How to Implement FAQ Schema

IT companies actively use FAQ Schema to increase the number of clicks from the Google search engine. The key behind the improvement in clicks is a more visible listing in SERP (search engine results page) that helps you stand out among your competitors and ultimately attracts more attention. The side effect of implementing the FAQ structured data is it can improve rankings and the number of qualified leads.

How to Add FAQ schema

The general approach includes 4 major steps.

1. Create a new post, and write the title. Switch to the HTML mode to edit the code. Then copy the FAQ schema code from the template below and paste it inside your page. Replace the text of the QUESTIONS in the template with your own. Both in the HTML section of the code and the script. Replace the text of the ANSWERS with your own. Also Both in the HTML section of the code and the script. Repeat this for each question and answer in your FAQ list. If it’s necessary, add a link to an answer. Publish the post to make it visible to others.
2. Use Google’s Rich Result Testing Tool to validate the Schema Markup on your page.
3. Use Google Search Console to ask Google to index your page.
4. Check periodically whether Google has indexed this page and started to display your FAQ schema.

FAQ Schema Template (HTML + JSON-LD)

FAQ schema markup template consists of two parts:

1. the main text visible to readers of your article.
2. the JSON-LD “copy” of the main text “invisible” to readers of your article.

Here’s a FAQ schema markup template for two questions. Just replace the capitalized text with your own questions, answers, URLs, and anchors.

<h2>INSERT QUESTION1 TEXT HERE</h2>
<div>INSERT ANSWER1 TEXT HERE. </div>
<h2>INSERT QUESTION2 TEXT HERE</h2>
<div>INSERT ANSWER2 TEXT HERE with a <a href="/relative-url">link</a></div>

<script type="application/ld+json">{
"@context":"https://schema.org",
"@type":"FAQPage",
"mainEntity":[{
"@type":"Question",
"name":"INSERT QUESTION1 TEXT HERE",
"acceptedAnswer":{
"@type":"Answer",
"text":"INSERT ANSWER1 TEXT HERE."
}},{
"@type":"Question",
"name":"INSERT QUESTION2 TEXT HERE",
"acceptedAnswer":{
"@type":"Answer",
"text":"INSERT ANSWER2 TEXT HERE with a <a href=\"/relative-url\">link</a>."
}}]
}
</script>

How to Add FAQ schema in WordPress

By using the same method that was discussed above.

How to Add FAQ Schema using Google Tag Manager

I recommend using inline JSON-LD without Google Tag Manager.

• Renee Girard, a Senior SEO Manager for Crate and Barrel from Chicago, noted that “it took over a week for Google to crawl the FAQ structured data due to the second wave of JavaScript rendering required for GTM”.  At the same time, “Google started displaying the page as a rich result in the SERP within just one hour (!), when the FAQ schema markup was implemented as inline JSON-LD”.
• Implementing JSON-LD through a tag manager will most likely not work for non-Google search engines such Bing.
• It’s hard to implement.
• Scripts can break in unexpected ways.

How To Insert HTML Links Into FAQ Schema

Check out the differences between the text in the HTML section and the text in the JSON-LD section.

• <div>INSERT ANSWER2 TEXT HERE with <a href=”/relative-url”>link</a>.</div>
• “text”:”INSERT ANSWER2 TEXT HERE with <a href=\“/relative-url\“>link</a>.”

As you can see, here’s the key difference: a backslash (\) before a quote (“); two backslashes in total inside the href attribute of the <a> tag.

FAQ Schema Validation

Once you’ve added your FAQ schema, test if it’s working. Just copy and paste your version of the code and run it through Google’s Rich Results Test Tool.

FAQ schema benefits

Benefit #1: a chance to get more clicks

Luca Tagliaferro, SEO Senior Manager for marketing agency Dare Ltd from London, shared his experience with Search Engine Land (September 2019).

Luca focused on:

• creating long answers to take more space;
• targeting transactional keywords to make readers want to click on the website.

“I have gained more than 2,000 clicks for a set of keywords that were bringing normally only 1,000 clicks before I added the FAQ snippets“.

Luca Tagliaferro

Mary Kate, SEO Content Manager for seoClarity SEO software company from Chicago, shared the results of their A/B tests with FAQ schema via their blog (November 2020).

Her team focused on:

• taking an already ranking term and applying FAQ schema to its associated blog posts;
• including in the FAQ schema phrases and terms with the highest impressions (question with words like “how”, “why”, and “what” as well as words with informational intent like “see” and “find”);
• adding new sections to existing content to ensure that all of the suggested terms and phrases were used within the content.

“Following our 2-week test, we noticed a higher ranking in the SERP for the term. The rank increased from 5 to 2. Looking at the data at the end of our test period, the content we tested saw a 350% increase in traffic over the previous period. This, we determined, is due to both tests in optimizing the content AND adding the FAQ schema markup to the target page”. 

Mary Kate

Benefit #2: an opportunity to improve rankings

When properly implemented, the FAQ schema can help increase the organic CTR (clickthrough rate).

This, in turn, can move your pages higher in search results.

Larry Kim, the founder of WordStream PPC marketing software company from Boston, describes the mechanics of how better CTR can improve positions in his article for Moz.

Below are his conclusions:

• The more your pages beat the expected organic CTR for a given position, the more likely you are to appear in higher organic positions.
• If your pages fall below the expected organic search CTR, then you’ll find your pages in lower organic positions.
• Want to move up by one position in Google’s rankings? Increase your CTR

Benefit #3: a possibility to get more high-quality leads

Danny Shepherd, founder and CEO at Titan Growth, an internet marketing company based out of San Diego, recommends adding FAQ schema to the product and service pages.

“While clicks are important, they shouldn’t be your primary goal. Converting is. You want visitors that will not just click, but improve your site’s conversion rate. So, adding FAQ schema markup that appeals to your most profitable leads isn’t just good SEO, it’s also great CRO. Through your questions and answers, you can give a sneak preview of what’s to come if they click through”.

Danny Shepherd

Danny advises to be careful:

• creating too much informative FAQ schema, that users get everything they need from it alone, negating any reason to click and go to your website.
• revealing pricing in your FAQ schema if they aren’t really strong selling points, and not lower than your competitors, because they might deter clicks.

FAQ Schema Limits

Brodie Clark, an independent SEO Consultant from Melbourne, spent a lot trying to understand the limits of the FAQ schema.

Here are his takeaways:

• If your page ranks lower than position 10 for any traffic-generating query, implementing the FAQ schema is a waste of time. First, focus on improving the rank of your page.
• You can now only have 2 FAQs per URL appearing in Search (since June 2021). If your page already has over 2 FAQs being marked up on the page, Google can surface FAQs that are relevant to a query. You could have more than 2 FAQs marked up, but Google will only ever show the first 2 for the most part. 
• Google limits rich results to 3 at max on the first page of Google only. It means, if 3 of your competitors are already shown with FAQ, your FAQ might not be displayed.

Renee Girard adds:

• You likely won’t get both the FAQ rich result combined with other markups like a product markup.
• If you update the content, you will also need to update the markup to match what is in the page source.

What IT companies use FAQ Schema?

Currently, not many IT companies use this opportunity to stand out, however, this is a rising trend.