On May 7, 2026, Google permanently removed FAQ rich results from Search for every website, no exceptions. If your site had those expandable Q&A dropdowns beneath your Google listing, they’re gone. Here’s what actually happened, what it means, and what to do next.
What Just Happened?
On May 7, 2026, Google quietly updated its Search Central documentation with a deprecation notice that ended a feature many businesses and SEO teams had relied on for years: FAQ rich results are no longer appearing in Google Search.
No blog post. No press release. Just a notice at the top of a developer documentation page and with it, the end of those expandable question-and-answer dropdowns that used to appear beneath organic listings in Google Search results.
If you’ve ever searched for something and seen a business listing that showed clickable questions like “How much does this cost?” or “Do you offer free estimates?” right in the search results that was a FAQ rich result. And as of this month, they’re gone for good.
The Full Timeline: What Gets Removed and When
This isn’t a one-day switch-off. Google is retiring the feature in stages:
| Date | What changes |
| May 7, 2026 | FAQ rich results stop appearing in Google Search already done |
| June 2026 | FAQ search appearance filter, rich result report, and Rich Results Test support removed from Search Console |
| August 2026 | FAQ rich result support removed from the Search Console API |
If your team runs automated SEO dashboards or uses the Search Console API to track FAQ performance, you have until August to update those workflows or risk getting silent, empty data returns.
Action now: Export any historical FAQ rich result performance data from Google Search Console before June 2026, while the reports still exist.
This Wasn’t Sudden It’s Been a Long Time Coming
To understand why this happened, it helps to know the history.
Google launched FAQ rich results back in 2019. At the time, the feature was open to all websites and businesses quickly figured out that adding an FAQ section with FAQPage schema was an easy way to take up more visual space in search results, improve click-through rates, and push competitors further down the page.
The problem? Most of those FAQ sections weren’t written for users. They were written to game the SERP. Artificial questions. Bloated answers. FAQ sections crammed onto pages that had no business having them all in pursuit of that extra search real estate.
Google’s response came in August 2023, when it restricted FAQ rich results to only “well-known, authoritative government and health websites.” For most businesses including the small and medium businesses, Webegin works with FAQ rich results had already been gone for nearly three years before this month’s announcement.
The May 2026 deprecation is simply the final step: removing the feature entirely, even for the government and health sites that had retained it. Google’s March 2026 core update had already pushed FAQ rich result impressions to near zero across tracked sites before the official cutoff landed. By the time Google made it official, the feature was already effectively dead.
As Google’s own John Mueller put it on Bluesky after the announcement:
“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 and wasn’t one of those types, it was already being ignored. No need to change anything, but if you did it for search, you can remove the markup if you want.”
What This Means for Your Website
Your Rankings Are Not Affected
This is the most important thing to understand: this is a search appearance change, not an algorithmic ranking change. Google has confirmed that rankings are not affected by the deprecation.
If your page was ranking in position 4 for a keyword before May 7, it’s still ranking in position 4. What changed is that the visual enhancement of the expandable FAQ dropdown beneath your listing is no longer there.
What may shift is your click-through rate (CTR) on pages that previously displayed the dropdown. That visual prominence is now gone, and some of those clicks may no longer happen. But your organic position in search results stays the same.
H3: Should You Remove Your FAQ Schema Code?
No, not necessarily. This is where the nuance matters.
Google deprecated the rich result display feature, not the FAQPage schema type itself. Google has explicitly stated it will continue using FAQ structured data to better understand your pages, even though it won’t display the rich result.
That means structured data and rich results are two different jobs and only one of them ended on May 7.
There are also two other reasons to keep your FAQ markup:
- Other search engines still use it. Bing, Perplexity, and other crawlers can still process and potentially display FAQ schema. Removing it entirely closes that door.
- AI systems read it. This is increasingly important. FAQ markup contributes to how AI tools including Google’s own AI Overviews understand and retrieve content from your pages. Some data suggests pages with FAQPage schema are significantly more likely to be cited in AI-generated search summaries. That is where search visibility is heading in 2026 and beyond.
The bottom line on markup: If your FAQ section genuinely answers real questions your customers ask, keep the schema. If it was added purely to chase the SERP dropdown and doesn’t reflect real page content, this is a good time to clean it up.
What Rich Results Are Still Worth Using?
FAQ schema may be done as a visual SERP feature, but structured data is far from dead. These schema types still produce rich results in Google Search and are worth implementing correctly:
- Review / AggregateRating Star ratings in search results. One of the highest-impact schema types for local businesses.
- LocalBusiness Business name, address, hours, and category signals. Critical for local SEO.
- Product Price, availability, and review data for eCommerce.
- Article Helps Google understand editorial content and can trigger news or Top Stories features.
- Event Date, location, and registration info displayed directly in results.
- BreadcrumbList Cleaner URL display in results; improves navigational clarity.
- Organization / Person Entity recognition signals. Increasingly important for AI search systems.
- Video Thumbnail and duration shown in video results.
At Webegin, our SEO strategy has always been built on data and what actually works, not on chasing tactics that Google tolerates temporarily. The FAQ deprecation is a reminder of exactly that principle.
The Bigger Pattern: Why Google Keeps Retiring Rich Results
FAQ schema isn’t the first casualty. In September 2023, Google deprecated HowTo rich results on desktop. In June 2025, seven more structured data types were retired at once: Book Actions, Course Info, Claim Review, Estimated Salary, Learning Video, Special Announcement, and Vehicle Listing.
The pattern is consistent. When SEO tooling turns a display feature into a manipulation target when teams add markup to grab search real estate rather than to genuinely describe page content Google narrows eligibility to a specific vertical and then removes the feature entirely.
The lesson isn’t to stop using structured data. It’s to implement it because it accurately describes your content, not because a tactic is temporarily yielding results. Schema types that produce genuine signals for Google’s understanding of your site survive these changes. Schema added purely to exploit a visual feature does not.
What Webegin Recommends for Your SEO Going Forward
Here’s the practical checklist for small and medium businesses right now:
- Don’t panic-remove FAQ schema. If your FAQ content is real and useful, leave the markup. It still contributes to page comprehension and AI retrieval.
- Export your Search Console FAQ data before June. Once the reporting is removed, that historical data is gone. Pull it now if you want a record of past performance.
- Audit your structured data overall. Use this moment to check which schema types you have implemented and whether they reflect your actual page content. Cleanup now prevents issues later.
- Double down on the Review schema. For local businesses, AggregateRating and review markup remain one of the most visible and impactful schema types in Google Search. If you’re not using it correctly, you’re leaving real estate on the table.
- Think about AI visibility, not just Google rich results. Search behavior is shifting. Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, ChatGPT search, and other AI systems are increasingly how people find answers. Structured, well-organized content with accurate schema markup is what those systems retrieve and cite. That is the new SERP.
The Bottom Line
Google’s FAQ rich result deprecation is not the end of structured data, it’s the end of a shortcut. The businesses that used FAQ schema because it genuinely served their users don’t lose much. The businesses that bolted on fake FAQ sections to inflate their search listings are the ones who should have seen this coming.
At Webegin, we build SEO strategies around what actually drives results for small and medium businesses: clean technical implementation, content that answers real questions, and a local presence on Google that compounds over time. FAQ dropdowns were never the foundation of that.
If you’re not sure how your site’s structured data is set up or if your SEO strategy needs a reset after this change we’re here to help.
Want a free SEO audit for your website?
our team will take a look and tell you exactly where you stand.