What is FAQ Schema and What Are The Benefits?

by

Schema was introduced in 2011 as a way to “create, maintain, and promote schemas for structured data on the Internet, on web pages, in email messages, and beyond.” It’s formed of tags or microdata that are added to web pages to help search engines understand their semantic nature. 

There are many types of Schema, from article schema to event schema, and pretty much everything in between. For a full list, head over here.

What Is FAQ Schema? 

FAQ schema is code you place on your site that tells search engines “this content is presented in a question and answer format”. 

When the content is correctly marked up, it means those pages *could* be eligible for rich snippets in the search results and *may* appear in Google Assistant searches. Sadly, there’s no guarantee that using schema means your markup will be displayed in the search results.

Can FAQ Schema Be Used For Brand Questions and Answers? 

Yes, it can. 

If you’re part of a medium or large brand, there are likely to be lots of questions that customers – or potential customers – have about your products or services. 

By marking up your brand FAQs, you can answer users’ questions directly in the search results. 

But…

Doesn’t that mean they don’t click through to the site and send you traffic? 

Well, yes, potentially – but is that necessarily a bad thing? 

In this instance, your site doesn’t need to serve as the first touch-point with the user, because they already know about your brand. Instead, you’ve utilised Google search capabilities to provide them with the answer they need, and fast – essentially offering an excellent off-site user experience. Surely that’s actually a boost for your brand? 

Want to know more?

Let’s Talk

What You Might Not Know About FAQ Schema 

Despite what you might think, FAQ Schema isn’t exclusively for use on company FAQs. If you read this post by Google, you can create and apply schema to FAQs on any subject. 

Here’s two big benefits to using FAQ schema in other ways.

Benefit 1:You can grab more real estate in the search results

Just look at this example on desktop. 

And this one on mobile. 

FAQ schema means your site takes up more space in the search results, which means you’re more likely to get noticed, and…

Benefit 2: You can improve click-through rates 

Take a look at this research based on (the now-defunct) Jumpshot data, and you’ll see that around half of Google searches don’t result in the user clicking through to a site. 

That’s because Google’s really smart. And more effective at keeping users on the SERPs than it’s ever been. 

But you can play it at its own game.

With brand FAQs it often makes sense to answer queries fully in the search results. Other topics are different. With the right structure, FAQs that take advantage of schema can actually help increase click-throughs. Do this by making it clear to users that more information is available on the site.

Some Free Tools To Help With FAQ Schema Markup

It’s easier than you might think to implement FAQ schema, and you don’t need the help of a developer.

Here are 3 free tools you can use that will generate the code you need to add your site.

Are There Any FAQ Schema Plugins For WordPress?

As you might expect, several schema plugins are available for WordPress sites.

Here are some of the most popular WordPress plugins for generating FAQ Schema markup. 

Some Quick Schema Guidelines

We might as well take this straight from the horse’s mouth – these are the valid and invalid uses for FAQ schema, according to Google. 

Valid use cases:

  • An FAQ page written by the site itself, with no way for users to submit alternative answers
  • A product support page that lists FAQs, with no way for users to submit alternative answers

Invalid use cases:

  • A forum page where users can submit answers to a single question
  • A product support page where users can submit answers to a single question
  • A product page where users can submit multiple questions and answers on a single page

Like all forms of schema, FAQ schema offers webmasters a number of benefits – largely as a result of the increased real estate the markup can secure you in the search results. It’s undeniably worth using it to make more of your existing FAQs (or writing and marking up FAQs if you don’t yet have any).

Want to know more about FAQ schema? We’re remote-first, Birmingham SEO specialists that can support you in claiming more space in the SERPs. Talk to us today.

Latest Blogs