A founder spent an afternoon back in 2024 adding FAQPage schema to every service page on their site, chasing the expandable question dropdown that used to show up directly in Google's results, extra blue-link real estate for free. Checking the site again in mid-2026, the dropdowns are gone, not just from their site, from everyone's. Their first instinct is to rip the markup out entirely, assuming it's now dead weight. That instinct is only half right, and getting the other half wrong is exactly why 'just add FAQ schema' is now one of the most outdated pieces of SEO advice still circulating.
What did Google actually change, and when?
Google's own FAQPage structured data documentation states plainly that the FAQ rich result feature 'will no longer appear in Google Search starting May 7, 2026.' A rich result is the visible expandable Q&A dropdown that used to render directly under certain search listings, a distinct thing from the underlying FAQPage schema.org markup itself, which is the code that produced that dropdown when Google chose to show it.
The change was confirmed independently by Search Engine Journal's reporting on Google dropping FAQ rich results, and it wasn't an isolated tweak, Google has been steadily narrowing which structured data types actually earn a visible rich result in Search.
What exactly is gone, and what's still there?
| Element | Status after the 2026 change |
|---|---|
| The expandable FAQ dropdown in search results | Gone, no longer rendered for any site |
| FAQPage schema.org markup already on your pages | Still valid markup, does not need to be removed |
| FAQ search-appearance filter in Search Console | Removed, June 2026 |
| FAQ Rich Results Test support | Removed, June 2026 |
| FAQ rich result data in the Search Console API | Removed, August 2026 |
Source: Google Search Central, FAQPage structured data developer documentation.
Does losing the rich result mean FAQPage schema is now useless for AI Overviews or AI Mode too?
No, but it was never doing what most people assumed there either. Google's own generative AI search optimization guide states directly that 'you don't need to create new machine readable files, AI text files, markup, or Markdown' to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, there's no special schema.org type that unlocks AI citation the way FAQ markup used to unlock a rich result.
The value was never really the tag, it was the content shape the tag forced you into: a direct question paired with a direct, self-contained answer. That shape is exactly what Google AI Mode's query fan-out retrieval and classic AI Overviews still reward, evaluating a passage on whether it answers a specific sub-query on its own, covered in more depth in structuring content for AI Overview citations. The markup was a side effect of good structure, not the cause of it.
So what should you actually do with your existing FAQ schema?
- Leave existing FAQPage markup in place. Google explicitly says unused structured data causes no problems, so removing it now is pure busywork with no upside on either side.
- Stop treating 'add FAQ schema' as an SEO task in its own right, it never directly drove rankings, and it no longer produces even a visible rich-result upside either.
- Keep writing genuine FAQ-style content, question-phrased subheadings paired with a direct one-to-two-sentence answer, because that content shape is still what gets extracted into AI Overviews and AI Mode answers, independent of any markup.
- Redirect the time you'd have spent chasing FAQ markup toward structured data types that still have active rich-result support, like LocalBusiness and Product schema, covered in why local businesses aren't cited without LocalBusiness schema and schema markup for AI search citations.
How AIBOOTSTRAPPER solved this for Expensorr
AIBOOTSTRAPPER built Expensorr's GEO-optimized site to be discoverable by both search engines and AI assistants from day one, meaning content was written to answer questions directly in the prose itself, not structured around chasing one Google UI feature. That's exactly the practice that survives a rich-result deprecation like this one: it was never dependent on the dropdown existing in the first place, which is part of why the site was built discoverable from launch rather than needing a structural rework later.
How AIBOOTSTRAPPER helps
AIBOOTSTRAPPER's GEO team builds content structure around what AI systems actually extract from, direct, question-answering prose, not around chasing whichever Google rich-result feature happens to be live this year.
If your FAQ pages were built purely for a rich result that no longer exists, book a call and we'll show you what to fix and what to leave alone.
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