Just two days ago, Google officially announced that it would decrease the frequency with which FAQ-rich results and How-To rich results appear in search results.
“To provide a cleaner and more consistent search experience, we are changing how some types of rich results are displayed in Google Search. Specifically, we are reducing the visibility of FAQ-rich results and limiting How-To rich results to desktop devices.”
— John Mueller, Official Google Blog
Why this change? We assume it’s because these rich results were being overused—SEOs were exploiting them heavily to drive traffic—and Google has finally decided to take action. In our opinion, they took quite a long time to react.
When will the changes take effect? “This change should be fully rolled out globally within the next week,” Google stated. It’s also important to note that this update will be applied globally and across all languages.
Another key point: you don’t need to rush to remove your structured data for FAQs or How-To. They won’t cause any issues; they simply won’t be displayed anymore.
“While you can remove this structured data from your site, it’s not necessary to proactively do so. Unused structured data does not cause issues for Search, but it also has no visible effect in Google Search.”
FAQs Will Be Reserved for Authorized Sites
Google made it clear: FAQ-rich results will now be reserved only for recognized and authorized government and health websites.
“Going forward, FAQ-rich results (from FAQPage structured data) will only be shown for well-known, authoritative government and health websites. For all other sites, this rich result will no longer be shown regularly.”
And what about all other sites? In their blog post, Google made it pretty clear that it “will no longer be shown regularly,” which we can pretty much interpret as a total disappearance for most websites.
You might wonder: Is there any way to get my site included in these results?
The reality: there’s not much you can do. It’s time to accept that SEO is evolving again—and start looking for new strategies to maintain your organic traffic.
How-To Results: Now Desktop-Only
As for How-To rich results, Google announced that they would be removed from mobile search results and only shown on desktop searches moving forward.
But wait—what about mobile-first indexing? Even if it sounds a bit contradictory, this move is part of Google’s broader efforts to improve user experience in search.
Changes Reflected in Google Search Console Reports
These changes will also be visible in your Google Search Console reports, specifically in metrics related to these types of rich results.
“For these two elements, you may also notice changes in Search Console reports for your website. In particular, you’ll see it in metrics related to FAQ and How-To appearances in the performance report, and the number of impressions reported in the corresponding enhancement reports.
This change does not affect the number of items listed in the enhancement reports. Search appearances and reports will remain in Search Console for now.”
— Google
Additional Insights to Keep in Mind
Here’s a snippet from Glenn Gabe discussing the update:
We know Google has taken actions against rich snippets before, so it’s not entirely surprising that these adjustments are happening now.
Here are some of John Mueller’s comments on the topic: