Kip CroninGoogle stopped showing FAQ rich results in Search on 7 May 2026, for every site, and removed the documentation in June. You don't have to delete your FAQPage structured data: Google has said that unused structured data "does not cause problems for Search". But it no longer earns you anything visible, so don't add new FAQ sections for SEO. Keep them only where readers actually need them.
What changed, and when
| Date | What Google did | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 8 Aug 2023 | FAQ rich results limited to "well-known, authoritative government and health websites". HowTo results limited to desktop. | Search Central blog |
| 13 Sep 2023 | HowTo rich results stopped showing on desktop too, so the type was deprecated | Same post, update |
| 7 May 2026 | FAQ rich results stopped appearing in Google Search at all | Search Central changelog, 8 May |
| 15 Jun 2026 | FAQ rich result documentation removed, "no longer shown in Google Search results" | Search Central changelog, 15 June |
So the expandable question-and-answer drop-downs under a search result are gone, including for the government and health sites that kept them after 2023. Google's changelog gives no reason beyond the notice itself.
Does it break anything?
No. Your pages still rank and render as before; only the extra drop-downs are gone. When Google limited FAQ results in 2023, it said: "While you can drop this structured data from your site, there's no need to proactively remove it. Structured data that's not being used does not cause problems for Search, but also has no visible effects in Google Search." We found no later statement that reverses this.
Two things you may notice:
- Search Console. With no FAQ results shown, impressions for the FAQ search appearance should have stopped in May. If you compare performance across the change, a drop in the FAQ search appearance is expected and isn't a ranking loss. In 2023 Google said the HowTo/FAQ changes "should not be considered a ranking change".
- Old SEO checklists and plugins that still tell you to add FAQ schema to every post. They are out of date.
What to do now
- Keep visible FAQs that answer real questions. A short Q&A section still helps readers who skim, and it gives AI answers a clean question and answer to quote. Google's AI features guidance says "there's also no special schema.org structured data that you need to add" to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. Write for the reader, not for a schema type.
- Leave existing FAQPage markup alone, or remove it when you next touch the template. Neither choice changes how you rank. If you keep it, it must still match the visible text on the page. That is a general rule in Google's structured data guidelines, and the AI features page repeats it as a best practice.
- Don't add FAQ sections just for SEO. Padding a post with questions nobody asks makes it longer and no more useful.
- Don't switch to HowTo markup instead. HowTo rich results were deprecated in September 2023. For step-by-step posts, a plain numbered list and code blocks are enough.
- Spend the effort on the markup that still matters: Article (or BlogPosting) with real dates and a named author, and BreadcrumbList. Google's search gallery lists the rich result types it still supports.
What we did on this site
Our older guides end with a "Questions" section, and the page template still outputs matching FAQPage JSON-LD for it. We've left it in place: it matches the visible text, costs nothing, and Google says it does no harm. New posts get a Questions section only when there are real questions to answer.
Our take: this is the second time Google has removed a rich result that SEO plugins sold as a quick win (HowTo was first). Structured data still helps search engines read a page. It doesn't guarantee anything will show up in the results.