TL;DR Summary:
FAQ Rich Results Eliminated: Google removed FAQ rich results from search completely as of May 7, 2026, ending the expandable question-and-answer boxes that appeared in search results for seven years.Limited Impact for Most Sites: The change primarily affects government and health websites, as Google only displayed FAQ rich results for specific site types, meaning most websites with FAQ markup weren't benefiting anyway.Keep or Remove Markup: Existing FAQ schema markup won't harm your website and can remain if it helps organize content, but removing it is safe since it no longer provides search visibility benefits.Will Google’s removal of FAQ rich results affect my website rankings?
Google announced a major change that caught many website owners off guard. As of May 7, 2026, Google Search no longer shows FAQ rich results in search results. This means those expandable question-and-answer boxes you used to see beneath some search results are gone forever.
Why Google Search Drops FAQ Rich Results Now
Google launched FAQ rich results in 2019. For seven years, these structured data snippets helped certain websites display their frequently asked questions directly in search results. Users could click to expand answers without visiting the actual website.
But Google has been signaling this change for years. In 2023, the company announced it would show FAQ rich results less often. Now they’re eliminating them completely.
John Mueller from Google explained the reasoning on Bluesky: “It was only used for a tiny set of site types (as documented), so for most, this doesn’t result in changes in Search. If a site had the markup & wasn’t one of those types, it was already being ignored.”
This reveals something important. Most websites with FAQ markup weren’t getting rich results anyway. Google only displayed FAQ rich results for specific site types, mainly government and health websites.
Timeline for Google Search FAQ Rich Results Removal
Google is rolling out this change in phases:
May 7, 2026: FAQ rich results stopped appearing in Google Search results completely.
June 2026: Google Search Console will remove the FAQ search appearance filter, rich result reports, and Rich Results Test support.
August 2026: The Search Console API will drop FAQ rich result support entirely.
This timeline gives website owners and developers time to adjust their systems and API calls before full removal.
What Happens to Your FAQ Structured Data
You don’t need to panic and remove all your FAQ schema markup immediately. Google states that existing FAQ structured data won’t hurt your website. The markup can stay on your pages without causing any problems.
However, since the markup no longer provides any search visibility benefits, you might want to clean it up eventually. This is especially true if you added FAQ schema specifically to get rich results in search.
Glenn Gabe confirmed the change is complete, noting: “FAQ snippets are officially gone from the SERPs (for the gov and health sites that still had them). See the CDC example below.”
Even government and health websites that previously qualified for FAQ rich results no longer show them in search results.
Should You Remove FAQ Markup from Your Website
The answer depends on why you added FAQ structured data in the first place.
If you implemented FAQ schema hoping to get rich results, you can remove it. The markup no longer serves that purpose. Removing unnecessary code can slightly improve your page loading speed.
If your FAQ markup helps organize content for users or other systems, you can keep it. The structured data still helps search engines understand your page content, even though it won’t display as rich results.
For site owners wondering whether their FAQ markup was actually being used or ignored, and how this change might impact their overall search visibility, tools like SiteGuru can help you audit your existing structured data implementation and identify which FAQ markup may have been ignored by Google. The platform’s structured data monitoring features allow you to scan your site for outdated markup types and assess the potential impact of removing FAQ schema on your overall technical SEO health.
Many website owners discovered their FAQ markup was already being ignored by Google. If your site wasn’t a government or health website, your FAQ rich results probably weren’t showing anyway.
How This Fits Google’s Pattern of Rich Result Changes
Google regularly adds and removes rich result types. The company tests different formats, sees how users respond, and makes changes based on that data.
FAQ rich results join a growing list of discontinued structured data types. Google focuses its rich result features on the formats that provide the most value to searchers.
This change reflects Google’s broader approach to search features. They launch new tools, gather usage data, and discontinue features that don’t meet their standards for user engagement or utility.
What This Means for Your SEO Strategy
The removal of FAQ rich results highlights an important SEO principle. Don’t build your strategy around any single rich result type. Google can remove these features at any time.
Focus on creating high-quality content that answers your audience’s questions, whether or not it appears as rich results. The best SEO strategy adapts to Google’s changes rather than depending on specific features.
If you spent significant time optimizing for FAQ rich results, redirect that energy toward other structured data types that Google still supports. Product schema, review markup, and breadcrumb structured data remain valuable for many websites.
Consider auditing your entire structured data implementation to identify which markup types actually provide benefits versus those that no longer serve a purpose.
The FAQ rich results removal shows how quickly the SEO landscape can shift. SiteGuru helps you stay ahead of these changes by monitoring your structured data and identifying optimization opportunities that actually impact your search visibility. You can audit your current markup implementation and focus your efforts on the structured data types that still provide ranking benefits.
