Most people guess which questions to write about. You do not have to. Google Search Console already holds every search that put your site in front of someone, and a single filter pulls out just the question-shaped ones. Those are the same questions people type into ChatGPT and Gemini word for word, so the list is worth more than any keyword tool. This page gives you the filter, a checker for the regex you paste, and a way to turn each question into an answer block.
Source: Google Search Console performance report documentation and Google's regex filter support notes, checked October 2026.
Where to start
Filter your queries down to questions only
Open Search Console, pick your property, then Performance → Search results. Click Add filter → Query → Custom (regex), leave it on Matches regex, paste a line from the tool below, and hit Apply. Set the date range to the last 12 months while you are there; the default 3 months hides your slower-burning questions.
Two warnings that cost people an afternoon. Search Console uses RE2, so lookahead and lookbehind silently fail — if you need "not this", use the Doesn't match regex option instead of trying to write it into the pattern. And if you copy a regex out of a social post, retype the quotes and dashes: curly quotes pasted from a caption are the single most common reason a filter returns nothing.
Question filter builder Example data
Runs in your browser. Nothing is sent anywhere. Tick the groups you want and copy the line into Search Console.
The fix: paste this
(?i)^(who|what|where|when|why|how|which|can|could|should|does|do|did|is|are|was|will|if)\s
The (?i) at the front makes it case-proof. The ^ means the search has to start with a question word, which keeps out phrases that merely contain "how". The \s means a space has to follow, so "whole" does not match "who".
Check your regex before you blame Search Console
When a filter returns nothing, the instinct is to assume you have no question traffic. Usually the pattern is broken. Paste it here with a few of your real queries and see which ones match, the same way RE2 would read it.
Regex tester Example data
Runs in your browser. Nothing is sent anywhere. It also flags the RE2 constructs Search Console will not accept.
Turn the top five questions into answer blocks
A question in your report means Google already thinks you are relevant and showed you anyway. What usually loses the click is that the answer is buried in paragraph six, or never actually stated. Fix the top five and nothing else.
The shape that works for both search results and AI answers is boring and consistent: the question as a heading in the words people used, then the answer in one or two sentences directly under it, then the detail. Answer first, explain second. If a reader has to scroll to find the answer, a machine summarising your page has to guess at it too.
Answer block builder Example data
Runs in your browser. Nothing is sent anywhere. Paste a question from your export and write the short answer.
Questions
Why does my regex filter return no rows at all?
Nine times out of ten the pattern contains curly quotes or a dash that was changed by a text editor or social caption. Retype it by hand. The other common cause is lookahead, which RE2 ignores rather than warning you about.
Is the Search Console query filter case-sensitive?
Google normalises most queries to lowercase, but adding (?i) to the front of your pattern costs nothing and removes the question entirely.
How far back does the data go?
The performance report holds 16 months. The interface defaults to 3 months, so change the date range or you will miss most of your question queries.
Should I build a new page for every question?
Usually no. If a question already shows impressions, some existing page is ranking for it. Add the answer to that page first. New pages make sense only when nothing you own covers the topic.
Does this help with ChatGPT and Gemini, or only Google?
The list itself comes from Google. Its value elsewhere is that people phrase questions the same way wherever they type them, so a page that answers the question plainly and early is easier for any system to quote. No one can promise a citation.
Sources: Google Search Console performance report and regex filter documentation, and Google's published notes on RE2 support in Search Console filters. Checked October 2026. Interfaces change; confirm the menu path in your own property before following screenshots from anywhere, including here.