On this page
FAQ rich results have been restricted since 2023 to what Google calls well-known, authoritative government and health websites. This site has FAQ markup on 114 pages, and not one of them produces a rich result in Google. That is worth writing down, because the decision to add it was based on advice that was correct when it was written.
The useful question is not whether to rip it out. It is which of the markup on your site is doing a job, and which is there because it once did.
What still produces a rich result?
Google publishes the list, and it moves. As of 15 October 2026 it includes, among others:
| Type | Typical use |
|---|---|
| Article | a blog post or news piece |
| Breadcrumb | the path above the result |
| Product | price, availability, reviews |
| Review snippet | a star rating on a reviewed thing |
| Software App | an application listing |
| Organization | who publishes the site |
| Q&A | a page where users ask and answer |
| Event, Recipe, Video, Job posting, Local business | self-explanatory |
Notable by its absence: FAQPage.
What happened to FAQ markup?
It was broadly supported, it was very widely adopted, and in August 2023 Google stopped showing it for most sites. The documentation now says the feature is only shown for well-known, authoritative government and health websites.
The markup is still valid. Search Console will not complain. The page simply looks the same in the results as it would without it.
This is the normal life cycle of a rich result: a feature is introduced, everyone adds it, the results page becomes cluttered, and the feature is narrowed. Review snippets went through a version of the same thing. It will happen again to something currently on the list.
The whole list
67 tools, what each costs and when you actually need it. Updated twice a year.
So should you remove it?
Not urgently, and not for the reason people assume.
The cost of leaving it is a few kilobytes of JSON per page and the risk that you keep believing it does something. The cost of removing it is an afternoon. Neither is significant.
What matters is that it stops being in your plan as an appearance tactic. If you write FAQ blocks because the format is good — a question as a heading, a self-contained answer under it — that is a content decision and it stands on its own. If you add the markup expecting a visual change in the results, that has not been true since 2023.
On this site the FAQ blocks stay, because the questions do real work on the page for a reader. The JSON-LD stays with them because it is generated automatically and removing it would be a change for its own sake. But it is no longer listed as a reason the pages were built that way.
Does any of it help with AI answers?
Google says not.
Its guidance on generative AI features states that structured data is not required and that there is no special schema.org markup to add. So the justification "we keep FAQ markup because answer engines like structured questions" is, on the only published guidance available, not supported either.
That leaves one honest reason to maintain structured data: the rich results that still exist, for the types that still have them. Which for most sites is a short list.
What is actually worth having?
Three, for a site like this one:
Breadcrumb, because it changes how the URL line looks and it costs nothing — you already have the hierarchy.
Product, if you sell something. Price and availability in the result is a real difference in click-through, and it is one of the types with a long-standing, stable rich result.
Article or BlogPosting, which carries author and date and feeds the parts of the result that show freshness.
Everything beyond those three is worth a specific reason. "It is best practice" is not one; best practice is where deprecated advice goes to live quietly for several years.
How do you check rather than assume?
Run the page through Google's Rich Results Test. It tells you which features the page is eligible for, which is a faster and more reliable answer than any article about it — including this one.
Then do the same thing in six months. The list in this piece has a date on it for exactly that reason.
What this says about advice generally
The FAQ markup on this site was added on advice that was accurate in 2022, from sources that were not wrong at the time. It survived three years of being repeated because nobody re-checked the source.
That is the actual lesson, and it applies well beyond markup: how do you get cited by AI answers? and does llms.txt do anything yet? are both about tactics with a confident industry and a thin evidence base. The habit that protects you is putting a date next to every claim, including your own.
Where this came from
Google's structured data documentation for FAQPage, including the statement on restricted eligibility and the September 2023 update note, and Google's search gallery of structured data types — both checked 15 October 2026. The statement that structured data is not required for generative AI search is from Google's own AI optimisation guide.
The Vibe Coding Playbook covers the building side of a site like this, including the parts that generate markup from data so it cannot drift.
Tools in this piece
| Tool | What it does | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Vercel | Hosting. Puts a project live on a real address with one command. | Free tier |
Every tool has its own page with the price, who should skip it and what to check before paying. Some links are affiliate links.
Questions people ask
Do FAQ rich results still appear in Google?
Only for a narrow category. Google's documentation states the feature is only shown for well-known, authoritative government and health websites. The broad rollout ended in August 2023, so FAQ markup on an ordinary site produces no rich result.
Should you remove FAQPage markup if it no longer shows?
Not necessarily, but you should know why you are keeping it. It is valid markup and it costs nothing to serve. What it no longer does is change how your result looks in Google, so it should not be in your plan as an appearance tactic.
Which structured data types still produce rich results?
Among others: Article, Breadcrumb, Product, Review snippet, Software App, Organization, Event, Recipe, Video, Job posting, Local business and Q&A. Google's search gallery lists the current set, and it changes.
Does structured data help with AI answers?
Google's guidance says structured data is not required for generative AI search and that there is no special schema.org markup to add. Its value is in ordinary rich results, for the types that still have them.
What is the difference between FAQPage and Q&A markup?
FAQPage is for a page where the site provides both question and answer. Q&A is for a page where users post a question and others answer it, like a forum thread. They are different types with different eligibility.
How do you check whether your markup does anything?
Run the page through Google's Rich Results Test. If the type you are using is not eligible, the test says so, which is faster than reasoning about it from a blog post.