People also search for is the label Google puts on a small set of related searches, most often the box that drops in under a result after you click that result and press back. It also turns up in knowledge panels and, at times, on the block of searches at the bottom of the page. Google barely documents it, so this page separates what is known from what is assumed, then shows how to use it for keyword research. For the full set of boxes Google can show, see our guide to Google SERP features.
What Google says about People Also Search For
Very little. Google’s visual elements gallery, its Search Central list of the parts of a results page (last updated 4 February 2026), does not name People Also Search For at all. The closest entries are a “related searches group” and a “related questions group”, which is People Also Ask.
The one Google-written mention we could find is old. When Google launched the Knowledge Graph on 16 May 2012, Amit Singhal, then Google’s SVP of Engineering, wrote that “the facts we show are informed by what other people have searched for,” and called “People also search for” a “magical” feature for discovery. That post is about the knowledge panel version, the row of related people, places and things beside an entity. It says nothing about the box that appears when you come back from a website.
What follows about the click-back box comes from what search reporters have observed, mainly Search Engine Roundtable.
Where People Also Search For appears
The label has been used in at least three places, and they behave differently.
Under a result, after you come back
This is the version most SEOs mean. You search, click a result, then return to Google with the back button. Under the result you visited, a box of related searches appears. Search Engine Roundtable described the mobile version on 14 October 2016: “if you click back, under the snippet of the result you clicked on, you get this carousel.”
On desktop it was tested for months and then reported as live on 13 February 2018. The trigger it described: search, “click on a search result, and then click the back button to go back to the search results.” The same report adds the catch that matters for research: “Most of the time, not always, it depends on the site you click on and the query.” In July 2018 Search Engine Roundtable reported that Google had confirmed the same click-and-return box for search ads, first on mobile and then on desktop.
In knowledge panels
Knowledge panels for people, places and things can carry a “People also search for” row of related entities. This is the version Google described in 2012. It has been redesigned several times: Search Engine Roundtable covered a scrollable mobile carousel in June 2021 and, in October 2023, data overlays on the sub-cards that show “the same data point for other people related to that query.”
This version lists entities (people, places, things), not search phrases, so it tells you more about how Google connects topics than about how people word their searches.
At the bottom of the page
The block of searches at the foot of the results page is normally titled “Related searches”. On 23 May 2024, Search Engine Roundtable reported that Google may be testing the title “people also search for” on that block instead, with one tester saying it had been going on since March. Barry Schwartz wrote: “The two are functionally not that different, from what I can tell,” and added that he was “not sure if this is a bug or a feature test.”
So if you see People Also Search For at the bottom of a page, you are looking at related searches under another name. We cover that block on its own page: what are related searches on Google?
People Also Search For vs People Also Ask vs related searches
These three get mixed up constantly, even by Google’s own results. When we checked the results for “people also search for” on google.com (US, desktop) on 4 Nov 2026, two of the related searches at the bottom were “People Also Ask” and “People Also Ask tool”, and several of the top ten pages were about People Also Ask, not PASF. The People Also Ask box on that page drifted further still, with questions such as “What are the 5 best search engines?”
| People Also Search For (click-back box) | People Also Ask | Related searches | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it shows | Short search phrases | Full questions that expand to show an answer | Short search phrases |
| Where | Under the result you visited | Among the results | Bottom of the results page |
| When | Only after you click a result and come back, and not every time | On load, for many searches | On load, for most searches |
| What a click does | Runs a new search | Opens the answer and adds more questions | Runs a new search |
| Documented by Google? | No | Yes, as a “related questions group” | Yes, as a “related searches group” |
The main difference is timing. People Also Ask and related searches are part of the page when it loads. The click-back box only exists after a visit, and it is attached to one result. It is tempting to read it as a response to a search that did not quite work out, but Google has never said so.
For how People Also Ask works, see what is People Also Ask in Google? Suggestions from google autocomplete are a separate feature again, and we compare it with PAA in the difference between Google Autocomplete and People Also Ask.
Where the suggestions come from: known and unknown
Here is what can be said with a source behind it:
- Google describes related searches as “automatically generated based on the initial query and other things people have searched for.” If the bottom block can carry the PASF label, at least that version comes from the same place.
- For the knowledge panel version, Google said in 2012 that what it shows is “informed by what other people have searched for.”
- The click-back box does not appear for every result or every query, as Search Engine Roundtable reported in 2018.
Here is what is widely repeated but not confirmed by Google:
- That the click-back suggestions are what other people searched after visiting that result and returning. SEOTesting’s guide to PASF keywords (updated 10 March 2026) says the keywords come from what other users searched after viewing the results for the original query. It is a reasonable reading of how the box behaves, but Google has not published it.
- That the box is a sign Google watches quick returns to the results (sometimes called pogo-sticking), or that those returns affect rankings. Neither has been confirmed.
- That the box shows the same terms to everyone. Results vary by location, device, language and signed-in state, so assume your box is one sample.
The practical takeaway: treat PASF terms as evidence of where searchers go next, not as a list Google has endorsed.
How to use People Also Search For in keyword research
PASF is useful because it shows the searches people move on to, worded the way they actually type them. It is awkward because it is tied to a click. A simple, repeatable routine fixes most of that.
1. Trigger it the same way every time
- Open a private or signed-out window so your own history has less effect, and note the country you are searching from.
- Search your seed term.
- Click a result, starting with the top organic one, then press the browser’s back button.
- Look under the result you visited. If nothing appears, go back and try the next result. The 2018 report is clear that it depends on the site and the query.
- Repeat for the top three to five results. Each can bring up a different set.
2. Record what you see
Write the terms down as you go. A sheet with these columns is enough:
- Seed term, date, country and device
- The result you clicked (URL and position)
- Each PASF term, one per row
- Where it appeared: under a result, in a knowledge panel, or at the bottom of the page
If the same term appears under three different results, it is a strong signal. If it appears under only one, it may say more about that page than about the topic.
3. Judge the intent behind each term
Sort every term against the seed. Most fall into one of these groups:
- Narrower: the same need, more specific (a feature, a location, a year). These are usually sections of your main page.
- Sideways: a competitor, an alternative or a related entity. These often deserve their own page or a comparison.
- Next step: what people want once the first question is answered, such as cost after a definition, or setup after a purchase. These are your best internal links.
- A rephrasing: the same search in different words. Useful for wording, rarely worth its own page.
To decide whether a term needs its own page, search it and compare the results with the seed’s. If most of the same pages rank, one page can cover both. If the results are different, Google treats it as a separate need. Our guide to search intent goes into this test in more detail.
4. Act on what you find
- Add narrower terms as H2 or H3 sections on the page that targets the seed.
- Plan sideways and next-step terms as separate pages, then link to them from the seed page.
- Check search volume for each term in your usual keyword tool. PASF tells you a search is connected, not that it is popular.
- Run the same routine on a few of the new terms to find where the topic ends.
PASF works best next to People Also Ask. PASF gives you short phrases people search next; PAA gives you the full questions Google links to the topic, with answers. PAA Box is our Chrome extension for the second half of that job: it opens People Also Ask questions up to four levels deep and exports them to CSV. It does not read People Also Search For, so the PASF part stays manual. Our guide to people also ask keyword research covers the PAA side, and question keywords covers turning both into a list worth writing for.
Why you won’t always see it
PASF has moved around a lot. Search Engine Roundtable has reported tests of it in the right-hand column (September 2017), on search ads and on the bottom block. Some searches will show no click-back box at all. If a term matters to you, check it on more than one day and more than one result before you draw conclusions.