Find High Traffic Content Ideas using PAA & Bulk URL Metrics

What is PAA?

People Also Ask (PAA) is a Google search feature, a box of questions that people interested in a topic commonly ask.

It is effectively endless. Click one question and four more open beneath it, each related to the one you clicked, so a single search can unfold into hundreds of real questions your audience wants answered.

People Also Ask boxes on a Google search results page

That makes PAA a goldmine for content ideas, because every question is a topic people are already searching for.

This guide shows you how to pull as many PAA questions as possible, find the pages already ranking for them that get the most traffic, and turn that into content ideas that are likely to bring you traffic too.

How to download all PAAs

First, install the SEO Minion extension for Chrome, Firefox or Edge.

Once installed, you will see its icon in your browser toolbar.

The SEO Minion icon in the browser toolbar

You will need a Keywords Everywhere Silver subscription or higher to use this, since Silver and up include SEO Minion. Add your Keywords Everywhere API key on the SEO Minion settings page so the two work together.

Now run a Google search for your main query. Google shows PAA boxes for most searches.

On the right of the results you will see the SEO Minion SERP widget. It can pull all sorts of data from the page, the PAA questions plus stats on the videos, images, news and map results, here we will use it to collect every PAA question.

Choose "Download" in the first dropdown and "PAA Suggestions (200 clicks)" in the second, then click "Go".

The SEO Minion SERP widget set to download PAA suggestions

SEO Minion now clicks every available PAA box, up to 200 clicks, which keeps revealing more questions. It takes a few minutes, and you can watch the progress as a percentage.

The SEO Minion PAA download showing its progress

When it finishes, it automatically downloads everything as a CSV file.

Find the URLs ranking for those PAAs

Open the CSV file in Excel, Google Sheets or any spreadsheet program.

(Tip: you can also choose "Copy" instead of "Download" in the first dropdown and paste straight into a spreadsheet.)

The file has four columns:

  • PAA Title: the question people also ask.
  • Text: the answer snippet Google shows.
  • URL: the page Google sourced that snippet from.
  • URL Title: the title of that page.

You will usually get around 500 to 600 PAAs for a single keyword.

The downloaded PAA questions, snippets and URLs in a spreadsheet

Filter the URLs by traffic

Now you know which pages rank for these questions. Next, find the ones worth learning from, the pages pulling the most traffic.

Copy the whole URL column. Click the Keywords Everywhere icon and choose Bulk Traffic Metrics (URL) from the popup menu.

The Bulk Traffic Metrics link in the Keywords Everywhere popup

A new tab opens. Paste the URLs in and click Get Metrics.

Pasting URLs into the bulk traffic metrics page

You now see every URL with its monthly traffic and the total number of keywords it ranks for. Click the "Traffic/mo" heading to sort the column, and the strongest pages rise to the top.

URLs sorted by monthly traffic and keyword count

Click any URL to see the keywords it ranks for, and check the page itself to understand its topic.

The keywords a chosen URL ranks for

Build a better piece of content around that same topic, optimised for the keywords shown, and you have an article aimed squarely at the questions people are already asking.

Questions you may have

What is a People Also Ask (PAA) box?
People Also Ask is a Google search feature, a box of related questions that people searching for a topic commonly ask. It expands as you use it: click one question and more appear beneath it, so a single search can surface hundreds of real questions. Each one is a content idea backed by genuine search demand.
How do I download all the People Also Ask questions?
Install the SEO Minion extension, run a Google search, and open the SEO Minion SERP widget on the right of the results. Choose Download, then PAA Suggestions (200 clicks), then Go. SEO Minion keeps clicking the questions to reveal more, and downloads everything as a CSV file. You usually end up with around 500 to 600 questions for one keyword.
What do I need to use this workflow?
A Keywords Everywhere subscription at the Silver tier or higher, which includes SEO Minion. Install the SEO Minion extension for Chrome, Firefox or Edge, then add your Keywords Everywhere API key on the SEO Minion settings page so the two work together. The PAA download in this guide needs that Silver or higher plan.
Can I use Keywords Everywhere in bulk?
Yes. This guide uses Bulk Traffic Metrics, which takes a list of URLs and returns the monthly traffic and the number of keywords each one ranks for. Keywords Everywhere can also return search volume, CPC and competition for a long list of keywords at once, so you can research in bulk instead of one keyword at a time. Both are reached from the Keywords Everywhere icon in your browser.
What else can SEO Minion pull from the SERP?
Besides People Also Ask questions, SEO Minion can download other SERP data and stats, such as the videos, images, news and local results that appear for a search. It also does on-page SEO analysis, broken-link checking and a SERP preview, so it is useful well beyond PAA research.
How many PAA questions can I get for one keyword?
SEO Minion clicks up to 200 People Also Ask boxes, and each click can reveal more, so you typically collect around 500 to 600 questions for a single keyword. That is usually far more than enough to plan a cluster of content around a topic.
How does this help my SEO?
Every PAA question is something people are actively searching for. By matching the questions to the pages already ranking for them and sorting by traffic, you can see which topics genuinely pull visitors. Build better content around those proven topics, optimised for the keywords those pages rank for, and you target demand that already exists.