Question-Shaped Headings: The Cheapest AEO Win There Is
A question-shaped heading is an H2 or H3 phrased the way a person would search — “How long should a title tag be?” rather than “Title length”. It works because each heading plus the paragraph under it becomes a self-contained question-and-answer pair, which is the exact unit answer engines extract.
Why questions beat labels
A heading like "Pricing" is a filing label. A heading like "How much does it cost?" is a query — and the paragraph beneath it is an answer. The second form turns your page into a series of matched pairs, each of which can be lifted independently.
This matters more than it used to. When results were ten blue links, headings mainly helped humans skim. Now a heading is a candidate match for a specific question, and the text under it is the candidate answer.
It also improves the page for readers, which is unusual for an optimisation. Question headings force you to be explicit about what each section actually delivers.
How they're counted
This product's AEO scorer counts headings that either end in a question mark or begin with a question word — how, what, why, when, where, which, who, can, should, does, is, are. Two or more question-shaped headings earn 12 of 100 points; a single one earns 6.
Proper FAQ schema scores higher still, at 20 points, because it's explicit rather than inferred. But question headings are the fallback that gets most of the benefit with none of the markup work — and they compose: a page with FAQ schema and question headings reads unambiguously as an answer resource.
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Mechanical translation, roughly fifteen minutes per page:
| Label heading | Question heading |
|---|---|
| Pricing | How much does it cost? |
| Requirements | What do I need to get started? |
| Benefits | Why use this instead of X? |
| Setup | How do I set it up? |
| Compatibility | Does it work with Y? |
| Timeline | How long does it take? |
Two rules. Keep exactly one H1 — question headings belong at H2 and below. And phrase the question the way a customer would ask it, not the way your industry writes it internally.
Where it stops helping
Don't force it. Some sections genuinely aren't questions, and a page of twelve interrogatives reads like a quiz. Three to six question headings on a substantial page is plenty.
It also won't rescue a page with nothing to say. A question heading over two sentences of filler is a promise the page doesn't keep — which is the thin content problem wearing a disguise. The heading makes good content findable; it doesn't create it.
Try it on a site you care about
isaeo counts question-shaped headings per page and flags the pages with none, so you know exactly where to start rewriting.
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Frequently asked questions
What is a question-shaped heading?
A subheading phrased as a user's question — ending in a question mark or starting with how, what, why, when, which, can, should, does or is — so the heading and the text beneath it form a self-contained question-and-answer pair.
Do question headings replace FAQ schema?
They approximate it but score lower. Explicit FAQPage markup is unambiguous to an engine; question headings are inferred. Using both is stronger than either alone.
How many question headings should a page have?
Three to six on a substantial page is plenty. Forcing every heading into a question reads as gimmicky to human readers without adding proportional value.