FAQ Schema and Rich Results: What Changed and What to Do

FAQ schema, or FAQPage structured data, no longer earns a rich result in Google Search. Google stopped showing FAQ rich results on May 7, 2026, after limiting them to a small set of government and health sites in 2023. Visible FAQs are still worth having, because they answer real questions for readers. The markup is now optional: keep it only if it matches the page exactly. This guide is part of our technical SEO guide.

You'll need access to your page templates or CMS. The steps work the same whether your FAQs are on one page or spread across many.

What changed, and when

FAQ rich results used to show expandable questions under a search result. Google cut them back in stages, alongside other rich result types it decided were no longer useful enough to show.

When Google phased out features in 2025, it said the change wouldn't affect how pages rank, and that use of the markup outside Google Search wasn't affected.

What FAQ markup does now

In Google Search, it no longer produces a visible feature. Back in 2023, Google said structured data that isn't used doesn't cause problems for Search, but has no visible effect either. It hasn't said it now uses FAQPage markup for anything else, so don't count on a hidden benefit.

The visible FAQ is a different matter. A question with a short, direct answer is easy for readers to scan and easy for search systems to quote. That value never depended on the markup.

Keep, remove or add FAQ markup?

There is no single right answer, but there is a simple test: markup that is accurate costs little to keep, and markup that is wrong is a liability.

Steps

1. 01
   Find every page with FAQPage markup.

   Search your site's HTML for "FAQPage", either with a crawler that can search page source or through your CMS and plugins. Note which templates add it, since one template usually covers many pages. Include old landing pages and blog posts, where forgotten markup tends to live.

2. 02
   Decide, per template, whether to keep it.

   Use the table above. Accurate markup that comes from the visible FAQ can stay. Markup that is pasted, outdated or covers hidden questions should go, because Google's guidelines say not to mark up content readers can't see. Make the decision once per template, not page by page.

3. 03
   If you keep it, generate it from the visible FAQ.

   Build the markup from the same fields that render the questions and answers on the page, so the two match word for word. This hub works that way: each guide's FAQ is written once, and the visible text and the FAQPage JSON-LD are both produced from it.

4. 04
   Choose questions people actually ask.

   Take questions from your Search Console queries, sales calls and customer emails, not from a list of keywords. Each question should match a real search intent. If nobody would ask it, it doesn't belong in an FAQ, however well it fits a keyword.

5. 05
   Answer in the first sentence.

   Start each answer with the direct answer, such as "Yes", "No" or a short definition, then add the detail. Keep answers short enough to read at a glance. Our own rule is 40 to 80 words, at most one link, and no lists or tables inside an answer.

6. 06
   Give each question one home.

   Don't repeat the same question and answer across many pages. Put it on the page where it fits best and link to it from elsewhere. Repeated FAQs add length without adding anything new, and they compete with each other for the same searches.

7. 07
   Use the rich results that still exist.

   Put your structured data effort into types Google still supports, such as Organization, LocalBusiness, Article and BreadcrumbList. Our schema markup guide covers the types that fit a service business, and how to test them.

8. 08
   Recheck when Google changes the rules.

   Rich result support changes over time. Once a quarter, read Google's Search Central updates page and compare it with the markup your templates output. Our own practice is to note the date we last checked on each guide that depends on a Google feature, as this one does.

Search appearance data lives in the Performance report; our Search Console guide explains how to read it.

If you'd rather have your structured data reviewed and cleaned up for you, our in-house SEO team handles technical SEO, including metadata and structured data.

How to write FAQs worth keeping

The FAQs on this hub follow a short set of house rules, which work for any site.

• Three to six questions per guide. Enough to cover real follow-ups, few enough that each one gets read.
• Questions under 90 characters. Written the way a customer would say them.
• Answers that stand alone. Each one makes sense without reading the rest of the page.
• No sales pitch. An FAQ that ends every answer with an offer stops being useful.
• Same text everywhere. If markup exists, it matches the visible answer exactly.

Troubleshooting

Your FAQ rich results disappeared

Cause: Google stopped showing FAQ rich results on May 7, 2026. If yours vanished around then, the change is on Google's side, not yours. If they disappeared earlier, the 2023 change limiting them to authoritative government and health sites is the likely reason.

Fix: there is nothing to fix in the markup, and adding more won't bring the feature back. Check the Performance report in Search Console to see whether clicks to those pages changed, and compare with the same period a year earlier. If the pages still rank but get fewer clicks, review their titles and descriptions, which now carry the result on their own. Keep the visible FAQs for readers, and decide whether to keep the markup using the steps above.

The visible FAQs and the markup don't match

Cause: the markup was written separately from the page, often as a pasted script, a plugin setting or an old template field. When someone edits the visible answers, the markup keeps the old text. Over time the two drift apart, and the markup describes questions the page no longer shows.

Fix: compare the markup with the visible text on one page of each template. If they differ, either remove the markup or rebuild it from the fields that render the visible FAQ. Then test a page in the Schema Markup Validator to confirm the result is valid. Google's guidelines say markup must represent the visible page, so mismatched markup is worse than none. Add a check to your publishing routine so future edits update both at once.

A plugin adds FAQ markup you didn't ask for

Cause: some CMS plugins and page builders add FAQPage markup automatically to any block that looks like questions and answers, such as an accordion. The markup may cover content that isn't an FAQ, or duplicate markup you added yourself, so the page carries two FAQPage blocks that disagree.

Fix: view the page source and search for "FAQPage" to see how many blocks appear and where each comes from. Turn off automatic markup in the plugin's settings if you don't want it, or remove your manual block if the plugin's version is accurate. Keep one source of markup per page. After the change, recheck a few pages of each template, since plugin updates can turn features back on.