Google & FAQ Are Now Divorced

What Are FAQ Rich Results?

Rich Results appear in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). 

If you’ve added an FAQ page to your website and did a structured data schema markup, your website would then become eligible for showing up in the SERP with those FAQs. 

These FAQ results do take up a lot of space in the SERP and can push other websites down a peg or two, which can mean the difference between appearing on page one or page two in the SERP.

FAQ Goals

The whole purpose of an FAQ is to answer questions fast. 

That’s it. That’s the Tweet.

FAQs are easy to create and are often an underused SEO hack that helps search engines and AI models understand website content by pairing direct questions with clear answers. 

Beyond that, they build trust and credibility for the website, help with longtail and conversational keywords (the how, what, and where), improve site navigation, and support the sales funnel. 

In short, they aid in click-through rate and garnering more traffic. 

And that visibility is exactly what's now on the chopping block.

What Did Google Do?

Unlike Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman, this is definitely a breakup we saw coming. 

We’ve had since August 2023 to prepare for this because Google let us know that FAQ rich results would only appear for extremely well-known websites with a lot of authority (aka: government and health sites). 

This decision in 2023 impacted all other websites, and now, their 2026 announcement will also mean government and health sites will no longer appear in FAQ rich results, either.

But, Like, Why?

Well, some people say that FAQs were cluttering up the SERP and are simply “decorative.” 

Others say it’s because FAQs are a “schema trick,” and they don’t provide real value to the SERP. 

Okay, Reddit. You’ll never be “Team FAQ.” We understand. 

This deprecation has indeed been going on for years, adding structured data never guaranteed anyone a rich result in the FAQs, and those who take advantage of the FAQ schema for keyword stuffing (a big no-no) and contribute low-value content are definitely hurting the rest of us. 

While Google has not given a clear answer as to why they’ve dropped FAQs from rich results, the interpretation from many SEO experts is that it’s all about simplifying the SERP and curtailing schema abuse/manipulation.

Now What Do I Do?

First, don’t make any rash decisions. 

Second, take a deep breath, because it’s going to be okay. 

The good news?

You can keep your FAQ structured data or remove it. It’s entirely up to you. Whatever you do won’t impact search visibility. It doesn’t cause problems for Search and is still a valid Schema.org type. 

Also, Google gobbles up information like Pac-Man inhales pellets. They’ll continue to ingest the information and use it to understand pages. Every other search engine will still ingest it, too, and we know AI tools (Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT, Alexa) will use it to interpret your content and give AI-driven answers (AEO). 

At this point, there are a few things we’d recommend: 



• Audit your FAQ for accuracy. 
• Review how your FAQ is written and make it more conversational. 
• Strengthen internal linking between pages for crawlability, engagement, and topical relevance.

Moving Forward

Well, Google and FAQs had a good run.

Three years of a slow fade, a quiet 2026 goodbye, and now we move on. No dramatic SERP breakup post required.

Your FAQ content is still valuable, your schema isn't going to tank your rankings, and honestly? The sites that were gaming the system deserved the boot. 

Clean up your content, strengthen your links, and remember: in SEO, the fundamentals always outlast the features.

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