A blog needs four schema types, and two of the types most blogs are currently adding produce nothing at all. FAQ rich results stopped appearing in Google on 7 May 2026, HowTo rich results were withdrawn in 2023, and neither type appears in Google's structured data gallery any more.
That matters because a great many WordPress sites are still generating both automatically, on the strength of advice that was correct three years ago.
This guide covers what still works, what a blog actually needs, and how to check rather than assume.
What Google currently supports
Google's structured data gallery lists these features:
Article · Breadcrumb · Carousel · Course list · Dataset · Discussion forum · Education Q&A · Employer aggregate rating · Event · Image metadata · Job posting · Local business · Math solver · Movie · Organization · Product · Profile page · Q&A · Recipe · Review snippet · Software app · Speakable · Subscription and paywalled content · Vacation rental · Video
FAQPage and HowTo are not on that list. Their absence is the clearest possible confirmation — this is the page Google maintains as the definitive set, and they are simply gone from it.
The distinction that trips people up
Q&A is still supported. FAQ is not. They sound identical and are not the same thing.
QAPage— a page where users ask a question and other users answer it, one of which may be accepted. A forum thread. Still supported.FAQPage— a page where the site publishes both the questions and the answers. No longer produces a rich result.
Almost every blog's "FAQ section" is FAQPage. Marking it up as QAPage to sneak back into the supported list would be inaccurate markup describing content that is not user-generated, which is the sort of thing Google's guidelines exist to prevent.
What a blog actually needs
Four types. Everything else is situational.
1. Article
The core type for a blog post. Google uses Article, NewsArticle and BlogPosting equivalently, so the distinction matters less than people assume — pick one and be consistent.
Include: headline, author, date published, date modified, publisher, and a main image.
dateModified is the field most worth getting right, because it is the one that changes and the one most templates set incorrectly — usually by updating it whenever any field on the post changes, including ones no reader would notice.
2. BreadcrumbList
Cheap, well supported, and it changes how your URL is displayed in results. If your site has a category structure, this is the highest return-per-effort markup available.
3. Organization (or Person, for a personal site)
Sitewide, on the homepage. This is where sameAs lives — the array of URLs pointing at your profiles elsewhere, which is the single most useful piece of entity markup you can publish. The reasoning is in entity SEO.
4. ProfilePage and Person for author pages
Supported, under-used, and directly relevant to how authorship is assessed. If your blog has named authors with their own pages, this is worth adding.
That is the list. A blog with Article, BreadcrumbList, Organization and Person markup is fully covered. Adding more types does not add signal.
What to remove or stop generating
FAQPage. No rich result since 7 May 2026.
HowTo. No rich result since 2023.
Neither is penalised, and Google still parses the markup, so there is no urgency to strip them from existing pages. What matters is that:
- You do not commission work to add them, and
- You stop believing they are doing something. A plugin generating FAQ markup on 300 posts is not producing 300 rich results; it is producing nothing.
Review snippet on your own content. Self-serving review markup — a site rating its own products or services — is against Google's guidelines and can trigger a structured data manual action. This is one of the few schema mistakes with an actual penalty attached.
Anything describing content not visible on the page. Google's guidelines require structured data to describe what the user can actually see. Markup for an author who is not credited, a date that is not shown, or a rating that appears nowhere is a guidelines violation rather than an optimisation.
How to implement it
JSON-LD in the page head is Google's preferred format, and it is the easiest to maintain because it sits separately from your markup rather than being woven through it.
On WordPress you have three options.
Your SEO plugin. Rank Math, Yoast and SEOPress all generate Article, BreadcrumbList and Organization automatically. For most blogs this is the whole job, already done, and the correct move is to check what it outputs rather than add a second source.
A dedicated schema plugin. Rarely needed alongside an SEO plugin, and the usual outcome is two plugins emitting conflicting markup for the same page. If you add one, disable the equivalent in the other.
Manual JSON-LD in the theme. Most control, most maintenance. Reasonable for a single sitewide Organization block; unreasonable for per-post markup.
The failure to watch for is duplication. Two plugins each generating Article markup produce two Article blocks with different values, and Google has to guess. Validate the rendered page rather than trusting either plugin's settings screen.
Validating it
Three tools, in this order.
Google's Rich Results Test. Tests a live URL against the types Google actually supports and shows what it would generate. This is the one that matters, because it answers the only question worth asking: does this produce anything?
The Schema.org validator. Checks the markup is valid schema generally, including types Google does not use. Useful for catching syntax errors, not for predicting results.
Search Console's Enhancements reports. These appear only for types you have valid markup for, and they show errors at scale rather than on one URL. If a type you believe you are outputting has no report, you are probably not outputting it.
Validate the rendered page, not your settings. Plugins have defaults, themes have overrides, and caching serves something older than both.
What schema does not do
Worth stating plainly, because this is oversold.
It is not a ranking factor. Google has been consistent about this. Markup helps a machine parse a page; it does not make the page more deserving.
It does not guarantee a rich result. Valid markup makes you eligible. Google decides per query whether to show anything.
It does not fix a page nobody wants. Structured data on thin content is thin content with better labelling.
It will not get you into an AI Overview. Google's guidance is explicit that no special markup is required for its AI features, and none is available. What actually affects that is in SEO when AI answers the question first.
The honest summary: schema is worth doing because it is cheap, one-off, and occasionally produces a visible result. It is not worth a project.
Frequently asked questions
Does FAQ schema still work in 2026?
Not for rich results. FAQ rich results stopped appearing in Google Search on 7 May 2026, and FAQPage no longer appears in Google's structured data gallery. The markup is still parsed and is not penalised, so there is no need to strip it — but it produces no visual result and should not be added expecting one.
What schema does a blog actually need?
Four types: Article for posts, BreadcrumbList for navigation display, Organization or Person sitewide, and ProfilePage with Person for author pages. Most SEO plugins generate the first three automatically. Additional types do not add signal.
Is Q&A schema the same as FAQ schema?
No, and the distinction matters now. QAPage describes a page where users ask and other users answer — a forum thread — and is still supported. FAQPage describes questions and answers written by the site, and no longer produces a rich result. Most blog FAQ sections are FAQPage.
Does schema markup help rankings?
Not directly. Google has been consistent that structured data is not a ranking factor. It helps machines understand a page and makes it eligible for rich results where the type is supported, which can affect click-through rate rather than position.
Should I remove FAQ and HowTo markup from old posts?
There is no need. Neither is penalised and Google still parses both. The change that matters is stopping new generation and no longer treating them as deliverables — a plugin adding FAQ markup across hundreds of posts is producing nothing.
Can two plugins both add schema?
They can, and it is a common problem. Two plugins generating Article markup produce conflicting blocks for the same page and Google has to choose. Use one source, disable the equivalent in the other, and validate the rendered page rather than the settings screens.
How do I check my schema is working?
Google's Rich Results Test on a live URL is the one that matters, because it shows what Google would actually generate. The Schema.org validator catches syntax errors including for types Google does not use. Search Console Enhancements reports show errors at scale.
Does schema markup help with AI search?
It helps machines parse the page, which is generally useful. It does not get you into AI Overviews or AI Mode — Google's guidance states no special markup is needed or available for its generative AI features.
What to do next
Run your most recent blog post through Google's Rich Results Test. It takes a minute and tells you what your site is actually emitting, which is frequently not what the plugin settings suggest.
If it reports FAQ or HowTo markup, that is your confirmation that something is generating output for retired features.
Related guides
- Technical SEO: what actually breaks rankings — where schema sits in priority
- Entity SEO: why named things beat keywords now — why Organization and sameAs matter most
- Search Console: the 5 reports that matter — where Enhancements reports live
- Why isn't my page indexed? A diagnostic — schema cannot fix this
- SEO when AI answers the question first — what markup does not do
Free: The 60-Minute Email Authentication Fix
A no-fluff checklist to set up SPF, DKIM & DMARC correctly and pass Gmail & Yahoo's sender requirements.
Muhammad Basim has worked in digital marketing since 2013, focused on email deliverability and AI-assisted content production. He is the author of The Email Deliverability Playbook and The Email Copywriting Playbook.
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