Google has announced that the display of HowTo and FAQ rich results in search results will now only be played out for certain websites.
What are rich results?
Google rich results are search results that go beyond the standard text link and meta description. Additional information about a search result is displayed, thus enhancing the search result for a better display and user experience, and usually increasing clicks to the website.
There are different types of rich results, depending on the type of content, e.g.
- Recipe cards: recipes with images, ingredients and preparation steps.
- Product data: Information about products such as prices, availability, and reviews.
- Events: details about events such as date, time, and location.
- FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions): Questions and answers about specific topics.
- HowTo guides: Step-by-step instructions.
To display these rich search results in SERPs, structured data must be implemented on the website.
Now, the display of FAQs will be removed from search results for most websites, while HowTo guides will be removed completely, but only for mobile search results. The reason Google gives is to provide users with a more consistent and tidy search experience.
Already in April this year, there was an announcement in Google Search Console that the visibility of FAQ rich results would be reduced.
FAQ results will only be displayed for high authority healthcare and government websites, while HowTo results will only appear on desktop search results and will be removed completely on mobile devices.
The global rollout will occur within a week, but some rich search results may continue to appear on an experimental basis. Publishers and website owners who have invested time and effort to implement structured data on the site to achieve FAQ display in SERPs will probably not be happy with this news.
However, already implemented structured data need not be removed from the website, after all, there are other search engines besides Google that will continue to display the rich results.
