Are FAQ Rich Results Gone? FAQPage Schema Still Has a Job

Are FAQ rich results gone? For practical purposes, yes. In August 2023 Google announced it would limit FAQ rich results to authoritative government and health sites, and the expandable FAQ snippets that used to appear under regular results disappeared for almost everyone. If you saw the official note that FAQ rich results are no longer appearing in Search Result Appearances, that is real, and it is not a bug. The visible SERP feature is gone for the vast majority of sites. The interesting question is whether FAQPage schema and FAQ content still have value, and the answer there is a clear yes, just for different reasons than before.

The mistake is concluding that because the rich result vanished, you should rip out your FAQs and FAQPage markup. The rich result was always a bonus. The underlying content, clear questions with concise, self-contained answers, is exactly the format AI answer engines extract and cite. So the SERP feature died while the content strategy got more important. This is one of those rare cases where the visible reward disappeared but the underlying tactic still pays.

This post covers what actually changed, whether FAQPage schema is still worth keeping, and what to do now for both AI visibility and answer engine optimisation. For the wider schema picture, see does schema markup help AI citations.

What Actually Changed

The timeline matters because it explains why your impressions for FAQ appearances flatlined.

Google restricted FAQ rich results in 2023. Google limited FAQ rich result display to well-known authoritative government and health websites. For every other site, the expandable FAQ snippets stopped showing in search results.

HowTo rich results were also dropped. Around the same period, Google deprecated HowTo rich results on desktop and mobile. The pattern is consistent: Google trimmed SERP clutter from these enhancement types across the board.

The Search Result Appearances report reflects it. The "FAQ rich results" appearance in Search Console stopped registering impressions for most sites because the feature no longer renders for them. That is the official behaviour, not a tracking error.

Does FAQPage Schema Still Have Value?

It is no longer your ticket to a rich result, but it is not useless, and the content behind it matters more than ever.

The schema itself is now low-leverage for SERP. With the rich result gone for most sites, FAQPage markup no longer earns the visible enhancement it once did. As a SERP play, it is largely retired, which fits the broader truth that schema is a parsing aid, not a ranking lever.

The FAQ content is high-leverage for AI. AI answer engines answer questions, and clear question-and-answer content is the easiest thing for them to extract and cite. A well-built FAQ section is prime material for ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI Overviews regardless of whether a rich result ever shows. See how to get cited by AI.

Markup still aids machine-readability. Keeping valid FAQPage schema costs little and helps machines bind your Q&A pairs to the right structure. It will not hurt, and it keeps your content unambiguous for any agent parsing it.

What to Do Now

Shift from chasing the dead SERP feature to serving answer engines and users.

Keep and improve your FAQ content. Write real questions your audience asks, with concise, self-contained answers that stand alone when lifted into an AI response. This is answer engine optimisation, and it is where the value moved. See how to optimise for AI search.

Keep valid schema, but do not over-invest. Maintain accurate FAQPage markup that matches visible content, then stop. Do not pour effort into schema expecting a SERP payoff that no longer exists.

Answer questions throughout your content, not just in an FAQ block. AI engines extract answers from anywhere on the page. Clear headings phrased as questions, with direct answers beneath, give engines more citable surface area.

Measure AI citations, not FAQ impressions. The old metric is gone. Track whether your answer content actually gets cited by AI engines; a tool like bing.ly shows that across platforms, which is the metric that now reflects the value FAQs still create.

How to Write FAQ Content That AI Engines Cite

The format that earns AI citations is specific, and most FAQ sections built for the old rich result do not follow it.

Write self-contained answers. Each answer should make sense lifted out of context, because that is exactly how an AI engine will use it. Avoid answers that depend on the question or on surrounding paragraphs to be understood.

Use the real phrasing your audience uses. Match the questions to how people actually ask AI engines, in natural language, rather than keyword-stuffed headings. The closer your question matches the prompt, the likelier your answer is the one extracted.

Lead with the direct answer, then elaborate. Give the answer in the first sentence, then add context. Engines favour content that answers immediately, and so do readers skimming for a quick response.

Cover genuine questions, not invented ones. Pull from real customer questions, support tickets, and search queries. Fabricated FAQs padded for volume add no value and are easy for both readers and engines to recognise as filler.

Keep answers accurate and current. An FAQ with stale or wrong answers actively harms trust. Since the content is now working for AI citations rather than a SERP feature, accuracy is the whole point.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Did Google really remove FAQ rich results? Yes. In 2023 Google limited FAQ rich results to authoritative government and health sites, so the expandable FAQ snippets stopped appearing for nearly everyone else, and the Search Console appearance report reflects that. The visible feature is effectively gone for most sites.

Q: Should I remove FAQPage schema from my site? No need. Valid FAQPage markup that matches visible content does no harm and keeps your Q&A machine-readable. Just stop expecting it to produce a rich result, and do not invest heavily in it. The content behind it is what still matters.

Q: Do FAQs still help with AI search? Very much. Clear question-and-answer content is exactly what AI engines extract and cite. The SERP feature died, but FAQs became more valuable for answer engine optimisation, since they map directly to how people query AI.

Q: What replaced FAQ rich results for visibility? Nothing reinstated the feature; the value moved to AI citations and to answering questions clearly throughout your content. Optimise for being the source AI engines quote rather than for a SERP enhancement that no longer renders.

The Bottom Line

FAQ rich results are gone for almost every site, and HowTo rich results went with them, so the visible SERP payoff for that markup is over. But FAQPage schema and, more importantly, clear question-and-answer content still matter, because that format is exactly what AI answer engines extract and cite. Keep your FAQs, keep valid markup without over-investing, answer questions throughout your content, and measure AI citations instead of the dead FAQ-impressions metric. The feature died; the strategy got more useful.