The number of FAQ rich results appearing in Google’s SERPs has decreased from 53.94% to 17.04%, according to a new analysis by digital marketing agency Portent.
Why we care. It’s much harder to earn FAQ rich results, though not impossible. As the study suggests, you should continue using FAQ schema and following best practices when it makes sense.
Interesting findings. The Position 1 result is less likely to get a rich result than Positions 2 through 7.
The comparison also found:
- “It’s 1.88 percent more likely that the page in the number one position will have FAQ schema, but 9.39 percent less likely it will receive an FAQ result.”
FAQs always matched the schema markup – the analysis found no instances of Google rewriting questions or answers, as it commonly does with title tags and meta descriptions.
About the analysis. It compared an Aug. 15 crawl of more than 30,000 Google searches, with 10 links per result, against the crawl from February (Portent didn’t give an exact date). It focused on “seed keywords from various verticals with a high likelihood of FAQs” including home improvement, mortgage, telehealth, cybersecurity, pet adoption and hiking.
Google reduced FAQ visibility. FAQs rich results are now only shown for “well-known, authoritative government and health websites” as Google announced Aug. 8. FAQ rich results are no longer shown regularly for other sites.
Simplification of search. Google’s Gary Illyes said the removal of SERP features such as FAQ and HowTo rich results is part of Google simplifying search results, a trend he said will likely continue. Google removes features because users don’t use them or find them useful, Illyes said.
Read the full Portent study. Google Update Decreases Search Result FAQs By 37%
