What are FAQ rich results?
A Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) rich result (also known as an FAQ rich snippet) consists of a list of questions and answers on a specific subject. Google pulls these answers from indexed pages that implemented the FAQ rich result schema for their content.
Once you implement the FAQ schema, parts of your page’s content become eligible to be shown in a dropdown menu of questions on the search result pages. After clicking on the questions, respective answers appear underneath.
How to use the FAQ schema to acquire rich results?
Unlike with featured snippets, using schema is a prerequisite for displaying any type of rich results.
Schema.org provides a collection of shared vocabularies webmasters can use to mark up their pages in ways that can be understood by the major search engines: Google, Microsoft, Yandex, and Yahoo!
Add FAQ schema to help search engine robots better understand what your content is about, regardless of the language used. This lets search engines show your content in a more appropriate context, and the FAQ rich results are one example of that.
To get featured in a FAQ rich result section, you need to add the FAQPage schema markup to your website.
You can find out how to implement it in Schema.org’s documentation. It contains the properties that you can use to identify specific elements of your page.
The FAQPage type in the schema documentation is used to mark up a page that contains questions and their answers.
To be eligible for FAQ rich results, you need to include the following property from the documentation:
mainEntity – an array of Question elements containing the list of answered questions
Other types that are needed are Question and Answer schema types.
The Question type identifies a single answered question. Every Question needs to be located within the mainEntity property array of the FAQPage.
It requires the following properties:
acceptedAnswer – the Answer to the question – there should be one per question
Name – the full Text of the question
The Answer type defines the acceptedAnswer to each of the Question types on this page.
It requires the following property:
text – this contains the full text of the answer to the question
You can add the markup to your page using JSON-LD or Microdata, but JSON-LD is recommended whenever possible.
Look at this sample markup:
<script type="application/ld+json"> { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "FAQPage", "mainEntity": [{ "@type": "Question", "name": "INSERT QUESTION TEXT HERE", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "INSERT ANSWER TEXT HERE" } }] } </script>
Google offers step-by-step guidelines on how to implement structured data, so be sure to check them out.
What are the best practices for FAQ rich results?
Google has a list of FAQ content guidelines that you need to follow:
- The FAQ Page markup should be used on a page containing a list of questions with answers.
- A valid use case would be:
- A page with FAQs published by the site without the option for users to add their own answers,
- A product support page with FAQs without the option for users to add their own answers.
- An invalid use case would be:
- A forum page that allows users to submit their own answers to questions,
- A product support page with the option for users to add their own answers,
- A product page that lets users post questions and answers.
- Do not use FAQ markup for advertising purposes.
- Each Question in the markup should contain the whole question, while each Answer should contain the whole answer.
- The content in questions and answers cannot be obscene, profane, sexually explicit, violent, promote dangerous or illegal activities, or contain hateful language.
- All content that you include in the markup should be accessible to users in the source HTML.
- If the content repeats itself on multiple pages on your site, only mark up one instance of it for the whole website.
- You can mark up even just a single question and answer.
- There is no word limit on the answer or the number of FAQs you can include on a page.
Where are FAQ rich results displayed?
They appear in both desktop and mobile search results and are available in all countries and all languages.
How long does it take for Google to process FAQ rich results markup?
After choosing the page that will be a good fit and implementing the markup, you can validate it in Google Search Console. Enter the page’s URL and request that Google crawls the page again. There is no set waiting time – it could happen on the same day or take a few days or weeks.
Keep in mind that Google clearly states that structured data enables the possibility of showing up as one of the available rich results, but there is no guarantee.
Here is what structured data guidelines say:
Can I only FAQPage markup on a page that does not explicitly contain FAQs?
You do not need to have a specific FAQ page to have it appear as an FAQ rich result. You can use it on various types of pages, like articles, categories, or products.
How many FAQs does Google show?
By default, Google will show the first three FAQs in the search results. The maximum number of questions that Google shows is ten, followed by a link to view more on the page.
How many FAQ pages can appear in Google search results?
Only three pages with the FAQ markup will display as rich results on a single search results page. Also, it seems like FAQs only appear on the 1st page of Google results.
If you are using the markup but aren’t ranking on the first page of search results, it’s unlikely your page will show up as a FAQ rich result in SERPs.
Will I get a higher click-through rate with FAQ rich results?
It depends.
Elfsight presents data on the CTR for mobile and desktop devices with and without FAQ snippets measured weekly:
| Device | CTR without FAQ snippets | CTR with FAQ snippets |
| Desktop | 4.04% | 4.49% |
| Mobile | 3.40% | 4.90% |
FAQ snippets provide a 10% growth on desktop and an even more significant increase on mobile: 31%.
As with other SERP features, FAQ rich results may provide searchers with answers to their queries without visiting the page. It can result in more zero-click searches, which are searches that don’t end with an organic or paid click on a result.
In some cases, it can severely hurt the amount of search traffic you get.
Lily Ray shared her experience after implementing it back in 2019:
The unintended consequence of adding FAQ schema. It looks so pretty in the SERP… but where did all our traffic go? 🙄#seo #structureddata #schema #google pic.twitter.com/yy93nGo6m8
— Lily Ray 😏 (@lilyraynyc) June 13, 2019
Zero-click searches have been on the rise. According to some studies, they already reached over 50% of all searches in 2019, and they skyrocketed in 2020, getting to nearly 65%. This is mainly due to the growing numbers of SERP features that show up in search results today.
Luckily, FAQ rich results offer a way to help you drive more traffic to your site. You can include internal linking in your answers to increase your click-through rate and encourage users to visit your site.
Apart from links, you can enhance your text in FAQs with HTML tags. Make your answers more visible by adding headings, bolding important parts, or compiling the text into lists.
This way, you can drive targeted traffic to multiple pages on your site from just this one search result.
All links that you add should be relevant and implemented carefully, as Google might penalize you if they appear like spam or advertising.
What are the benefits of FAQ rich results?
FAQ pages take up a lot of space in search results. This means they can give your site more visibility and recognition and push down other results, reducing room for your competitors on the first page of SERPs.
Using the FAQ markup can let you show up as an FAQ Action shown on Google Assistant. This way, users may access your content through voice search.
Despite the possibility of resulting in fewer organic clicks, you can still use zero-click searches to your site’s advantage. In this case, it’s harder to measure the benefits of rich results without traffic to analyze. But zero-click searches always expose your brand and information about it to an audience and make users familiar with it.
Overall, these benefits depend on your strategy and planning. Will your FAQs contain all the information in the answers? Or, will they spark the users’ curiosity and get them interested in learning more and exploring your page?
If you leverage internal links, follow Google’s policies and guidelines, and provide meaningful answers to your questions, you’ll maximize the advantages of FAQ rich results.
What is the difference between FAQ and Q&A Pages?
FAQ pages present a list of questions with answers.
Q&A pages are more dynamic – they show a single question, and users can submit multiple answers. Readers can vote on which answer provides the best, most accurate information.
If this sounds more like something that fits your site’s profile, see Google’s Q&A documentation to learn more.
Why are there fewer FAQ results showing in SERPs?
John Mueller was asked about this during one of the Google Webmaster Central hangouts.
A person observed that their FAQ rich results stopped appearing, despite the Rich Results Test in Search Console showing no issues with implementing structured data.
John explained that Google couldn’t show all of them and had to choose those best suited for FAQ results and for which it made sense.
It’s also likely that their number is limited because they take up so much space in SERPs – this could shrink the number of pages that fit in search results.
Will FAQ schema help me rank for the “People also ask” results or featured snippets?
The FAQ schema can help you acquire FAQ rich results, but no correlation was observed between setting it up and having a page included in the People also ask section or featured snippets.
Can I check if my FAQ markup is working?
Yes, you can check the rich result status reports in the Enhancement section in Google Search Console. You will see a report for each type of rich result. It lets you check whether Google has crawled and indexed the page and used your FAQ markup.
You can also use the Google Search Performance Report to check for errors and warnings.
It tells you how often your page shows up as a rich result in SERPs, how many clicks it gets, and the average position in the results.
Are FAQ rich results worth using?
FAQ rich results can be beneficial for your site, and you won’t know the scope of the possible benefits until you test them yourself.
If accurately planned and implemented, FAQ rich results may help you drive traffic to your pages and make your site recognizable and more trustworthy. The content will be accessible to many users right in the SERPs.
FAQ rich results occupy a significant amount of space in SERPs – this is a chance for your site to be more visible and move your competition down in the rankings. Finally, if you apply internal links to your answers, you can drive more traffic to many pages.
