Three years of breadcrumbs. One final confirmation.
If you work in SEO and felt a jolt when Google officially wrapped up FAQ rich results in May 2026, take a breath. This was not a curveball. Google has been walking this back since August 2023, one deliberate step at a time. The SEO community saw the signals. The pattern was undeniable. And now, with the full deprecation confirmed, the only question worth asking is: what do you do with this information?
At Tru, we have been advising clients on structured data strategy through every phase of this evolution. Here is the full picture, without the noise.
Google Telegraphed This Back in 2023. Here Is the Full Arc
August 2023 was the first real turning point. Google published an official update on the Search Central Blog announcing it was reducing the visibility of FAQ rich results and restricting HowTo rich results to desktop only. The stated goal was delivering "a cleaner and more consistent search experience."
From that announcement forward, FAQ rich results would only appear for well-known, authoritative government and health websites. For every other site, the accordion-style expansion in SERPs quietly disappeared. By September 2023, HowTo rich results were deprecated from desktop entirely.
What started in 2023 reached its conclusion in May 2026. FAQ rich results stopped appearing in Google Search entirely. The feature is deprecated across the board, with Search Console reporting and API support phasing out through August 2026.
FAQ Rich Results Are Gone From SERP. FAQ Content Value Is Absolutely Not
Read that heading again, because this is the nuance the industry keeps fumbling.
FAQPage structured data will no longer generate a visible accordion in Google Search results. That specific visual treatment, the expandable questions appearing directly in the SERP, has been retired for most websites.
The SEO value of well-written FAQ content on your pages remains completely intact. FAQ sections still build topical authority, reinforce content depth, and support visibility for conversational long-tail queries. They can also contribute to featured snippets and broader AI-powered search experiences. Google’s updated documentation draws an important distinction: visibility of the rich result changed, while FAQPage structured data itself remains fully supported.
The rich result was a display feature. The content powering it was always the real asset. Stripping FAQ sections from pages because the accordion is gone is a decision that will cost organic visibility over the coming months. Brands removing valuable FAQ content entirely may weaken topical depth and long-tail query coverage over time.
The Deprecation Rolls Out in Stages. Mark These Dates
For teams managing Search Console API integrations, the timeline matters, and the August cutoff arrives fast.
May 7, 2026: FAQ rich results stop appearing in Google Search
June 2026: FAQ search appearance, rich result report, and Rich Results Test support are removed
August 2026: Search Console API support for FAQ rich results is retired
Do not wait until July for those API calls. Audit integrations now, identify dependencies on FAQ rich result data, and rebuild your tracking before the endpoint closes.
A Practical Example Worth Sitting With
A business blog, well-maintained, with an FAQ page schema on every post. Those accordion results were earning real SERP real estate on competitive queries and contributing to click-through rates.
Post May 2026: the accordions are gone. Search Console shows a drop to zero impressions for FAQ search appearances. It looks bad on a dashboard. It is not bad for the site.
The page still ranks. The FAQ content still answers the query. Google's AI Overview at the top of the SERP may be pulling from that exact page to construct its answer. The content is working in a different format. The schema tag stopped producing a visual treatment; the authority and structure that made the content trustworthy did not stop mattering at all.
The strategic response is a focused audit: identify which queries relied on FAQ rich result visibility, review CTR performance before and after, and redirect that energy toward Featured Snippet targeting and AI Overview optimization.
Structured Data Still Pays Off. Here Is Where to Focus
Structured data is not declining in importance. Google still uses it to better understand and classify page content, while modern search experiences increasingly rely on structured, machine-readable information across AI-powered discovery surfaces. This distinction should shape where technical SEO investment goes next.
Schema types continue to show strong visibility value across Google Search:
Article and NewsArticle: strong editorial signals, rich treatment in Search
Product and Review: high-intent commercial queries, direct SERP presence
HowTo: valuable for content interpretation, regardless of the visual deprecation
BreadcrumbList: reliable structural signal for site architecture
Event: high-intent queries with strong rich result support still active
VideoObject: expanding surface area as video search grows in importance
Write FAQ content for the person reading it. Structure it for clarity and depth. Let Google surface it wherever it fits. The schema tag is optional for most sites at this point. The quality of what sits behind it has never been optional.
Search visibility is rapidly moving into AI-generated experiences. Tru’s AI Search Optimization Services help brands stay discoverable where modern customer journeys now begin.
The Pattern Google Has Been Running for Years
Google’s pattern around SERP features has been remarkably predictable for years. A feature launches, early adopters gain a visibility advantage, and the industry rushes in fast. Eventually, the experience becomes overcrowded with repetitive or low-quality implementations fighting for the same SERP space, and Google starts pulling the feature back. FAQ rich results followed that exact playbook, and they likely will not be the last feature to do so.
The brands built to weather these changes all share the same foundation: content created to genuinely serve the reader, and structured data used to accurately describe that content across traditional and AI-powered search experiences. Nothing more.
Google is not penalizing good content. It is removing the shortcut. Those are two very different things, and the gap between them is exactly where durable search visibility gets built.
Future Search Visibility Starts With Better Strategy.
Talk to Tru’s AI SEO ExpertsReferences:
Google Search Central Blog. Changes to HowTo and FAQ rich results, August 2023.
Google Search Central. FAQPage structured data documentation, May 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
This started around August 2023 when Google limited FAQ rich results primarily to deliver “a cleaner and more consistent search experience.” Visibility became restricted mainly to authoritative government and health websites. By May 2026, FAQ rich results were officially removed from Google Search entirely. The change affects the visual SERP feature, not the SEO value of helpful FAQ content itself.
Yes. FAQPage structured data still helps Google understand and classify page content, even though the accordion-style rich result no longer appears in Search for most websites. Well-written FAQ content can still support topical authority, conversational search visibility, featured snippets, and AI-powered search experiences when it genuinely answers user intent.
Removing valuable FAQ content purely because the rich result disappeared is usually a poor SEO decision. FAQ sections still help organize information, answer user questions clearly, and strengthen long-tail query relevance. Brands should focus on creating genuinely useful FAQ content instead of treating FAQ schema as a shortcut for extra SERP visibility.
