An FAQ section is a block on a page that lists the questions your customers ask most, each with a short, direct answer. Since 7 May 2026 it no longer earns the expandable FAQ rich result in Google, but it still does the job it always did: it answers the objections that stop people from buying or signing up.
What happened to FAQ rich results?
Google’s FAQPage documentation carries a notice dated 8 May 2026: the FAQ rich result “will no longer appear in Google Search starting May 7, 2026”. On 15 June 2026 Google removed the documentation for the feature. The feature was already narrow: since August 2023 Google had limited it to well-known government and health sites, and HowTo rich results went in 2023.
What this means for you:
- FAQPage markup is harmless. It causes no penalty and produces no visible change in Google Search.
- Your visible FAQ is untouched. Google reads the text on the page like any other text.
- Old advice is out of date. Posts that tell you to add FAQ schema to every page for extra search space describe a feature that no longer exists.
Why do FAQ sections still matter?
Here is why they stay on a healthy page:
- They catch long-tail searches. People type full questions. A section titled “Can I cancel any time?” matches that query in the searcher’s own words (see long-tail keywords).
- They remove doubt at the buying moment. Price, delivery, refunds, compatibility and security questions sit right where the reader decides.
- They give search and AI systems short answers to quote. Google’s AI guide says AI Overviews and AI Mode run on the same ranking and quality systems as Search, and that you need no special markup for them. A clear question with a clear answer is simply good content, and it feeds featured snippets and the answer-style results in AI Overviews.
- They cut support load. Every question you answer on the page is one email you do not answer by hand.
How do you build an FAQ section that works, step by step?
- Collect real questions. Pull them from support emails, chat logs, sales calls and reviews. Add the “People Also Ask” questions for your main query and the question-style queries in the Search Console Performance report. Invented questions make an FAQ nobody reads.
- Keep the questions that fit the page. A pricing page needs billing questions. A product page needs fit and delivery questions. A page that must answer 30 questions needs its own help article instead.
- Write the question the way a customer says it. “Do you ship to Canada?” beats “International shipping policy”.
- Answer in the first sentence. Give the direct answer first (yes, no, a number, a time), then one or two sentences of detail and a link to the full page. This follows answer-first content.
- Keep each answer short. Two to four sentences. If an answer needs more, it deserves its own page and a link.
- Make it visible. Show every question and answer in the page HTML. Hiding answers behind a collapsed accordion is fine as long as the text is in the source and works without scripts. Never put content in markup that readers cannot see.
- Place it after the main content. The FAQ supports the page, it does not replace the sales copy. Put it above the final call to action.
- Decide on markup. FAQPage JSON-LD is optional now. If your CMS already outputs it, leave it. If it takes effort to maintain, skip it and spend the time on the answers (see structured data).
If you keep the markup, the content in it must match the visible text exactly:
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "FAQPage",
"mainEntity": [{
"@type": "Question",
"name": "Can I cancel any time?",
"acceptedAnswer": {
"@type": "Answer",
"text": "Yes. Cancel from your account page and you keep access until the end of the billing period."
}
}]
}How do you measure whether an FAQ section works?
- Search Console: compare impressions and clicks for the question queries you answered, before and after, on that page.
- Support volume: count tickets about each topic for a month before and after.
- Conversion: check whether pages with an FAQ turn more visitors into sign-ups or sales, using conversion tracking.
- Scroll and click data: if nobody reaches or opens the section, move it up or cut it.
Search Console no longer has a separate FAQ rich result report, so judge the section by traffic and customer behaviour, not by a rich result count.
What mistakes should you avoid?
- FAQ stuffing. Thirty thin questions on one page add noise. Google’s helpful content guidance asks for content written for people first, and a list that exists to hold keywords reads that way.
- Marketing answers. “Why choose us?” is not a question customers ask. Answer what they type.
- Markup that differs from the page. Mismatched text is the oldest structured data mistake.
- Copy-pasting the same FAQ onto every page. Each page gets the questions that belong to it.
- Burying the answer. If the answer to “Is there a free plan?” begins with a paragraph about your mission, rewrite it.
Where can you learn more?
Google’s FAQPage page holds the deprecation notice, and schema.org defines the FAQPage type. The free digital marketing module of the Fe/male Switch startup school shows how to turn customer questions into content. Next steps: find your best question topics with search intent research, then tighten each answer with the featured snippets method.