FAQ schema won't get you FAQ rich results anymore
In August 2023 Google limited FAQ rich results, the expandable questions under a listing, to well-known, authoritative government and health websites. If you're not one of those, they aren't coming back, however much FAQPage markup you add.
What changed
Google announced both changes in one Search Central post:
- FAQ rich results: shown only for well-known, authoritative government and health sites.
- HowTo rich results: cut to desktop in August 2023, then removed from results entirely the following month.
Google also said there's no need to remove the markup. Structured data that isn't used doesn't cause problems; it just doesn't do anything visible.
Why it's still on so many to-do lists
FAQ markup is quick to add, it shows up in the page source, and for a few years it really did make listings bigger. That makes it an easy line item. If a tool or an agency still lists "missing FAQ schema" as a fix for your site, ask what result they expect from it.
Where the effort should go
- Write the questions for readers. A real Q&A section with direct answers still helps people, and it gives answer engines something clean to quote. It just won't make your listing bigger in Google.
- Mark up what still earns a result for your kind of site, such as products, events, articles and your organization, and make it match what's on the page.
- Don't fake it. Questions nobody asked, or markup for content that isn't visible, can earn a manual action for spammy structured data. More in Schema that lies about you.
The fix
Keep valid FAQPage markup if you already have it, stop paying for more, and spend the time on markup that matches your content and still produces a result.
The free Schema Validator (my own product) shows what structured data a page declares, whether it parses, and which recommended fields are missing.