Google has retired FAQ rich results. Here is what that means now.

What Google shows today, in October 2026

If you search Google today for a question that a business answers on its own FAQ section, you will not see the old grey dropdowns under its listing. That format, where two or three questions could be expanded right on the results page, no longer appears for any website. Google's own record of documentation changes logs it plainly: on 8 May 2026 it added a deprecation notice to the FAQ documentation because the feature "will no longer appear in Google Search starting May 7, 2026", and on 15 June 2026 it removed that documentation altogether because "the FAQ rich result feature is no longer shown in Google Search results."

The notice itself, as reported word for word by Search Engine Journal and PPC Land, said three things. FAQ rich results "are no longer appearing in Google Search". Google "will be dropping the FAQ search appearance, rich result report, and support in the Rich results test in June 2026". And "support for the FAQ rich result in the Search Console API will be removed in August 2026", to give people time to adjust their reporting.

So, five months on, this is the state of things:

The API change was the last item on Google's list, dated August 2026. If you run automated reports that ask Search Console for FAQ data, those calls should already have been changed; if they were not, the FAQ rows will simply be missing, which is easy to mistake for a fall in performance rather than a change of tool. We cover what to check in the steps further down.

There is one thing that has not changed: your rankings. A rich result was a way of displaying a listing, not a reason for it to rank. A page that ranked third with FAQ dropdowns ranks on its merits without them. What can change is how many people click, because a listing that used to take up more of the screen now takes up less. That is the effect worth watching, and it is the one most businesses never measured.

The timeline, from launch to removal

The feature lived for seven years. Seen as a whole, its story explains the decision far better than any single announcement does.

1. May 2019: launchedGoogle introduced FAQ and How-to rich results in a Search Central post, New in structured data: FAQ and How-to. Any site could mark up a list of questions and answers and, if Google chose, show them under its listing. Within months, FAQ blocks were appearing on product pages, service pages and blog posts across the web, many of them written for the results page rather than for the reader.
2. August 2023: restrictedGoogle announced changes to HowTo and FAQ rich results: FAQ rich results would be shown only for well-known, authoritative government and health websites. For every shop, agency, publisher and blog, the feature ended there.
3. September 2023: How-to removedOn 14 September 2023 Google removed the How-to documentation entirely, because that rich result was no longer shown on desktop or mobile, and updated the FAQ page to say the feature was limited to government and health sites. How-to went first; FAQ followed the same road.
4. June 2025: a wider tidy-upGoogle published Simplifying the search results page, phasing out a group of lesser used structured data features, with a further update on the same effort in November 2025. FAQ was not on that list, but the direction was clear.
5. January 2026: another one goesOn 6 January 2026 Google removed the documentation for the practice problem structured data type, because it was no longer shown in results.
6. 7 and 8 May 2026: the end of displayFAQ rich results stopped appearing on 7 May. The deprecation notice went onto the documentation the following day.
7. June 2026: the reporting goesThe search appearance filter, the rich result report and the Rich Results Test support were dropped, and on 15 June the documentation was removed.
8. August 2026: the API goesThe last step Google announced was removing FAQ rich result support from the Search Console API.

The pattern is worth remembering for every piece of markup you add. When a rich result becomes something people add to win space on the results page rather than to describe their content, Google narrows it, then removes it. It happened to How-to, it has happened to FAQ, and the 2025 and 2026 removals show it is still happening. Markup that honestly describes what is on the page tends to outlive markup that was added as a tactic.

Why Google retired it

Google's May 2026 notice did not give a reason. It stated the change and the dates, and nothing more. Nobody outside Google knows exactly why it did this, us included, so here is what is known and what is opinion, kept apart.

What is known is the 2023 reasoning. When Google restricted the feature, its announcement said it wanted to give people a cleaner and more consistent search experience, and limited FAQ results to sources it considered authoritative. That fits what anyone working in search saw at the time: FAQ blocks had become a way to make a listing taller, and many of the questions were invented for that purpose rather than asked by customers.

What is opinion, ours included, is the link to Google's own answer features. FAQ rich results answered predictable questions on the results page, before anyone clicked. AI Overviews and "People also ask" now do that job, built by Google from many sources rather than shown from one site's markup. It is reasonable to think a publisher-controlled answer box mattered less once Google could write its own. But Google has not said that, and you should treat it as a reading of the direction of travel, not a fact.

Either way, the practical conclusion is the same. The space under a listing is not something a site can claim with markup any more. What you can still control is the title, the description, and how clearly the page itself answers the question, which is where the rest of this article goes.

What we corrected in this article

We first published this piece on 19 May 2026, twelve days after the change. Rereading it in October against Google's own pages, two things in it did not hold up, and you deserve to know which.

The first was a sentence we presented as a quotation from Google's announcement, saying Google would continue to use FAQ structured data to understand pages. We repeated it because much of the early coverage did. We have since checked the notice as it was reported word for word, and that sentence is not in it. The notice says when the feature stopped and when the reporting would go. It says nothing either way about how Google reads FAQ markup. We have removed the quotation, and the advice below no longer leans on it.

The second was a quotation attributed to John Mueller of Google about removing the markup. We could not find a source for it, so it has gone too. We also removed figures about AI Overviews and about FAQ impressions falling before the change, because we could not trace them to the research they were credited to.

The rest of the original advice stands, and some of it is now stronger: do not rush to strip markup out, do not rush to add more, and put your effort into the page a person actually reads.

FAQ markup and FAQ rich results are not the same thing

Most of the confusion after May came from treating two different things as one. It is worth separating them clearly, because the right decision follows from the difference.

FAQPage is a type in schema.org, the shared vocabulary that search engines and other software use to describe content in a structured way. A block of FAQPage markup says, in machine-readable form, "this page contains these questions and these answers". The type still exists, and nothing Google did changes that: as Search Engine Journal noted, FAQPage remains a valid schema.org type, the markup can stay on your pages without causing problems, and Google has said before that structured data it does not use does no harm.

An FAQ rich result was one use Google made of that markup: a way of drawing the questions on its results page. That use has ended. So the honest summary is that the display has gone, the vocabulary remains, and Google has not told us whether it uses the vocabulary for anything else.

What about AI? Google's own page on AI features and your website, last updated in December 2025, is direct: there are no special requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and "there's also no special schema.org structured data that you need to add." It also lists making sure your structured data matches the visible text on the page among the ordinary good practices. In other words, Google does not ask for FAQ markup to be cited by its AI features, and it does expect any markup you do have to be truthful. Other AI tools and search engines make their own choices, which they mostly do not publish, so be wary of anyone who promises that markup alone will get you cited.

One trap to avoid: do not swap FAQPage for QAPage to chase a rich result. Google's Q&A page documentation, updated on 8 September 2026, is for pages where one question is asked and users can submit answers, such as a forum thread or a support community. It says plainly not to use QAPage markup for FAQ pages or for pages with several questions, and lists an FAQ written by the site itself as an example of a page that does not qualify. Relabelling an FAQ section as Q&A would be marking up content as something it is not, which is exactly the habit that got FAQ results removed.

The two wrong reactions

After the announcement, advice split into two loud camps. Both overreacted, in opposite directions.

The accurate position is quieter. FAQ markup is a small, harmless description of content you already have. Keep it where it is accurate and easy to maintain, remove it where it is out of date or where the FAQ section was padding, and do not spend a strategy meeting on it. The time is better spent on the visible page, where a reader and every search tool will find the same thing.

There is a useful test for any piece of markup you are unsure about. Ask whether you would keep the content it describes if search engines did not exist. If an FAQ section answers questions your customers really ask, the answer is yes, and its markup is a harmless label on something useful. If the section only exists because it once made your listing bigger, the answer is no, and the honest move is to fold the one or two good answers into the page and let the rest go.

What to do now, in order

For most businesses this is an hour of tidying, not a project. Work through it in this order and stop when a step does not apply to you.

1. Stop measuring something that no longer existsRemove FAQ rich results from any monthly report or target. If you exported the old FAQ report before June 2026, file it with a note of the date. If you did not, there is no way to recover it now, so note in your reports that the series ends in May 2026 so that nobody reads the gap as a fall.
2. Check any automated reportingIf you or your developer pull Search Console data through the API into a dashboard, a spreadsheet or BigQuery, look for any query that filters on the FAQ search appearance. Google set August 2026 for removing that support, so those rows will now be empty. Delete the query or replace it with overall clicks and impressions for the same pages.
3. Read your FAQ sections as a customer wouldFor each FAQ block on your site, ask whether the questions are ones customers actually ask, by email, on the phone or in your messages. Keep and improve the real ones. Fold thin questions into the main text or remove them. A shorter list of honest answers serves people better than twelve invented ones.
4. Decide on the markup once, then leave itIf your site adds FAQ markup automatically and the questions are real, leaving it is fine. If it was added by hand and has drifted out of step with the visible text, either fix it or remove it, because markup that does not match the page is the one version that can count against you. Do not add new FAQ markup in the hope of a rich result; there is none to win.
5. Do not relabel FAQs as Q&AAs above, QAPage is for pages where users submit answers. An FAQ written by you does not qualify, and Google says so.
6. Rewrite the titles and descriptions of the pages that had FAQ resultsThese are the listings that lost the most space. A clear title that says what the page is and a description that answers the main question honestly are now the only parts of a listing you shape directly. Google can rewrite either, but it starts from what you give it.
7. Put the answer near the top of the pageWhatever question brought someone to the page, answer it in the first lines they see, in plain words, then explain. This helps the reader, it helps Google pick a good snippet, and it gives any AI tool a clear statement to quote.
8. Watch clicks, not positionsFor the pages that used to show FAQ results, compare clicks and click-through rate for the three months before May 2026 with the three months after. If clicks fell while positions held, the listing lost visibility, and the fix is the title, the description and the page, not more markup.

If you only do two of these, do the third and the seventh. Real questions answered clearly on the page were the point of FAQ sections all along, and they still are.

What this means for a small business

For most small businesses the honest answer is: very little has changed, because the feature had already gone for you in 2023. If your FAQ dropdowns stopped appearing that August and you did not notice, you have been running without them for three years, and nothing in May 2026 made that worse.

What has changed is where people find answers before they reach you. More questions are now answered on the results page by Google itself, and more are asked of AI tools and inside social apps. A customer might see a Reel that shows your product in use, read a review, ask an assistant to compare two options, and only then search for your name. Each of those places rewards the same thing: clear, specific, honest content that answers what people actually want to know.

That is where search and social meet. The questions your customers send you in messages and comments are the best list of FAQ topics you will ever have, and they make good short videos and posts as well as good paragraphs on a page. A question answered once on video, once in a post and once in plain words on your site reaches people wherever they look. Our guide to social media strategies for small businesses covers how to turn customer questions into a steady plan of content, and our look at Search Console platform properties covers another 2026 change in how Google reports on your presence.

It is also a reminder not to build on features you do not own. A rich result could be granted or withdrawn by Google at any time, and this one was. Your own pages, your own channels and the relationships you build in comments and messages are yours to keep. For a business with a small marketing budget, that is where effort lasts.

The same thinking runs through how we look after our clients' websites and social channels. For HoneyBee & Co., a raw honey brand, we look after the shop, its store management and three social channels, and the content is written and published by our team. The aim is never a trick that works until a platform changes its mind. It is content that answers real questions well enough to keep working when the platforms do change.

Content that answers questions, every month

Our managed plans cover the social side of this: a monthly plan built around what your customers ask, content made by our team, replies to comments and messages, and a report on what worked. Every plan runs month to month, with 2 months notice.

Social Media Management: Seed Plan£399a month16 posts a month across 2 platforms, with a strategy behind them.

Social Media Management: Grow Plan£799a month16 posts a month, 8 of them Reels.

Social Media Management: Scale Plan£1,499a month12 Reels a month, Stories, and your comments answered Monday to Saturday.

Social Media Management: Elite Plan£2,499a monthA post every working day on up to 5 platforms, with paid social and filming days.

Answers people actually watch

A question answered on video often reaches more people than the same answer on a page. Tap a video to play it, or see more on the work pages.

FAQ rich results: your questions

A question this article did not answer? Ask our team, and a person will reply.

Dragos NistorCo-Founder and Business StrategistDragos co-founded Velena Lifestyle and leads its business strategy. Named a LinkedIn Top Entrepreneurship Voice in 2024, he writes about search, social media strategy and how small businesses get found online. Velena and Dragos both guest lecture at the University of Greenwich on social media and content strategy, and are invited back several times a year.