There's a common problem in SEO content strategy. You research keywords. You identify search volume. You build content to rank for those keywords. But you're making an assumption: that keyword tools show you what people actually want. Keyword tools are useful for scale. They show traffic trends and aggregated search behaviour. But they also obscure specificity. They hide the precise questions your audience is asking. They collapse multiple intents into single metrics. By the time you've organised your strategy around keyword volume, you've often missed the real opportunities: the specific questions people are asking that tools don't even measure.
Mark Williams-Cook's approach to SEO begins from a different place. It begins by looking at what people are actually asking on Google. Not through the lens of a tool's prediction. But through the actual questions Google surfaces in People Also Ask (PAA) boxes and through the search results themselves. This is messy data. It's unstructured. It requires interpretation. But it's real. People asked these questions. Google thought they were worth showing. This is signal.
Who They Are
Williams-Cook is the founder of Candour, a London-based agency known for disproportionate results from modest SEO budgets. This reputation comes from an obsession with finding high-intent opportunities with minimal competition. He's built his practice around a specific insight: that the biggest opportunities in SEO are questions people are actively asking that nobody has bothered to answer well. His tool, AlsoAsked.com, maps the network of related questions surfaced in Google's People Also Ask feature. It transforms unstructured question data into structured keyword research.
What distinguishes Williams-Cook's approach is methodological rigour applied to qualitative data. Most SEO professionals treat keyword research as a quantitative exercise: find keywords, sort by volume and difficulty, pick the easiest ones to rank for. Williams-Cook treats keyword research as a qualitative exercise: find the questions people are actually asking, understand the intent behind those questions, understand how different questions relate to each other, build content that comprehensively addresses the intent clusters.
His reputation was built not on creating the most comprehensive keyword lists, but on finding the most profitable questions. A question with zero recorded search volume that 100 highly qualified prospects are asking is worth more than a question with 10,000 monthly searches but only 50 qualified prospects. His job is finding those specifics. And he's developed expertise at it because he's willing to spend time in actual search result data rather than relying on tool projections.
He's also known for transparent communication about method. When he shares findings or strategy, he explains how he arrived at them. He shows the data. He explains the limitations of what the data shows. This transparency builds credibility. You're not taking his word for it. You can see the work he did and evaluate it yourself.
What They Teach
Williams-Cook's core teaching is centred on People Also Ask (PAA) mining. Google shows related questions in a box below search results. Most SEO professionals glance at this box and move on. Williams-Cook looks at it systematically. What questions is Google surfacing for a given search? What does that tell you about what people are asking? His tool, AlsoAsked.com, scrapes this data at scale and structures it so you can actually work with it. This transforms PAA from a curiosity into a research methodology. The methodology works because PAA data is based on actual search behaviour. These aren't predicted questions. These are questions that real people typed into Google. Google is showing them because they're frequently asked or considered related by the algorithm. This is signal of genuine intent.
Intent proximity mapping is another pillar of his framework. Not all related questions are equally related. Some questions cluster tightly around a single intent variation. Others branch into distinct intent categories. Williams-Cook teaches how to map these relationships. When you understand that questions A and B share related intent but question C branches into a different need, you understand how to structure content differently for different clusters. You also understand where to expect high bounce rates (when users click on content expecting to answer question A but finding only answer C). This mapping reveals whether you should create one comprehensive piece addressing all questions or separate pieces for different intent clusters. Some topics naturally cluster. Others naturally separate. Getting this structure right dramatically improves both rankings and engagement metrics.
Zero-volume keywords is a concept that contradicts conventional SEO wisdom. Keyword tools show "0 searches" for many highly specific queries. Most professionals assume this means "nobody's looking for this." Williams-Cook's research and client work show the opposite. Some zero-volume keywords represent intensely specific intent. One person searching "how to fix a squeaky office chair wheel" might generate zero monthly searches. But if that person is actively searching, they're highly engaged. If you have content that answers this question, you'll rank. And if your product or service is office furniture, you've captured a qualified prospect.
His framework acknowledges that search volume is an imperfect proxy for value. High volume often means broad, low-intent searches. Low volume often means specific, high-intent searches. The best SEO opportunities often sit in the low-volume, high-intent space. This requires a different research methodology. You can't rely on tools to show you these opportunities. You have to find them in actual search data and actual user behaviour.
Search intent shift monitoring is less talked about but equally valuable. PAA data changes over time. Questions that appear for a search term this month might disappear next month. New questions might emerge. This suggests user behaviour is shifting, new intent is emerging, search dynamics are evolving. Williams-Cook teaches monitoring these shifts to spot emerging opportunities early, before they become obvious to the rest of the industry.
How It Maps to Opportunity and Authority
Williams-Cook's work is very high on Opportunity with a significant Authority component. On the Opportunity side, the connection is direct. PAA data reveals specific content gaps matching actual user needs. If people are asking questions your competitors haven't answered, you have an Opportunity gap. Zero-volume keywords represent untapped Opportunity. Intent proximity mapping reveals content structure that increases relevance match across related searches, which expands your addressable keywords.
The Authority component is equally important. Creating comprehensive answers to the specific questions people are actually asking builds topical Authority. If your content answers all the related questions that Google is surfacing for a topic, you're not just answering one question. You're demonstrating expertise across an intent cluster. This builds stronger topical signals than content that answers only one question superficially.
His framework shows that Opportunity gaps are often Authority gaps. When nobody has answered a specific question well, you're not just capturing traffic. You're establishing yourself as the authoritative source for that specific topic. This is why his work is valuable. It identifies opportunities that simultaneously build Authority.
The framework component is intent-driven content strategy. Rather than optimising for maximum keyword volume, you're optimising for intent coverage. You're identifying what people actually want to know, and building comprehensive content addressing those wants. This approach tends to produce stronger rankings, higher engagement, and better conversion because you're answering real questions people have, not guessing at what they might want.
When to Learn From Them
Learn from Williams-Cook if your diagnostic shows an Opportunity gap. If your research shows you're missing keywords your competitors are capturing, PAA mining will often reveal why. You're missing specific intent variations that aren't obvious from high-volume keyword lists.
Learn from him if you've been creating content based on what you think people want rather than what they actually search for. This is a common problem. You believe there's demand for content on topic X, so you write about topic X. But you don't verify demand through actual search behaviour. Williams-Cook's methodology forces you to validate demand against real search data.
Learn from him if you want to find high-intent, low-competition opportunities. This is the SEO opportunity space most professionals ignore. The easiest wins are often in this space. Zero-volume keywords with clear commercial intent. Highly specific questions with no good answers. These opportunities are invisible if you only look at high-volume keywords. Williams-Cook's methodology reveals them.
Learn from him if you believe the best content answers real questions. His entire approach is predicated on this belief. You're not optimising for keywords. You're optimising for questions. This distinction matters. A keyword is an aggregated metric. A question is a specific intent. Content that answers questions will typically outperform content optimised for keywords alone.
Learn from him if you're launching a new site or product and need to build content with limited budget. His methodology helps you identify the highest-impact opportunities. Rather than trying to capture all keywords, you capture the most valuable ones. This works on startups with limited resources because you're being surgical about where you invest effort.
Where to Start
AlsoAsked.com is the obvious starting point. The free tier gives you access to PAA data for any search query. Start by entering your target keywords and observing what questions Google is surfacing. Spend time just exploring. What patterns emerge? What intent variations do you see? This exploration alone often surfaces content opportunities you hadn't considered.
Williams-Cook's YouTube channel (SISTRIX with Mark Williams-Cook) contains detailed walkthroughs of his methodology. He explains his thinking, shows real examples, walks through the process of building content strategies from PAA data. These videos are worth watching carefully. He gives away his methodology openly. The payoff comes from understanding it well enough to apply it rigorously.
His conference presentations, particularly at BrightonSEO and similar events, go deeper into case studies. He shows real examples of zero-volume keywords that generated significant traffic and revenue. He shows intent proximity mapping in action. These presentations provide the context that makes the methodology actionable.
His agency work, visible through case studies, provides real-world examples of how this thinking translates to results. What questions were targeted? What content was built? What were the outcomes? This practical grounding is valuable because it shows that the methodology works in actual client engagements, not just in theory.
Start by auditing your current content against actual PAA data for your target keywords. For each piece of content, what questions is Google surfacing for the keyword you're targeting? Is your content addressing those related questions or ignoring them? Often you'll find that your content answers the primary question but misses related intent. Williams-Cook's framework helps you identify these gaps systematically and fix them. This audit alone often reveals quick wins: content that's ranking but could rank higher if it addressed related questions more thoroughly. Adding a section answering a related question can improve rankings and engagement dramatically.
Williams-Cook emphasises that PAA data changes. A question that appears this month might disappear next month. New questions emerge. This suggests the market is evolving. He teaches monitoring PAA for your target keywords regularly (monthly or quarterly). When new questions emerge, you have early-mover advantage. When questions disappear, you can deprioritise content. This dynamic approach keeps your strategy aligned with actual user behaviour rather than static research done months or years ago.
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