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Question keywords: finding what people ask Google and AI

·4 min read

Question keywords are the searches people phrase as a question, like "how long does a heat pump last" or "is a heat pump worth it in a cold climate". They matter more now because AI assistants are asked questions, so one list can plan pages for Google and AI answers. Collect the short questions people type into Google, collect the longer questions AI answers respond to, merge them, then turn each distinct answer into a section with the question as its heading.

Why question keywords matter more now

A question states the need outright. "Heat pump" could be research, shopping or a repair. "Why is my heat pump blowing cold air" means one thing.

AI search raised the stakes. People write full questions into ChatGPT or Google's AI Mode, and the answer is assembled from passages that each answer a narrower question. When a system splits a prompt into sub-questions and searches each one, that is query fan-out. A page whose sections answer specific questions gives it passages to lift.

Google questions vs AI prompts

They express the same needs in different shapes.

Questions typed into Google Questions asked to AI assistants
Length A few words, often a fragment A full sentence, often with context
Example heat pump cold climate Will a heat pump keep a 1970s house in Minnesota warm at -20°F, or do I need a backup furnace?
Search volume Estimated by keyword tools No public figure for prompts
What it tells you The topic and the wording people search The situation, constraints and decision behind it

Many Google question keywords carry no question word at all. "Heat pump worth it", "heat pump vs furnace" and "heat pump cost" are questions with the "is" and "how much" dropped. Filter only for who, what and how and you lose a big share of them. Add modifiers like worth it, vs, cost, best, problems and alternatives to your filter.

AI prompts carry the context a keyword strips out, so they make better briefs than headings. Our post on the questions people ask ChatGPT covers why no one outside OpenAI sees real prompts and which proxies come closest.

How to find question keywords for Google

Google autocomplete, the People also ask box and your own Search Console queries give you the short form. Our People also ask guide walks through collecting that box by hand, and the AnswerThePublic alternatives post compares the tools and has a Search Console regex for question queries. Question Finder pulls autocomplete questions for a topic and marks which ones a page already answers, at 15 credits a run.

Record each question's wording exactly. You want the common phrasing for the heading later.

How to find the questions people ask AI

Use three sources, and expect less volume data than Google gives you.

  1. Datasets of AI answers. Some data providers track the questions that AI Overviews and ChatGPT answer, with the sources each answer cites.
  2. Your customers' own words. Sales calls, support tickets and chat logs read like prompts, context included.
  3. Fan-out from a prompt. Take one long question and list what a complete answer would have to cover. The Minnesota prompt above needs the coldest temperature the unit works at, what happens below it, backup heat options and running cost. Each of those is a question keyword in its own right.

How to turn a question list into page sections

Group questions by their answer, not their words, then give each group one section.

  1. Merge duplicates. "How long do heat pumps last" and "heat pump lifespan" share one answer. Keep the most searched wording as the heading.
  2. Split by intent. A question that needs its own comparison or buying decision, like "heat pump vs furnace", gets its own page. Questions that support one topic become sections on one page.
  3. Order sections the way a buyer asks. Does it work for me, what does it cost, how to choose, then setup and problems.
  4. Write the heading as the question. Answer it in the first sentence, then use the prompt context for the detail, such as house age, climate and budget.
  5. Drop questions you can't answer well.

A page built from the heat pump list might look like this:

H1  Heat pumps for cold climates
H2  Do heat pumps work in cold climates?
H2  How cold is too cold for a heat pump?
H2  Do you need a backup furnace with a heat pump?
H2  How much does a cold-climate heat pump cost to run?
H2  How long does a heat pump last?

Don't chop the page into dozens of tiny sections hoping each one gets quoted. Google's guide to optimizing for generative AI search says there's no need to break content into small pieces for generative AI search. A section should hold a full answer, and where a list or table answers better than prose, use one. The featured snippets post covers that formatting for Google.

Find the questions AI answers about your topic

AI Question Finder looks up a topic, or a website to see which questions cite it, in Google AI Overviews or ChatGPT. You pick one platform per run, and one of 20 countries or all of them. It lists the 25 most searched questions the data provider tracks, with estimated monthly searches, the start of each answer, the day it was last seen and the first five sources. It also lists the sites cited across the most questions, which shows what kind of page wins each section.

The data covers the questions people ask most, with far fewer for ChatGPT than for AI Overviews, and a short phrase or single word can return loosely related questions, so enter a full phrase. It doesn't show whether an answer sends visitors. A run costs 160 credits. A lookup the provider has no record for is refunded, and one that finds the topic but no questions is still charged.

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