FAQ markup deserves an honest guide more than any other type, because most of what is written about it is out of date. Since August 2023, Google shows FAQ rich results only for well-known, authoritative government and health sites. For everyone else the markup remains valid, remains read — and does not produce the drop-down rich result any more. A checklist that pretends otherwise is selling homework toward nothing, so this one starts with who it is for.

Whether to bother

  • Government and health authorities — yes, in full: you are the audience the rich result still serves.
  • Everyone else — write the FAQ for readers first. Adding the markup is harmless and cheap, and other consumers — Bing, assistants, and systems that read structured answers — still parse it. Just do not measure the work against a Google rich result that is not coming.

What the markup requires

FAQPage requires one property: mainEntity — a list of Question items. Each Question has its own two requirements: name (the question as asked) and acceptedAnswer (an Answer whose text is the answer). The answer text may carry simple HTML — links, lists, emphasis.

The rules that still apply to everyone

  • The questions and answers must be visible on the page. Markup for content the visitor cannot see is the classic FAQ abuse, and it was half the reason the rich result was restricted.
  • Each question appears once, with its complete answer — not a teaser that cuts off to make someone click.
  • It is your own content answering your own users' questions — not advertising copy reformatted as dialogue, and not questions nobody asked stuffed with keywords.
  • FAQPage is for pages where multiple questions have single authoritative answers. A forum where users supply answers is QAPage, a different type.

An example

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "FAQPage",
  "mainEntity": [{
    "@type": "Question",
    "name": "How long does delivery take?",
    "acceptedAnswer": {"@type": "Answer",
      "text": "Orders placed before 2pm ship the same day and arrive within 2–4 working days."}
  }, {
    "@type": "Question",
    "name": "Can I return an opened item?",
    "acceptedAnswer": {"@type": "Answer",
      "text": "Yes — within 30 days, in its original packaging. We cover return postage for faulty items."}
  }]
}

The honest summary

Write the FAQ because your visitors have questions. Mark it up because structure costs little and other consumers read it. Expect the Google rich result only if you are the kind of site the 2023 restriction names — and if a tool or an agency promises you FAQ rich results without asking what kind of site you run, that is a sign about the tool, not about your markup.

Checking your page

Validate that the block parses and every Question carries both its required properties with the structured data validator, then run the complete page audit — it will also tell you, plainly, that this rich result is restricted, because a report that lets you chase it without saying so would be part of the problem.