Here’s How to Use Google to Make Sure Your Site is Actually Helpful

In the eyes of Google, are you actually answering your customers’ questions?

Here’s a quick way to find out:

1. Search one of the main keywords you are after in Google.
2. Look at the results page to see what “People also ask” questions appear.
3. Make a new search of just your site (site:yourdomain.com) + any of the People also ask questions.
4. Look at what page(s) appear. Do any? If so, does that page actually do a good job of answering the question, completely? If not – improve it.

Google is telling you what your customers care about with SERP features like the People also ask boxes.

Use that to see how well you actually do at fulfilling intentions. Strong, thorough answers to those questions should exist on your site.

Here’s An Example

First, I searched “hot tub” and the People also ask questions were these:

After that, I picked a local company that sells hot tubs and did a site search. That’s where I’m telling Google to only show me results under a specific domain. As you can see below I typed in “site:” followed by the domain (no spaces) and then one of the questions above.

As you can see below, the page that shows up is a specific model and judging by the words that are bold in the description, Google is having a hard time knowing whether or not this page is actually answering that question.

What I Would Do

If I were you, I’d hunt down all the People also ask queries that are relevant to your business and make sure you’ve got a good answer to them somewhere on your site.

This isn’t about trying to get into the People also ask boxes, though.

It’s about making sure your site actually offers a great experience. And a great experience isn’t defined by the pretty design of your site. It’s defined by words and your ability to help your audience find exactly what they’re looking for.