FAQ Rich Results: Why They Disappeared and What to Do Instead
If the expandable questions under your Google listings vanished, your site almost certainly did nothing wrong. Since 2023 Google shows FAQ rich results only for well-known, authoritative government and health websites. For everyone else, no markup fix will bring them back.
This guide helps you confirm that the change explains what you saw, decide honestly whether your site could be in the small eligible group, choose what to do with existing FAQPage markup, and put your effort into things that still pay off, including FAQs written to be quoted by AI answer engines.
- What Google changed
- Who still qualifies, and who does not
- What to do with existing FAQPage markup
- Writing FAQs that are useful beyond the rich result
- The fix, step by step
- If you run a government or health site
- Where FAQ markup comes from, so you can change it
- Mistakes people make chasing the old result
- Questions and answers
What Google changed
For several years, adding FAQPage markup to a page with a list of questions could turn a normal listing into a much taller one, with two or more questions that searchers could expand in place. Because it was easy to earn and took up so much space, it spread to product pages, service pages, blog posts and landing pages, often with questions written mainly to fill the space.
In August 2023 Google announced that it would reduce the visibility of FAQ rich results and show them only for well-known, authoritative government and health websites. At the same time it cut back HowTo rich results, which were then removed from Google altogether later in 2023. Google described the change as part of making results cleaner and more consistent. It was not a penalty, and Google said at the time that sites did not need to remove the markup.
In practice that means three things for a typical business or publisher:
- Your FAQ markup can be perfectly valid and the rich result will still not appear.
- The Rich Results Test may still detect the FAQ items, which leads many people to think something else is broken. Detection is not display.
- Any traffic that came from the expanded listing is not recoverable through structured data. It has to be earned in other ways.
Who still qualifies, and who does not
Google has not published a list of qualifying sites, a threshold, or a way to apply. The wording it used, well-known and authoritative, and limited to government and health, is deliberately narrow. Reasonable readings:
| Kind of site | Likely position |
|---|---|
| National or local government, public bodies, official agencies | Within the group Google described, if the site is well known |
| Major health services, national health bodies, large hospital groups, established medical reference sites | Within the group, if well known and authoritative in their field |
| A private clinic, dental practice, pharmacy or wellness business | Health-related, but unlikely to count as a well-known authoritative health website in Google's sense |
| Charities and membership bodies that publish health guidance | Uncertain; a very well-known health charity may be treated differently from a small one |
| Shops, agencies, trades, software companies, blogs, news sites | Outside the group |
If your site is in the last three rows, plan on the assumption that FAQ rich results will not appear. Adding more questions, restructuring the markup or moving it to a different page will not change that. If Google widens the feature again it will announce it, and you can revisit the decision then.
What to do with existing FAQPage markup
Google said it was fine to leave FAQPage markup in place, and that unused markup does not cause problems. So removal is not required. Whether to keep it is a judgement about accuracy and maintenance, not about rankings.
| Situation | Sensible action | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A genuine FAQ page with useful questions that customers really ask | Keep the markup | It accurately describes the page and may be read by other search engines and AI tools |
| A product or service page with a short, real FAQ section | Keep, if the questions are specific to that page | Accurate and cheap to maintain when generated from the same content |
| The same site-wide FAQ repeated on every page | Keep it on one page only | Duplicated markup adds maintenance and says nothing unique about each page |
| Questions written only to win the rich result, thin or obvious | Remove the markup and improve or cut the questions | The reason for them has gone, and weak content does the page no favours |
| Markup describing questions that are not visible on the page | Remove immediately | Marking up hidden content is against Google's structured data guidelines whatever the feature |
| FAQ markup from two sources causing errors in reports | Keep one source, switch off the other | Removes noise from Search Console and audits |
The Rich Snippets Suite will still identify FAQ markup on your pages and validate it. Treat that as a check on accuracy, not a sign that the rich result is available to you.
Writing FAQs that are useful beyond the rich result
With the Google display gone for most sites, the value of an FAQ section rests on whether it helps readers, and on whether other systems can use it. AI answer engines and assistants that summarise web pages tend to work best with clear question-and-answer pairs, and some may read FAQPage markup as one signal among many. None of them publish rules that guarantee your answer will be used or cited, so treat this as a sensible way to write rather than a technique with promised results.
What makes an FAQ answer easy to quote:
- A direct first sentence. Answer the question in the opening line: "Yes, orders over £40 ship free to mainland UK." The detail follows.
- No reliance on the surrounding page. Avoid "as mentioned above" or "see the table". An answer lifted out on its own should still make sense.
- Specific facts. Numbers, conditions, time frames and places are what people ask about. "Usually 2 to 3 working days, excluding the Scottish Highlands and islands" beats "delivery is fast".
- Questions in the words customers use. Take them from support emails, chat logs, Search Console queries and reviews, not from a brainstorm.
- One topic per question. Split compound questions so each answer covers one thing.
- Current information. An outdated answer quoted by an assistant is worse than none. Review FAQs whenever prices, policies or services change.
Before and after
Before
Q: What about delivery?
A: We offer a range of delivery options to suit you. Please see
our delivery page for more details.
After
Q: How long does UK delivery take?
A: Standard delivery takes 2 to 3 working days to mainland UK
and is free on orders over £40. Next-day delivery costs £5.95
if you order before 1pm, Monday to Thursday.The rewritten answer is useful to a reader, can be quoted accurately, and gives a search engine something concrete to match. Those benefits do not depend on any rich result.
The fix, step by step
Step 1
Match the drop to the 2023 change
In the Search Console Performance report, open Search appearance and look for FAQ rich results. Compare impressions before and after August and September 2023. A steep fall starting then, across many pages at once, matches Google's restriction and is not a fault on your site. If your FAQ appearance only stopped recently, or never existed, check the markup separately, but do not expect the rich result to return for a site outside the eligible group.
Step 2
Decide honestly whether your site can qualify
Ask whether your site is a well-known, authoritative government or health website in the sense Google described. Public bodies and major national health services plausibly are. Private clinics, shops, agencies, software firms, blogs and news sites almost certainly are not. Record the decision so the question does not come back in every audit, and stop allocating time or budget to recovering FAQ rich results if the answer is no.
Step 3
Choose keep, trim or remove for each page
List every page that outputs FAQPage, using the Rich Snippets Suite or a crawl for FAQPage
in the source. Keep the markup on genuine FAQ sections that are visible and specific to the page. Keep
a repeated site-wide FAQ on one page only. Remove markup where the questions were written to win the
rich result, where they are hidden from readers, or where two plugins output competing blocks.
Step 4
Rewrite visible FAQs so each answer stands alone
For the FAQs you keep, rewrite each answer so its first sentence answers the question directly, the rest adds concrete detail such as prices, time frames and conditions, and nothing depends on text elsewhere on the page. Replace generic questions with ones taken from real customer enquiries and search queries. Make sure the markup is regenerated from the edited text, so the visible answer and the structured data stay identical.
Step 5
Replace the FAQ click metric
Remove FAQ rich result impressions from reports and targets, since they can no longer move for most sites. Measure the FAQ by whether it does its job: fewer repeat support questions on the topics covered, organic clicks to the page overall, conversions from visitors who read the FAQ, and whether assistants and answer engines describe your policies correctly when you test them with the same questions your customers ask.
Step 6
Reclaim the listing with features you can still earn
Put the time you would have spent on FAQ markup into features still widely shown. Product pages can earn price, stock and review details; recipe, event and job pages have their own rich results; almost every site can have breadcrumbs. Rewrite the title and meta description of affected pages so the listing is compelling without the extra questions. The Rich Snippets Suite shows which of these each page is eligible for.
If you run a government or health site
If your site plausibly is in the group, FAQ rich results can still appear, and the usual rules apply with extra force because those listings are now rare and visible.
- Questions and answers must be written by the site. Pages where users submit answers, such as forums or community Q&A, need QAPage, not FAQPage.
- Every question in the markup must be visible on the page, in full. Collapsed accordions are fine; content only in the markup is not.
- No advertising use. Google's FAQ guidelines exclude FAQ content used for advertising.
- Avoid repeating the same FAQ across many pages. Mark it up where it belongs.
- Check the canonical and rendering. As with any rich result, the markup must be on the URL Google indexes and present in what Googlebot fetches.
Even on eligible sites, Google decides per search whether to show the FAQ enhancement. If yours is eligible but plain, the checks in fixing eligible-but-not-displayed pages apply.
Where FAQ markup comes from, so you can change it
To keep, trim or remove FAQ markup you first need to know what writes it.
- WordPress. Yoast SEO and Rank Math both have FAQ blocks for the block editor that output FAQPage markup automatically when the block is used. Removing the block removes the markup; converting it to ordinary headings and paragraphs keeps the text without the markup. Schema plugins and some themes add FAQ markup of their own, which is where duplicates come from.
- Shopify. FAQ markup usually comes from an FAQ app or from the theme. Check the app's settings for a structured data option before editing theme code.
- Page builders. Accordion or toggle widgets sometimes have an FAQ schema switch in their settings. It is easy to leave on by accident when the accordion is used for something that is not an FAQ, such as a product specification.
- Custom sites. Generate the block from the same data as the visible FAQ, so trimming a question removes it from both.
More detail on WordPress sources is in fixing rich snippets in WordPress.
Mistakes people make chasing the old result
- Moving FAQ markup to a different type. Marking up questions as QAPage, HowTo or Article to recreate the expanded listing does not work, and mislabelling content is against the guidelines.
- Stuffing more questions in. More questions do not change eligibility, and long lists of thin questions make the page worse for readers.
- Hiding FAQ content. Keeping questions in the markup but removing them from the page to tidy the design is a guideline breach.
- Treating detection as success. The Rich Results Test finding FAQ items means the markup parses. It does not mean the listing will be enhanced.
- Removing useful FAQs altogether. A good FAQ still helps visitors and reduces support load. Losing the rich result is not a reason to delete helpful content.
1. Why did my FAQ rich results disappear?
Google restricted FAQ rich results in 2023 so that they appear only for well-known, authoritative government and health websites. For nearly every other site the expandable questions stopped showing at the same time, even though the markup stayed valid and nothing on the pages changed. It was a change to Google's results rather than a problem with your site. If your site is not a government or health authority, fixing or rewriting the markup will not bring the rich result back.
2. Is my private clinic or pharmacy a health website that qualifies?
Probably not in the sense Google meant. Google described the eligible group as well-known, authoritative government and health websites, which reads as public health services, major health bodies and established medical reference sites rather than individual healthcare businesses. Google has not published a list or a way to apply, so no one can say for certain. The practical approach for a private health business is to assume FAQ rich results will not appear and invest in other features and content.
3. Should I remove FAQPage markup now that the rich result is gone?
You do not have to. Google said markup that no longer produces a rich result does not cause problems. Keep it where it accurately describes a visible, genuine FAQ that is specific to the page, since other search engines and AI tools may read it. Remove it where the questions exist only to win the old rich result, where they are hidden from readers, where the same FAQ is repeated site-wide, or where two sources output duplicate blocks.
4. Does FAQPage markup help with AI answer engines like chatbots and AI search?
It may help a little, but nobody can promise it. AI answer engines and assistants work well with clearly written question-and-answer content, and some may read FAQPage markup as a signal of which answer belongs to which question. None publish rules guaranteeing that markup gets your answer used or cited. The bigger factor is the visible text: direct first sentences, specific facts and answers that make sense on their own. Accurate markup on top of that does no harm.
5. The Rich Results Test still detects FAQ on my page. Does that mean it is eligible?
It means Google can read the FAQ markup and that it is structurally valid. It does not mean the rich result will be shown, because the restriction applies to the type of site, not the code. The test reports what the markup contains, while display is decided separately in search. For a site outside the government and health group, a clean FAQ result in the test is a sign of tidy markup and nothing more.
6. Will Google bring FAQ rich results back for everyone?
There is no sign of that, and it would be unwise to plan around it. Google announces changes to rich result features on its Search Central blog, so if the restriction were lifted you would hear about it there. Until then, keep accurate markup on genuine FAQs so you would be ready, but do not budget for recovering FAQ traffic. Put that effort into features you can still earn, such as product, recipe, event or breadcrumb results.
7. What should replace FAQ rich results in my reporting?
Measure what the FAQ content is for. Track organic clicks to the pages that carry FAQs, conversions from visitors who read them, and whether support questions on the covered topics fall. It is also worth periodically asking AI assistants the same questions your customers ask, to see whether your policies are described correctly. Drop FAQ rich result impressions as a target for any site outside the eligible group, since that number can no longer move.
The Rich Snippets Suite identifies every rich result type your pages are eligible for, validates the schema including FAQ markup, previews how results could look and tracks the coverage you actually get over time.
Open Rich Snippet Fixes →