AI search glossary
People Also Ask: what Google's related questions box is and how to appear
People Also Ask is a Google search feature that shows a group of questions related to the original search; expanding a question reveals a short answer taken from a web page, shown as a featured snippet with a link.
Also called: PAA, related questions, People Also Ask box
Why it matters for AI search
People Also Ask is one of the few places where Google shows, in public, the follow-up questions it connects to a topic. AI Overviews and AI Mode split questions into subtopics in a similar way, so the PAA questions for your category are a free, rough list of the sub-questions an AI answer may need to cover. Pages that answer them plainly are better candidates for both.
How People Also Ask works
Google's documentation calls the feature a "related questions group": a cluster of questions related to what the user searched for. Each question is collapsed. When a user expands one, Google shows a featured snippet that answers it, with a link to the source page. Expanding questions often adds more questions to the list, so one search can open a long trail of follow-ups.
The box sits among Google's exploration features, which Google says help searchers expand and refine their first search. You cannot control which questions appear. Google does suggest using related queries to brainstorm content topics.
Example
A search for "is a standing desk worth it" might show questions like "How many hours a day should you stand at a standing desk?", "Do standing desks help back pain?" and "What are the disadvantages of a standing desk?" Each answer comes from a different page. A small retailer with a clear, specific answer to the disadvantages question can appear there even if it does not rank near the top for the main query.
How to earn a place
- Collect the questions. Search your main topics and note the PAA questions. Expand a few to see the next layer.
- Answer each one directly. Use the question, or close to it, as a heading and put a short, complete answer in the first sentence or two below it. Add detail after.
- Keep the answer in text. Answers inside images, tabs that load later or scripts are harder for Google to extract.
- Do not block snippets. A
nosnippetrule or a very lowmax-snippetvalue can keep a page out of featured snippets, and with them out of PAA.
Why it matters for AI search
People Also Ask and AI answers solve the same problem: one question leads to others. Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode may use query fan-out to search for subtopics, and the eligibility bar for those features is the same as for snippets: indexed and able to show a snippet. Treat PAA as a public sample of those subtopics. For the format of the answers themselves, see featured snippets. For how follow-ups play out in chat-style engines, see conversational search, and for what Google shows inside its AI results, see Google AI Overviews.
Questions
- How does Google pick the answers in People Also Ask?
- Each expanded question shows a featured snippet, and Google's systems choose featured snippets automatically. There is no markup that puts a page into People Also Ask. The page has to be indexed and answer the question well enough to be chosen.
- Does FAQ schema help me get into People Also Ask?
- Not directly. People Also Ask answers are featured snippets, which Google selects from page content. FAQ markup describes questions on your page, but it is not a ticket into the PAA box. Clear question headings with a direct answer below them are what matter.
- Can I remove my page from People Also Ask?
- Yes. Google says the nosnippet rule blocks all snippets, including featured snippets, and PAA answers are featured snippets. That also makes the page ineligible to be a supporting link in AI Overviews and AI Mode, so use it with care.
- Is People Also Ask useful for AI search research?
- Yes, as a starting list. The questions show what Google associates with a topic. They are not the exact sub-queries an AI engine runs, which Google does not publish, but they overlap with the follow-ups buyers ask.