page, the answer is that it’s great for SEO. FAQs provide condensed, easily digestible answers to users’ most common questions. Readers love them because they can get the information they need at a glance.
Many businesses take their FAQs directly from PAA results. You can do this, too, but don’t just copy Google’s answer. Rephrase the question a bit and rewrite the answer in your own words. If your content is more engaging, Google might show your answer in the PAA results instead.
To stand a better chance of Google recognizing your content, you should use the FAQ schema. This schema tells Google that you’re answering user questions, so your content is more likely to end up in the PAA results.
Most good SEO tools allow you to add FAQ schema with the click of a button. If you use WordPress, just add the FAQ block in the content editor, and you’re done.
Add Jump Links for Easy Navigation
Is there anything more irritating than having to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page to find answers to your questions? If you only pay attention to one SEO rule, let it be this: Don’t annoy your users.
Google favors websites that prioritize easy navigation. To streamline things and avoid wasting your user’s time, put jump links at the top of pages with lots of content. Users can quickly see the page’s content and go directly to the section they want with a single click.
Try a PAA Scraper Tool
Having trouble coming up with questions on your own? Tools such as Screaming Frog, STAT, and Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer are perfect if you need a helping hand. All you have to do is enter a keyword, and then the tool goes to work, scraping PAA results for that keyword and its variants.
Once you’ve gotten the results, you may see several PAA questions that are similar but phrased in slightly different ways. For instance, your tool might give you these questions: “How do I fix a clogged toilet?” “What do you do if a toilet won’t flush?” and “How do you plunge a toilet?”
This is a good sign that the question is worth pursuing. Review the PAA results for your desired question and craft your answer to be more helpful and engaging than the one written by the competition.
Master the PAA Results With Relentless Digital
We hope you’ve enjoyed learning how to optimize for People Also Ask. By following our tips, you’ve got a serious shot at drawing in more users and boosting your site’s position in the SERPs.
If you could use some help figuring out PAA results or social signals in SEO, reach out to Relentless Digital. We offer content writing, email marketing, reputation management, and much more for your industry.
To learn more about our services, book a free strategy session now.
