FAQ schema used to be one of the more popular pieces of structured data, because it could make a Google result take up more space with expandable questions right on the search page. That feature is now gone. Here's exactly what changed, and whether the markup is still worth using.
The actual timeline
Google didn't remove FAQ rich results all at once. It happened in stages:
- September 2023: Google limited FAQ rich results to "well-known, authoritative government and health websites," which quietly removed the feature for nearly every commercial site, blog and small business, years before most people noticed.
- May 7, 2026: Google stopped showing FAQ rich results in search results entirely, including for the government and health sites that had kept them.
- June 2026: The FAQ search appearance filter, the FAQ rich result report in Search Console, and Rich Results Test support for the feature were all removed.
- August 2026: FAQ rich result data was removed from the Search Console API as well.
What didn't change
Google deprecated the search result feature, not the underlying schema.org type. FAQPage is still a valid, legitimate piece of structured data. Adding it doesn't cause an error, and it isn't penalized. It simply no longer earns the visual expandable-question feature in Google's own results that made it popular in the first place.
Is it still worth adding?
For the one reason most people originally added it, a bigger, more clickable Google result, no. That reason is gone for essentially everyone who could use it.
For other reasons, it still has a case:
- Other systems may still read it. FAQ schema is a standard, machine-readable way to mark up a question-and-answer pair, and search isn't the only thing parsing structured data anymore. AI assistants and other tools that ingest page content may still make use of clearly marked questions and answers, even without a dedicated search feature attached.
- It costs almost nothing to include. If you're already writing genuine question-and-answer content on a page (not stuffing questions in to game the old feature), marking it up as
FAQPageis a small addition on top of content you were writing anyway. - It keeps your content organized, which helps a human reader as much as any machine.
Why Google dropped it in the first place
Google never published a detailed public explanation of the full removal, but the pattern of the rollout is telling. The 2023 restriction to government and health sites came first, and it quietly cut off the feature for the vast majority of sites that had implemented it, small businesses, blogs, agencies, without much announcement at the time. The 2026 removal simply finished what that restriction started, ending the feature for the remaining eligible sites too. Search features tied to a specific structured data type tend to get scaled back when they've been misused at scale (in this case, likely by sites stuffing shallow or manipulative FAQ content onto pages purely to win the extra search real estate) or when a search engine changes how it wants to present answers on the results page at all, which fits the broader shift toward AI-generated summaries answering questions directly instead of linking out to an expandable list.
What this means if you were relying on it for traffic
If FAQ rich results were part of a deliberate strategy to get more space in search results, that specific tactic no longer works, and hasn't for most sites since 2023 even if you didn't notice the drop-off at the time. That's worth knowing if you're troubleshooting a traffic change and trying to figure out what shifted. It's less likely to be a sudden new problem with your site and more likely the tail end of a change that's been rolling out gradually for a few years.
What's not worth doing anymore
Don't add FAQ schema as a strategy on its own, hoping for a search feature that no longer exists. And don't write shallow, padded questions purely to have something to mark up; Google's spam policies still apply to the visible content regardless of what schema sits on top of it.
What to do instead
Write real questions people actually ask, answer them plainly on the page, and let the schema be a small, honest reflection of content that already exists for a human reader, not the other way around. That's exactly the structure this Bulletin's own articles use: a genuine "Questions" section on the page, which becomes FAQ schema as a byproduct rather than the goal. See what is schema markup for the other schema types worth prioritizing now that this one has less to offer.
Questions
Should I remove FAQ schema I already have on my site?
There's no need to. It doesn't cause a penalty or an error; it simply doesn't do what it used to. Leaving accurate FAQ markup in place is harmless.
Did this change affect FAQ rich results everywhere, or just Google?
This specific timeline is about Google Search. Other search engines and AI tools have their own separate policies, and some may still use structured Q&A content differently.
What schema should I prioritize instead?
For a local business, LocalBusiness and Service schema do more ongoing work now. See LocalBusiness schema for contractors.