What questions should FAQ schema mark up?
The ones you actually get on the phone — what it costs, how soon you can come, whether you cover their area, whether you are licensed and insured. Answer each specifically, because "prices vary" marks up nothing useful and reads as evasion to a visitor.
What it is and what it now does
FAQPage markup describes question-and-answer pairs that appear visibly on a page. For a period it commonly produced expandable questions under a search result; that display has been substantially restricted and most sites no longer see it.
The reasons that remain worthwhile:
- The Q&A structure is legible to AI answer engines and assistants that read pages directly
- It forces you to write answers to real customer questions, which improves the page regardless
- It costs almost nothing once the content exists
What it is not: a ranking lever. Adding markup to a thin page does not improve it.
The rule that matters most
The questions and answers must be visible on the page. Marking up content that is not there, or that only appears in a hidden panel a visitor cannot open, is a guidelines violation and is the single most common way sites get flagged for this.
Accordions are fine as long as the visitor can expand them and the content is in the HTML.
The markup
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "FAQPage",
"mainEntity": [{
"@type": "Question",
"name": "How much does a roof inspection cost in Katy?",
"acceptedAnswer": {
"@type": "Answer",
"text": "We charge $150 for a full inspection, credited against any repair booked within 30 days."
}
}]
}
Each question needs exactly one accepted answer. The answer text may contain basic HTML, but it must match what a visitor reads.
Writing questions worth marking up
Use the questions you actually get on the phone. For a Katy business that usually means:
- What does it cost
- How soon can you come out
- Do you cover my area — Cinco Ranch, Fulshear, west Houston
- Are you licensed and insured
- What happens if something goes wrong
Answer them specifically. "Prices vary" marks up nothing useful and reads as evasion to a visitor.
Where not to use it
- Product or service pages where the "questions" are marketing statements dressed as questions
- Forum or user-submitted Q&A — a different type applies
- Pages where the same block of questions is copied across dozens of URLs
That last one is worth emphasising: identical FAQ blocks repeated site-wide add duplication rather than value.
Verifying
Run the live URL through the Rich Results Test, confirm every question parses, and check Search Console for errors after deployment. Validation confirms the markup is correct; it does not promise a display.
Frequently asked questions
Does FAQ schema still produce a rich result?
For most sites, no. The display has been substantially restricted. The remaining reasons to use it are legibility to AI answer engines and the discipline of writing real answers.
Can I mark up questions that are not visible on the page?
No. The questions and answers must be visible to the visitor. Marking up absent or unreachable content is a guidelines violation and the most common way sites get flagged for this.
Do accordions count as visible?
Yes, provided the visitor can expand them and the content is present in the page HTML rather than fetched only on demand.
Will adding FAQ schema improve my rankings?
No. It is a description of content, not a ranking factor. Adding markup to a thin page leaves you with a thin page that is now well described.
Can I reuse the same FAQ block across many pages?
Avoid it. Identical question blocks repeated across dozens of URLs add duplication rather than value, and dilute what each page is actually about.