What Happened to Google's FAQ Rich Results
In May 2026, Google's FAQ rich result feature stopped appearing in Google Search. The technical infrastructure (the schema markup, the structured data, the whole system) did not break. It is still there. Google simply turned off the display.
Google deprecates features when they are no longer useful to the dominant platform. FAQ rich results were cut because answer engines, not traditional search results, are where people now get answers.
An answer engine is not a search result. It is an AI-generated response pulled directly from web content. The user enters a question. The AI synthesizes an answer from one or several sources and reads it aloud or displays it as a block of text. The user does not browse ten links. They do not click on your website. They may not click at all.
For a registered investment adviser (RIA), this is the difference between having your fee-structure explainer surface when a prospect searches "what does an RIA charge" and having it surface when a prospect asks an AI agent the same question. Google's decision to hide FAQ markup from search results does not mean answer engines will ignore it. It means search and answer engines parse FAQ content through different rules.
How Search and Answer Engines Read Your FAQ Differently
Google Search looked for a specific schema.org structure. FAQPage markup uses JSON (JavaScript Object Notation)-LD (Linked Data) or Microdata, with FAQPage, Question (containing name), and Answer (containing text) elements. Google's parser would find that structure and, if the conditions were met, display the Q&A pair as a rich result. If the markup was malformed or incomplete, Google would simply skip it. The rest of your page remained visible.
Answer engines use a different strategy. They do not depend on structured data at all. Answer engines treat your FAQ the way a human reads it: they parse the HTML (HyperText Markup Language), locate questions and answers based on page structure, and extract text to generate responses.
This difference produces a key vulnerability. Answer engines can extract an FAQ answer only if the answer is accessible in the HTML. If your FAQ hides answers behind expandable sections, an accordion, or a modal that requires JavaScript to display, different parsers will handle the content differently.
All FAQ content must be visible to the user on the source page. The question is visible on the page, and the answer is hidden behind an expandable section that the user can access by clicking. An accordion is user-friendly and passes Google's test for visibility.
Answer engines, however, do not all expand accordions the same way. Some execute JavaScript and retrieve hidden content. Others do not. Hidden content in a collapsed state is searchable in some browsers but not others, even though the collapsed content is not part of the DOM (Document Object Model). If you search in Edge or Chrome, details containing a search term expand to display the occurrence. This behavior is not replicated in Firefox or Safari. An answer engine, built on a different rendering engine, may or may not expand your hidden answers.
An RIA's FAQ page with accordion-hidden answers might appear in search results and in answer engines. It might appear in search results but not answer engines. Or it might appear in neither. The visibility depends not on your markup, but on how each parser reads your HTML.
The Three FAQ Structures and Their Visibility
Fully Visible Answers (Highest Confidence)
Both questions and answers are displayed on page load. No interaction required to read the answer.
An advisor publishes an FAQ titled "What is the difference between a fiduciary fee-only model and commission-based advice." The question appears as a heading. Below it, the full answer appears as body text, unfolded and unclicked.
Answer engines retrieve this easily. The HTML contains the answer. No JavaScript execution, no parsing of hidden elements, no guesswork. This is the safest structure for visibility in both search and answer engines.
Expandable Answers with JavaScript (Moderate to High Risk)
The question is visible. The answer is hidden until the user clicks or taps the question. The answer is stored in the HTML but is hidden by CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) or JavaScript.
An advisor uses an accordion widget on the same FAQ. The question "What is the difference between a fiduciary fee-only model and commission-based advice" is visible and clickable. The answer exists in the HTML, inside a `<div>` with `display: none` or inside a collapsed `<details>` element.
Google's search crawler could handle this. Many answer engines can too, because they execute JavaScript. But not all. An answer engine that does not run JavaScript will skip the hidden content. Answer engines that do run JavaScript may render the page differently depending on how the page was built. A complex React component, for example, may render differently under different conditions.
The risk is moderate to high. Your FAQ may or may not be visible, depending on the answer engine.
Hidden on Page (Lowest Confidence)
The answer is not rendered in the HTML at all. It is fetched from a backend API (Application Programming Interface) after the page loads. The page contains only the question.
An advisor's website uses a dynamic FAQ system. The page displays 20 questions. When a user clicks a question, the browser makes an API call to a server, which returns the answer and displays it.
If structured data does not parse, the information cannot be extracted. The same applies to answer engines parsing HTML. If the answer text is not in the HTML, the parser cannot retrieve it. Most answer engines will not make the API call. The answer will not appear.
Why Answer Engines Favor Static, Visible Content
Running a headless browser for each page, executing JavaScript, waiting for API calls to complete, and rendering a full page costs time and computing resources. Answer engines process thousands of pages per day. Many answer engines instead make a single HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) request, parse the returned HTML, and extract text directly.
This creates a bias toward static, visible content. Your best answers are extracted most reliably when they sit in the HTML, visible and unfolded, ready to be read.
For an RIA writing an FAQ for prospects searching through answer engines, structure matters more than format. The content itself is as important as where it sits.
Practical Steps to Maximize FAQ Visibility
Keep answers fully visible on page load. Do not hide them behind accordions, tabs, or modals. If you must hide content for user experience, ensure that the content is marked up with structured data so that at least some parsers have a backup signal.
Mark up your FAQ with FAQPage schema. Implementation involves using JSON-LD or Microdata, with FAQPage, Question (containing name), and Answer (containing text) elements. Answer engines that do use structured data will find it. Google's deprecation of the rich result does not mean the markup is useless. It means the markup is now only useful for answer engines and other systems.
Ensure that every question includes the entire text of the question, and every answer includes the entire text of the answer. An answer engine that extracts your content will pull the full text. If your questions or answers are truncated or fragmented, the extracted answer will be incomplete.
Test your FAQ by viewing the page source. Open your FAQ in a browser, open Developer Tools, and inspect the HTML. Can you find the question text and answer text in the raw HTML. If yes, answer engines that do not run JavaScript will extract it. If no (if the answer only appears after JavaScript executes), you have a visibility gap.
Distinguish between FAQs and Q&A pages. Do not use QAPage markup for FAQ pages or pages where there are multiple questions per page. QAPage markup is for pages where the focus of the page is a single question and its answers. Use FAQPage for traditional FAQ pages. Use QAPage only if you are building a support page focused on a single question. Answer engines treat these types differently.
Your FAQ answers were probably hidden for user experience. Answer engines are now a channel for answers, and that channel rewards content that is visible without interaction. A small investment in testing your HTML and restructuring your layout for visibility will compound as answer engines grow.
