May 2021 Google SERP Features: People Keep Also Asking

May’s Local Pack-o-Meter data is in and shows basically flat growth in all categories, except one. People Also Ask:

PAAs jumped almost two percentage points last month according to Traject Data’s Historical SERP Database of ~60 million US queries.

The monthly jump is not that interesting; it’s the steady upward trend over the past year.

This data suggests a number of possibilities including:

1. Google has continued to improve its ability to connect related queries and understand searcher intent
2. Publishers have followed this trend and created more answers on their site so Google’s algorithms have more content to point to
3. Top-ranking results for head term may have lost a lot of value as Google hijacks searchers by better targeting their intent with PAAs

All in all, should make for a fun summer of SEO.

Come back in July and we’ll see what the June tea leaves say.