Google Has Dropped FAQ Rich Results: What It Means for Your Suffolk Business Website

As of the seventh of May 2026 the little expandable list of questions that used to sit underneath so many search results, the feature Google called FAQ rich results, has quietly disappeared, and across June Google is pulling the matching reports out of Search Console and the Rich Results Test, with the supporting API due to switch off in August, which means the FAQ structured data that thousands of small business websites added in good faith no longer earns a single visible line of space on the results page.

If you run a dental practice off Risbygate, a holiday let near Lavenham or a kitchen fitting firm working across Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket, and at some point someone built FAQ schema into your pages to win those extra rows of real estate under your listing, this change matters, although not for the reason most people will assume, and the honest answer is that the sky is not falling, the schema can stay exactly where it is, and the sensible move now is to understand what actually changed, what never mattered as much as the SEO blogs claimed, and where your attention is far better spent in a search world that is steadily being reshaped by AI answers.

What Google actually changed, in plain terms

FAQ rich results were the feature that let a page mark up its questions and answers in code, using FAQPage structured data, so that Google could show two or three of those questions directly under the blue link, each one expandable with a small arrow, giving a single listing far more height and far more of the screen than a normal result. From the seventh of May those expandable questions stopped appearing in Google Search, and through June the FAQ search appearance, the dedicated rich result report and the support inside the Rich Results Test are being switched off, with API support following in August.

The important nuance is that this is a change to how Google displays your pages, not a change to how it ranks them, and your FAQ content, the actual questions and answers written for a reader, is untouched. What you have lost is a presentation perk, the extra visible space, and nothing about your position in the ten blue links is tied to whether that perk was ever switched on.

Why FAQ rich results were always living on borrowed time

Anyone who has watched Google closely over the last few years will not be shocked, because the company began quietly walking this feature back as far as 2023, when it first reduced how often FAQ rich results showed at all, and then announced in August of that year that they would only appear for well known, authoritative government and health websites, which in practice meant a hairdresser in Newmarket or a building firm in Sudbury had already lost the feature long before this final removal landed.

So for the overwhelming majority of Suffolk and Cambridgeshire businesses, the practical visibility of FAQ rich results vanished years ago, and what happened in May 2026 was simply Google finishing the job and tidying away the reports, which is why the right emotional response to this news is a shrug rather than a panic, and the right strategic response is to look at where attention should have moved anyway.

Should you rip the FAQ schema off your pages

No, and please do not let anyone talk you into a frantic afternoon of deleting code. Valid FAQPage structured data sitting on your pages causes no harm, it will not trigger a penalty, it will not drag your rankings down, and Google has been clear that you can leave it in place. The only situation where you would want to remove or rework it is if the markup was badly built, if it points at content that no longer exists on the page, or if it throws validation errors, because broken structured data of any kind is worth fixing on principle.

If your site was built properly the schema is quietly doing nothing, which is fine, and if it was built badly it was a liability before this announcement and still is, so the deciding question is the quality of the implementation, not the existence of the FAQ feature, and a quick structured data audit will tell you which camp you are in within an hour.

Where FAQ content still pulls its weight

Here is the part the doom posts miss. The visible FAQ feature is gone, but the underlying idea, writing clear answers to the real questions your customers ask, has never been more valuable, because the place those answers now pay off is AI search, the answer engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Gemini that increasingly hand a searcher a written reply before any click happens. Those systems are hungry for content that is structured as a direct, trustworthy answer to a specific question, which is exactly what a good FAQ section is.

So a joinery firm in Mildenhall that has a page answering how long an oak staircase takes to fit, what it costs, and how much disruption to expect, is feeding the precise format an AI answer wants to lift and cite, and the business that keeps writing genuine question led content will quietly win citations in AI answers while its competitors are busy mourning a star feature that most of them lost in 2023 anyway.

What a Suffolk business should do this month

Start by finding out whether you even have FAQ schema, then confirm it validates cleanly, and leave it alone if it does. After that, ignore the rich result entirely and treat your FAQ content as answer engine fuel, which means writing in plain language, answering one clear question per heading, putting the direct answer in the first sentence, and backing it with a real number, a real price or a concrete local detail rather than vague reassurance.

Then widen the lens, because this small change is a useful nudge towards the larger shift, where being quoted by an AI answer, named in an AI Overview, and recommended when someone in Bury St Edmunds asks ChatGPT for a recommendation, is becoming as important as ranking in the classic results, and the websites that read well to a person and to a model at the same time are the ones that will hold their ground through the next two years of upheaval.

How FutureProofs handles this for clients

When we build a website at FutureProofs we bake the structured data in properly from the start, which is part of why our Business website sits at £1,995 and ships with AI SEO schema designed to read cleanly for both Google and the answer engines, while our Starter site begins at £895 and our Ecommerce build at £3,995, and for businesses that want their content kept current and their answers kept sharp as the search landscape moves, ongoing SEO starts at £495 a month and website management starts at £95 a month, the full breakdown sitting at futureproofs.co.uk/pricing/.

The practical work behind a change like this is unglamorous and quietly important, auditing your existing markup, removing anything broken, rewriting thin FAQ blocks into genuine question led answers, and making sure the whole site is positioned for the answer engines rather than chasing a feature Google has now retired, and that is the kind of work that quietly compounds while the headlines panic.

Frequently asked questions about Google dropping FAQ rich results

What are FAQ rich results and why did Google remove them?

FAQ rich results were an enhanced listing where Google showed expandable questions and answers directly under a page in the search results, powered by FAQPage structured data in the code. They gave a single listing far more vertical space on the page. Google began limiting the feature in 2023, restricting it to authoritative government and health sites, and from the seventh of May 2026 it stopped showing them entirely, with the reports and testing tools removed through June and August. Google did not publish a detailed explanation, simply adding notices to its documentation, which fits a wider pattern of simplifying how results are presented as AI answers grow.

Will removing FAQ schema hurt my Google rankings?

No. FAQ rich results were a display feature, never a ranking factor, so whether the markup is present or absent has no bearing on where your page sits in the results. Removing valid FAQ schema will not lift your rankings and keeping it will not lower them. The only ranking risk around structured data comes from broken or misleading markup, which Google can act on regardless of type. For a typical Bury St Edmunds business the right move is to confirm your existing schema validates cleanly, then leave it in place and spend your energy on content quality and answer engine visibility, which is where ranking and citation outcomes are genuinely decided in 2026.

Should I delete FAQ schema from my website now?

In almost every case, no. Valid FAQPage markup sitting on your pages is harmless, it will not trigger a penalty, and Google has confirmed you can leave it. The only reason to remove or rebuild it is if the markup is broken, points at content that is no longer on the page, or fails validation, because faulty structured data of any kind is worth cleaning up. If your site was built well the schema is simply dormant, which costs you nothing. A short structured data audit, something we fold into our website management from £95 a month, will tell you within the hour whether yours needs attention or can be safely ignored.

Do FAQ pages still help with AI search and ChatGPT?

Yes, and this is the real opportunity. Answer engines such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Gemini favour content written as a clear, direct answer to a specific question, which is exactly the shape of a well written FAQ. So while the visible Google feature is gone, the underlying content is now more useful, not less, because it feeds the systems that increasingly answer a searcher before they click. A dog grooming studio in Stowmarket that answers real questions about pricing, breeds and appointment length in plain language is giving the AI answers something concrete to quote, and that is where future visibility for small businesses is being won.

What replaces FAQ rich results for getting noticed in search?

Nothing replaces it as a direct swap, because the trend is towards Google and the AI answer engines summarising information themselves rather than handing out feature badges. The practical replacement is a broader strategy, strong genuinely helpful content, clean technical foundations, solid reviews, an optimised Google Business Profile, and writing that answers buyer questions so clearly that an AI system is comfortable citing you. For a Suffolk business that means thinking less about individual rich result features and more about being the trusted, quotable source on the topics your customers search, which is the principle behind the AI SEO schema we ship on our £1,995 Business build.

How do I know if my Suffolk business website uses FAQ schema?

You can check by viewing the page source and searching for FAQPage, or by running the page through a structured data testing tool, though bear in mind the FAQ specific testing support is itself being retired through 2026. The simplest route for a non technical owner is to ask whoever built the site, or to have a quick audit done. Many small business sites in Bury St Edmunds and Newmarket picked up FAQ schema automatically through a template or an SEO plugin without the owner ever knowing, so it is common to have it without realising, and equally common for it to be slightly misconfigured, which is the one situation worth tidying.

Does this change affect local SEO and Google Business Profile?

Not directly. The FAQ rich results removal is about organic web listings and their structured data, while your local visibility runs largely through your Google Business Profile, your reviews, your map presence and your local citations, none of which depend on FAQPage markup. That said, the broader lesson applies everywhere, because the same question led, plainly answered content that helps AI search also strengthens the about and services information on your profile. A cafe in Sudbury or a garage in Mildenhall should keep its profile complete and its reviews fresh, and treat its website FAQ content as support for AI answers rather than as a route to a retired Google feature.

What structured data still earns rich results in 2026?

Plenty of structured data still produces visible enhancements, including Product markup with prices and reviews, Recipe markup, Event markup, Breadcrumb markup, Review and aggregate rating markup, and Organisation and Local Business details that help Google understand who you are. FAQ and How To results have both been wound back, but the rest of the structured data toolkit remains worth implementing properly, because it helps both classic rich results and machine understanding of your pages. For an Ecommerce business on our £3,995 build, Product and review schema in particular still earns the star ratings and price information that lift click through rates, so structured data as a discipline is far from finished.

How much does it cost to fix structured data on my website?

It depends entirely on the state of your current markup, which is why we look before quoting rather than guessing. For many sites the work is a small tidy up, removing broken FAQ code and confirming the rest validates, which fits comfortably inside our website management at £95 a month. For a larger rebuild where structured data is part of a fresh, answer engine ready site, that sits inside our Business build at £1,995, and ongoing optimisation as the search landscape shifts runs from £495 a month. The full pricing is laid out at futureproofs.co.uk/pricing/, and we will always tell you honestly when the job is a ten minute fix rather than a project.

Is it worth writing FAQ content if it no longer shows in Google?

Absolutely, and arguably more so than before. The visible Google feature was only ever a bonus, while the real value of FAQ content is that it answers the precise questions your customers are typing and asking out loud, which serves readers, supports conversions, and feeds the AI answer engines that now sit in front of so much search behaviour. A chef in a converted Lavenham guildhall who answers questions about private dining, booking and dietary options in clear prose is helping customers decide and giving ChatGPT something to quote, so the content remains a genuine asset long after the rich result has gone.

The bottom line

Google dropping FAQ rich results sounds like a loss and is really a non event dressed up as a headline, because most Suffolk businesses lost the visible feature back in 2023, the schema can safely stay on your pages, and the content underneath it is now more useful than ever as a way to win citations in AI search, so the businesses that keep writing genuine, clearly answered questions, keep their technical foundations clean, and position their websites to read well to a person and a model at once, are the ones that will quietly come out ahead while everyone else panics over a retired arrow icon.