Google seems to have restored the people also ask search feature to normal levels of saturation. Earlier this month, Google reduced the number of times a people also ask box would show up in Google Search by about 30 percentage points. As of this morning, the people also ask search box is now showing up again for about 60% of desktop queries.
What is people also ask. People also ask is a search feature in Google that shows other queries or questions people enter into Google Search. Those questions can be expanded to show more questions and answers to those questions.
Here is what it looks like:
The data. Here are charts from these data providers showing the 30-point drop and then return in the people also ask feature. It went from 60% saturation to 30% and then back to 60%.
RankRanger data:
Semrush data:
seoClarity data:
Why we care. Not only is the people also ask box a useful search refinement and expansion tool for searchers, but SEOs and SEMs love it.
SEOs and SEMs use the people also ask feature for content and keyword generation ideas. It helps marketers come up with new content that they can potentially rank for and show up in the featured snippets section of Google.
It seems like this reduction was not intentional and Google restored it, although, I personally did not see any reduction of people also ask boxes in my daily searches, at least anecdotally.
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About The Author
Barry Schwartz a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry can be followed on Twitter here.