What to Do With FAQ and HowTo Schema Now That Google Shows Neither
Google ended How-to rich results in September 2023 and FAQ rich results on May 7, 2026. The dated timeline, what Bing documents, and which markup to keep or cut.
On this page
The current status of FAQ schema and HowTo schema deprecation in Google Search, as of October 7, 2026, is that neither markup produces a rich result for any site. How-to rich results ended in September 2023. FAQ rich results, which had survived for government and health sites, stopped appearing on May 7, 2026, and Google removed the documentation page on June 15. The 2026 step never got a blog post that we could find, so this page works from the Search Central blog, the documentation changelog and Bing's help pages, all read on October 7, 2026.
What changed for FAQ schema, and when?
Google's FAQ schema deprecation changes arrived in two steps, about two years and nine months apart. The first is the well-known one. On August 8, 2023, the Google Search Central blog announced: "Going forward, FAQ (from FAQPage structured data) rich results will only be shown for well-known, authoritative government and health websites." It was plain about everyone else: "For all other sites, this rich result will no longer be shown regularly." And it framed the change as a display decision: "This should not be considered a ranking change and won't be listed in the Search status dashboard."
The second step sits in the Google Search Central documentation changelog, in two short entries. The May 8, 2026 entry, titled "Deprecating the FAQ rich result feature", records a deprecation notice added to the documentation and explains in one sentence: "This feature will no longer appear in Google Search starting May 7, 2026." The June 15, 2026 entry, "Removing documentation for the FAQ rich result feature", closes the file: "The FAQ rich result feature is no longer shown in Google Search results, as announced in the changelog entry in May 2026." Neither entry mentions an exception for government or health sites.
| Date | What Google published | Where |
|---|---|---|
| August 8, 2023 | FAQ rich results limited to government and health sites; How-to rich results limited to desktop | Search Central blog |
| September 13, 2023 | How-to rich results stop showing on desktop and the result type is deprecated | Blog update dated September 14, 2023 |
| September 14, 2023 | How-to documentation removed; FAQ documentation updated to state the government and health limit | Documentation changelog |
| May 7, 2026 | FAQ rich results stop appearing in Google Search (notice added May 8) | Documentation changelog |
| June 15, 2026 | FAQ rich result documentation removed | Documentation changelog |
What changed for HowTo schema?
Google's HowTo schema deprecation changes moved much faster, with about five weeks between the first restriction and full removal. The August 8, 2023 post limited How-to rich results to desktop users. An update added to the same post on September 14, 2023 ended them: "As of September 13, Google Search no longer shows How-to rich results on desktop, which means this result type is now deprecated."
That update also set a wind-down schedule: the How-to search appearance, the rich result report and Rich Results Test support would be dropped in 30 days, and How-to support in the Search Console API in 180 days. The changelog entry for September 14, 2023 reads: "Removed the How-to structured data documentation, as this rich result is no longer shown in search results, on both desktop and mobile devices."
What does Google Search Central say about FAQPage and HowTo in 2026?
Google has deprecated both FAQ and HowTo schema rich results, and 2026 is the year its documentation caught up: Google Search Central removed the FAQPage rich results page on June 15, 2026, and the HowTo structured data page has been gone since September 2023. When we requested the two old documentation addresses on October 7, 2026, both redirected to the changelog entries that record their removal.
Reporting got a wind-down schedule as well. The deprecation notice Google added to the FAQ documentation in May 2026, preserved in an Internet Archive capture from June 10, 2026, said Google would drop "the FAQ search appearance, rich result report, and support in the Rich results test in June 2026" and remove FAQ rich result support from the Search Console API in August 2026, much as How-to was wound down in 2023. Search Console Help now lists 19 supported rich result reports, among them Q&As, Recipes and Review snippets, and we found no FAQ or How-to report on that list.
Two statements from Google still govern markup that stays on a page. The 2023 post said: "While you can drop this structured data from your site, there's no need to proactively remove it." The next sentence set expectations: "Structured data that's not being used does not cause problems for Search, but also has no visible effects in Google Search."
The other statement is newer and speaks to AI answers. On May 15, 2026, Google Search Central added a guide to optimizing for generative AI features (the page shows a last update of July 10, 2026). Its list of things site owners can ignore for Google Search includes "Overfocusing on structured data", with this explanation: "Structured data isn't required for generative AI search, and there's no special schema.org markup you need to add." The guide goes on to recommend structured data for rich result eligibility, and FAQPage and HowTo no longer have a rich result to be eligible for.
What does Bing document for the same markup?
Bing's documentation is shorter and shows no date. The Bing Webmaster Tools help article on structured data states "Bing currently supports annotations for the following scenarios" and lists nine: breadcrumbs, businesses and organizations, events, people, products and offers, recipes, reviews, aggregated reviews and ClaimReview. We found no FAQ or how-to scenario on that list. The article adds that Bing understands Schema.org annotations more broadly, and it cautions: "The presence of annotations alone does not guarantee Bing will use your annotated content to generate a visually rich snippet."
The Webmaster Guidelines from Bing cover "Bing search experiences, Copilot, and grounding API results", and item 14 is the relevant one: "Structured data may support clearer grounding but does not guarantee visibility or grounding traffic. Markup must accurately reflect visible content." It is the most direct statement we found from either engine linking structured data to AI answers, it is hedged with "may", and it names no schema type. Teams working on answer engine optimization can read it as a rule about accuracy, since in the pages we read neither engine promises anything for FAQPage or HowTo in AI answers.
Should you keep, trim or remove the markup?
The vocabulary itself is unchanged. Schema.org still defines FAQPage, and its usage note places the type on "1M - 10M Domains", a figure it describes as "Based on monthly aggregations from Google's web index" and labels Google, August 2026. So the markup is widely deployed, Google's display for it is gone, and removal is optional by Google's own account. The trade-off is small on both sides. Leaving markup in place costs nothing until it drifts from the visible page, at which point Bing's guidelines say it may be ignored and can affect trust and eligibility for enhanced features. Stripping it costs developer time and, on Google's description, changes nothing a searcher sees.
| Page type | Markup | Call | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Help center or dedicated FAQ page, questions visible | FAQPage | Keep while the template generates it | Google says there is no need to remove it, and a template keeps markup and text in sync |
| Product, service or landing page with an FAQ block | FAQPage | Trim | Edit the block for buyers first, then mark up only what stays visible |
| Tutorial or step-by-step guide | HowTo | Remove at the next template change | No Google rich result since September 13, 2023, and we found no Bing scenario for it |
| Government or health site | FAQPage | Same call as any other site | Google's May 2026 entry carries no exception |
| Forum or support thread with one question and user answers | QAPage | Keep QAPage here only | Q&A is a separate feature that Google still documents |
The last row needs a caution. Because Q&As remain on the supported list, relabeling an FAQ page as QAPage looks like a workaround. The Q&A documentation from Google Search Central, last updated September 8, 2026, rules it out by listing this among its invalid use cases: "An FAQ page written by the site itself with no way for users to submit alternative answers".
As a hypothetical example, picture a B2B software site with three templates: 60 help articles whose FAQPage markup comes from the CMS, 14 landing pages where FAQPage JSON-LD was pasted in by hand in 2022, and 30 tutorials carrying HowTo. The help articles stay untouched. The landing pages get an edit pass in which questions no sales call ever hears are cut, and the hand-pasted JSON-LD is regenerated from what remains or deleted. The tutorials lose HowTo at the next template release, with no ticket opened for it alone.
"Trim" is where the work sits, because many FAQ blocks were written to occupy result-page space that Google no longer grants. A visible question with a direct answer is still useful to a reader, and Bing's guidelines ask for facts and definitions that are explicit and visible on the URL itself. If the goal behind those blocks was presence in AI answers, measure it directly through AI share of voice, and see our guide to getting cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity and AI Overviews for the content side. Further resources from us are the AI visibility checker, the schema generator and our AI search optimization service.
The changelog page offers a feed, and this episode is the argument for subscribing to it: the retirement of a rich result whose markup sits on a million or more domains was announced there in two short entries and in a notice on the documentation page itself, with no blog post that we could find.
Sources
- Google Search Central: Changes to HowTo and FAQ rich results (August 8, 2023, updated September 14, 2023)
- Google Search Central: Latest Google Search Documentation Updates (entries for September 14, 2023, May 8, 2026 and June 15, 2026)
- Google Search Central: Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search (last updated July 10, 2026)
- Google Search Central: Schema for Q&A Pages (QAPage) (last updated September 8, 2026)
- Search Console Help: Rich result report overview (read October 7, 2026)
- Bing Webmaster Tools: Marking up your site, overview (read October 7, 2026)
- Bing: Bing Webmaster Guidelines (read October 7, 2026)
- Schema.org: FAQPage (usage note dated August 2026)
- Internet Archive: Google Search Central FAQ structured data documentation with the May 2026 deprecation notice (captured June 10, 2026)