People Also Ask Question Extractor

Extract People Also Ask questions and visible answer/source snippets from SERP snapshots for content planning and FAQ research

Who it is for

People Also Ask Question Extractor helps content teams, seo agencies, faq builders, editorial strategists extract People Also Ask questions and visible answer/source snippets from SERP snapshots for content planning and FAQ research. It produces schema-valid dataset rows, evidence-backed KVS reports, safe diagnostics, and capped pay-per-event pricing for predictable Apify Store runs.

Convert visible People Also Ask modules into structured questions with answer visibility, answer text when present, cited-source domain, deterministic intent cluster, rank, and duplicate group. It is useful for FAQ research and evidence-led editorial planning.

Evidence contract

The actor emits only facts visible in supplied HTML, explicit input records, or a permitted public URL response. It never creates rankings, questions, modules, suggestions, titles, snippets, or page metadata to fill an evidence gap. A missing source produces a schema-valid status row explaining what input is needed.

Network access is conservative. Only HTTP and HTTPS URLs are accepted; localhost, loopback addresses, private IPv4 ranges, and disallowed domains are rejected. The runtime does not follow links discovered in a page. Challenge and access-denied pages are recorded as blocked evidence and are not solved or circumvented.

Input modes

• Pass expanded or collapsed question blocks in serpHtmlInputs or htmlInputs.
• Visible answers are preserved; collapsed answers absent from the HTML remain null.
• expandQuestionsWhenPossible changes the diagnostic guidance only. The actor does not simulate browser clicks.
• dedupeQuestions and maxQuestionsPerQuery control output volume.

Example input

{
  "queries": [
    "project management software"
  ],
  "serpHtmlInputs": [
    {
      "sourceUrl": "https://example.com/serp",
      "query": "project management software",
      "html": "<article class=\"paa-item\" data-paa-question=\"How much does project software cost?\"><p class=\"answer\">Pricing varies by team size.</p><a href=\"https://vendor.example/pricing\">Pricing guide</a></article>"
    }
  ],
  "maxQuestionsPerQuery": 20,
  "dedupeQuestions": true,
  "maxChargeUsd": 50
}

Dataset output

Each dataset item is one JSON object, which makes the result directly usable in Apify integrations, exports, webhooks, and downstream data pipelines.

• question text and visible position
• answer snippet and answerVisible boolean
• cited source title and domain when a link is present
• intent cluster and duplicate-group identifier
• query, source status, evidence excerpt, and recommendation

Common evidence fields include sourceUrl, sourceType, pageTitle, issueCode, severity, evidenceSnippet, recommendation, httpStatus, and scannedAt. Fields without source evidence are null rather than guessed.

Reports and retained evidence

When includeReport is true, the actor writes a Markdown summary, CSV records, JSON issue rows, evidence excerpts, and run metadata to key-value storage. Set includeRawSnapshots only when retaining capped HTML is appropriate for your workflow; it is off by default.

The report metadata records the actor, timestamp, row count, issue codes, severity totals, consumed input fields, pricing mode, platform-usage setting, and maximum-charge default. This provides a compact audit trail for scheduled comparisons.

Pricing

This actor uses pay per event. Apify platform-usage pass-through is off. Charges are accepted before the corresponding paid dataset row or report is written.

Event	Price
actor-start	$0.08000
query-snapshot-scanned	$0.01000
live-serp-page-rendered	$0.02750
paa-question-extracted	$0.00950
report-generated	$0.18000

maxChargeUsd is a strict pre-output budget. A value of zero prevents the first charge and therefore prevents paid output. If Apify rejects a charge, partially accepts it, or reports an event limit, the actor stops before writing the affected output and records billing status.

Higher-tier Store discounts are expected where supported. The event prices above remain the locked base prices.

Limits and predictable runs

• maxPages, maxSnapshots, and actor-specific record caps limit work before analysis.
• maxQueries limits distinct search contexts.
• Public fetches are additionally constrained by allowedDomains, timeoutMs, requestDelayMs, and a fetch cap.
• Reports are optional and raw HTML retention is opt-in.
• Query-only input produces an explicit source-required row instead of an empty or fabricated result.
• Dataset rows and report files follow the declared Actor schemas.

Responsible use

Process only public content or material you are authorized to analyze. Respect website terms, rate limits, privacy obligations, intellectual-property rights, and applicable law. Avoid sending personal or confidential information in HTML or input records unless your workflow is authorized to process it.