Google tightens FAQ markup guidelines, disallows repetition of questions and answers

Google has updated its content guidelines for the FAQ schema that says you can no longer markup the same question and answer with FAQ schema if that question and answer is in multiple pages on your site. Google said just mark it up on one of those FAQ pages, but not more than one.

The new guidelines. The updated guidelines added this line “If you have FAQ content that is repetitive on your site (meaning, the same question and answer appear on multiple pages on your site), mark up only one instance of that FAQ for your entire site.” Hat tip to @suzukik for spotting this.

FAQ schema. FAQ schema is designed to be added to FAQ pages that provide a list of frequently asked questions and answers on a particular topic. Adding this structured data helps Google show questions and answers directly on Google Search and the Assistant. Here is how it can look in the search results.

Why we care. It is important for you to ensure that if you have the same question and answer throughout multiple FAQ pages on a single site, that you remove the markup from all but one of those FAQ pages for that question. If you do not remove it, you are in violation of Google’s new guidelines, which can potentially lead to all your pages not showing FAQ rich results in the Google search results.

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Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.