PAA Optimisation

Written by Cobus van der Westhuizen, reviewed by Wynand van der Westhuizen, fact-checked by Lenata Oosthuizen. Last reviewed July 2026. Editorial policy.

What Is PAA Optimisation?

PAA optimisation refers to the deliberate structuring of content so that Google selects it to appear in the People Also Ask (PAA) accordion boxes that appear within search results pages.

PAA boxes show a list of related questions, each expandable to reveal a short answer pulled from a webpage. Clicking any question expands it and dynamically loads further related questions, creating a nested discovery experience for searchers.

PAA boxes appear for a wide range of queries in South Africa, particularly informational searches such as "how does X work" or "what is the difference between X and Y". They often appear above the fold, meaning a PAA listing can deliver brand impressions even when your page does not rank in the top three organic positions.

Effective PAA optimisation involves identifying the questions your target audience is already asking in your niche, then writing content that answers each question in two to four clear sentences immediately below a heading phrased as the question.

Adding FAQ schema markup helps Google recognise and categorise your Q&A pairs. The answer should be self-contained, factual, and not require additional context to make sense when shown in isolation inside the PAA box.

For SEO professionals working with South African clients, PAA optimisation is especially valuable for service businesses and e-commerce brands that want visibility for comparative or definitional queries.

A law firm in Pretoria, for example, might earn PAA placements for questions like "what documents do I need for a will in South Africa-" by adding a tightly written Q&A section to their relevant service page.

Because PAA content also feeds AI Overviews and generative search results, the same well-structured answers that earn PAA placements also improve AI search visibility.

PAA Optimisation In Practice

A Johannesburg-based financial services firm wants to increase organic visibility for insurance-related queries without bidding on expensive paid keywords. Their SEO team audits the People Also Ask boxes for their core search terms and finds recurring questions such as "what does comprehensive car insurance cover in South Africa-" and "how much does short-term insurance cost per month-"

The team adds a dedicated FAQ section to the firm's car insurance landing page, phrasing each heading as the exact question Google surfaces in PAA boxes. Each answer is written in three sentences: a direct response, a supporting detail, and a call to action.

Within eight weeks, two of the answers are pulled into PAA boxes for relevant queries, increasing branded impressions by 34% without any additional spend.

The same content also starts appearing in AI Overview summaries for related long-tail queries, demonstrating how PAA-optimised content supports visibility across both traditional and AI-powered search surfaces. Ongoing PAA monitoring using tools like AlsoAsked or SEMrush allows the team to identify new question clusters as they emerge, keeping the content aligned with what South African users are actively searching.

What People Also Ask optimisation is

People Also Ask (PAA) optimisation is the practice of creating and structuring content so that it appears in Google's People Also Ask boxes, the expandable question-and-answer boxes Google shows in search results, presenting related questions that, when clicked, reveal a brief answer drawn from a web page (with a link to the source). PAA boxes appear for many searches, showing a set of related questions people also ask, and expanding one reveals a concise answer extracted from a source page, offering another way for content to be surfaced prominently in search and to earn visibility and clicks. PAA optimisation aims to have your content be the source Google draws on for these answers, so your page is featured (and linked) in the People Also Ask box for relevant questions. Because PAA boxes surface answers to related questions, appearing in them is a form of answer-surface visibility closely related to featured snippets: the same clear, direct, well-answered content that wins featured snippets is what tends to be drawn on for PAA answers, since both extract concise answers to questions from pages. PAA optimisation therefore overlaps substantially with featured-snippet and question-answering content optimisation, focusing on providing clear, direct answers to the questions people ask. Understanding People Also Ask optimisation matters because PAA boxes are a common, prominent search feature that surfaces question-answers and can bring visibility and clicks, so knowing what PAA optimisation is, creating content to appear in People Also Ask boxes, helps a business pursue this form of answer-based visibility by answering the related questions people ask clearly, as part of optimising for the question-answering search features that increasingly surface content.

Optimising for People Also Ask

Optimising for People Also Ask boxes is essentially an extension of clear, question-answering content and featured-snippet optimisation, since PAA answers are drawn from pages that clearly and concisely answer the questions, so the approach is to identify the relevant questions and answer them well on pages that can rank. The steps are: identify the relevant questions, the questions people ask around your topics, including the related questions that appear in PAA boxes for your target queries (which you can find by searching your topics and noting the People Also Ask questions shown, and through keyword and question research), so you know which questions to answer; provide clear, direct, concise answers to those questions in your content, answering each specific question directly and succinctly (as a concise answer block), ideally under a heading that poses or reflects the question, so Google can readily extract your answer for the PAA box, much as for a featured snippet; and ensure the content ranks and is relevant, since Google draws PAA answers from relevant, ranking pages, so the underlying content and SEO must be sound. Structuring content in a question-and-answer format (such as FAQ-style sections, or content organised around the questions people ask, with clear, direct answers) is well-suited to PAA optimisation, since it directly provides the concise question-answers PAA boxes surface. Because PAA and featured snippets both extract concise answers to questions, the same content that answers questions clearly serves both, so optimising for PAA overlaps with featured-snippet and broader answer-focused optimisation. On the value for a business, appearing in PAA boxes brings additional prominent visibility in search (your content featured and linked in the expandable answer), which can earn clicks and visibility, and being surfaced for multiple related questions across PAA boxes extends reach, so PAA appearance is a worthwhile form of search visibility, particularly as answer-based features grow. For a South African business, optimising for People Also Ask means identifying the related questions its audience asks (including those shown in PAA boxes for its target queries), providing clear, direct, concise answers to them in its content (in a question-answering, FAQ-style structure where suitable), on pages that rank, so its content is drawn on for the PAA answers, gaining prominent visibility and clicks. Because PAA optimisation rests on clearly answering the questions people ask, overlapping with featured-snippet and answer-focused content, the practical approach is to answer the relevant questions clearly and concisely on ranking pages, which positions content to appear in People Also Ask boxes and, simultaneously, in featured snippets and AI answers, making clear question-answering content valuable across these answer-based search features, which is why PAA optimisation is a sensible part of modern, answer-focused SEO.

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