FAQ and HowTo schema after the cuts

01What is FAQ schema, and does it still matter?

FAQ schema is structured data using the schema.org FAQPage type to mark up a list of questions and the site's own answers to them. For years it produced FAQ rich results: expandable questions shown under a page's listing in Google. HowTo schema did the same for step-by-step instructions.

As of November 2026, neither produces a rich result in Google Search. This guide sets out what changed and when, using Google's own announcements, and answers the practical question of what to do with the markup already on your pages. It is part of the AI answers section of the handbook. If you are weighing the bigger question, does structured data still matter? is answered on the home page.

02What changed in August and September 2023?

On 8 August 2023, Google's Search Central blog announced changes to HowTo and FAQ rich results. FAQ rich results would only be shown for well-known, authoritative government and health websites; for all other sites they would no longer be shown regularly. HowTo rich results would be limited to desktop users.

An update to the same post on 14 September 2023 went further. As of 13 September, Google Search no longer showed How-to rich results on desktop either, which made the result type deprecated. The update said the How-to search appearance, rich result report and Rich Results Test support would be dropped within 30 days, and Search Console API support within 180 days.

The August 2023 post was explicit that this was not a ranking change, and it gave advice that still applies to any unused markup.

03Why did Google cut FAQ and HowTo results?

Google gave a short reason in 2023 and has not added much since. The August post described the change as a way to provide a cleaner and more consistent search experience, and the September update called the HowTo removal part of continuing efforts to simplify Google's search results. Both are on the same Search Central blog post.

Anything beyond that is speculation, including the popular theory that FAQ results were cut because sites stuffed them with keyword questions. That may have played a part, but Google did not say so, and this handbook does not present it as fact.

What the record does show is a steady narrowing. FAQ results went from any eligible site, to government and health sites only, to none. HowTo results went from all devices, to desktop only, to none, within about five weeks. Rich results are a presentation choice that Google can withdraw; the content underneath them is yours to keep.

04Who still gets FAQ results?

No one, in Google Search, as of November 2026. Google's documentation updates log records a deprecation notice added on 8 May 2026, stating that the FAQ rich result would no longer appear in Google Search starting 7 May 2026. In June 2026 the same log records that Google removed the FAQ rich result documentation because the feature is no longer shown.

The government and health exception from 2023 is therefore gone too. Google's structured data search gallery, updated in October 2026, no longer lists FAQ among supported features. It does still list Q&A, for pages built around one question followed by its answers.

05Should you keep FAQ and HowTo markup?

You can leave it. Google's 2023 announcement said there was no need to proactively remove unused structured data, and nothing since says otherwise. Whether to keep maintaining it is a separate decision.

• Keep it if it is accurate, generated automatically from visible content, and costs nothing to maintain. Other consumers of schema.org may read it.
• Remove it if it is stale, describes questions that are not visible on the page, duplicates another block, or is produced by a plugin you would otherwise uninstall.
• Do not add new FAQ markup for Google rich results. The result type no longer exists.
• Use QAPage, not FAQPage, for pages where users submit answers to a single question, such as a forum thread or a support community.

If FAQ results vanished from your listings and you are checking for other causes, the guide to why rich snippets stop showing covers the wider checklist.

Keeping visible FAQ sections

The visible FAQ section is a different question from the markup. A short list of real questions that readers ask, answered plainly near the end of a page, is still useful to people. It earns its place if the questions come from real readers, support tickets or search data, and if each answer adds something the page does not already say.

It does not earn its place as a block of keyword variations bolted onto every page. Google's AI optimization guide warns that creating content for every variation of how people search, primarily to manipulate rankings or AI responses, falls under its scaled content abuse policy. Four good questions beat twenty thin ones.

06How does question and answer structure help AI answers?

Through the text, not the markup, as far as anything is documented. Google's guide to optimizing for generative AI features says there is no special schema.org markup to add for its AI features, and that there is no need to break content into small chunks for AI to understand it. It does recommend organizing content with clear headings and sections for readers.

A visible question as a heading, followed by a direct answer in the first sentence, is easy for a reader to scan and easy for any system to quote with its context intact. That is a writing pattern, and it works whether or not FAQPage markup sits underneath. The guide to quotable page structure shows the pattern in detail, and the guide to whether schema helps AI Overviews covers Google's position on markup and AI features in full.

In practice that means writing the answer for the person who asked, in the first sentence, and keeping it short enough to stand alone. Supporting detail, exceptions and examples follow in the next sentences or the next paragraph. The same answer then works as a visible FAQ entry, a passage under a question heading, or a sentence an answer engine quotes with a link back to the page.

It also means not hiding answers. Accordions that keep every answer collapsed until a click are common on FAQ sections. A crawler that does not run scripts may never see an answer that is loaded on click, and a reader skimming on a phone may never open it either. Plain, expanded text is the safer default, and a short FAQ rarely needs collapsing at all. If the section is long enough to need an accordion, it is probably long enough to split into proper headed sections instead.

07JSON-LD example

For reference only: this is what valid FAQPage markup looks like. It describes questions and answers that must also be visible on the page. It no longer produces a Google rich result.

1{2  "@context": "https://schema.org",3  "@type": "FAQPage",14  "mainEntity": [5    {6      "@type": "Question",7      "name": "How often should garden soil be tested?",28      "acceptedAnswer": {39        "@type": "Answer",10        "text": "Every two to three years for an established bed, and before planting a new one."11      }12    },13    {14      "@type": "Question",15      "name": "Can I test soil at home?",16      "acceptedAnswer": {17        "@type": "Answer",18        "text": "Home kits give a rough pH reading. A laboratory test gives nutrient levels as well."19      }20    }21  ]22}