Google announced on May 8 that it will no longer support FAQ rich results in search, and the corresponding Search Console reporting features will be removed. For eCommerce merchants who invested significant time and resources into FAQ schema markup, this is more than a minor format change - it's another signal that Google is fundamentally restructuring how information appears in search results. eCommerce brands need to adapt their SEO strategy accordingly.
What's actually changing
FAQ rich results - the expandable question-and-answer dropdowns that appeared directly in Google search listings - are now fully deprecated. Any FAQ Page structured data applied to product pages, category pages, or content pages will simply be ignored going forward. The Search Console features that tracked FAQ rich result impressions and clicks will also be removed.
This follows Google's earlier reduction of FAQ rich results in August 2023, when eligibility was restricted to high-authority government and health websites. The full removal now was widely anticipated, but it still affects the SEO strategies of thousands of eCommerce sites that had maintained this markup.
Why it matters for eCommerce
FAQ rich results were valuable for eCommerce sites for three reasons:
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Real estate dominance - expanded FAQ results pushed competitors further down the page
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Click-through rate - the visual differentiation attracted more clicks than standard blue links
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Voice search - FAQ content was frequently surfaced in voice assistant responses
Losing this channel means merchants need to redistribute their SEO effort toward remaining and emerging rich result types.
The bigger picture: Recognition over rankings
This change does not exist in isolation. It arrives alongside a broader shift that Search Engine Land identified as the defining SEO challenge of 2026: visibility now depends on authority, entity clarity, and brand presence across the wider web - not just traditional SERP position.
For eCommerce merchants, this means the SEO strategy is split into two complementary tracks.
Strategy 1: Protect your remaining rich results
Focus your structured data efforts on the rich result types Google continues to support and that directly impact eCommerce:
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Product markup - price, availability, reviews, and shipping information
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Review markup - aggregate ratings and individual review snippets
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How-to markup - particularly for products that require assembly, installation, or have complex usage
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Breadcrumb markup - for clear site hierarchy signals
These formats remain supported and continue to drive meaningful click-through rate improvements.
Strategy 2: Build for AI discovery
The deprecation of FAQ rich results is happening at the same time that AI-powered search is consuming more of the discovery journey. Google's AI Overviews, ChatGPT search, and Perplexity are all pulling structured information from across the web to answer consumer questions.
The FAQ content itself isn't wasted - it just needs a new distribution strategy. Instead of relying on schema markup to surface questions and answers in traditional search, that same content now serves as training material for AI systems. The key difference is that AI systems favour:
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Comprehensive, authoritative content over isolated FAQ snippets
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Consistent information across channels over contradictory or fragmented answers
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Clear entity relationships - your brand, your products, your expertise areas
Intent alignment now matters more than technical fixes
Another article from Search Engine Land this week made a point that connects directly to this change: intent alignment now matters more than perfect technical SEO. The argument is that technical fixes alone won't resolve weak relevance signals, and you need to identify and correct intent mismatches across your site.
For eCommerce, this translates to a practical question: when someone searches for a question about your product category, does your content actually answer their question, or does it redirect to a sales page? With FAQ rich results gone, the content that will win in both traditional and AI search is content that genuinely addresses user intent - not content optimised for a specific schema format.
Practical steps for eCommerce merchants
Here's what we recommend eCommerce merchants do in response to this change:
1. Audit your structured data. Remove the FAQPage schema to keep your markup clean and avoid any future validation warnings. Redirect that implementation effort toward Product, Review, and BreadcrumbList schema.
2. Migrate FAQ content into product pages. If you have standalone FAQ pages, consider integrating the most valuable Q&A pairs into your product detail pages. This strengthens the topical authority of those pages and provides richer content for AI systems to reference.
3. Invest in prompt-level visibility testing. Search Engine Land also published guidance this week on running prompt-level SEO experiments for AI search - learning how to test whether your content appears in LLM-generated responses. This is the emerging discipline that replaces traditional rich result optimisation.
4. Strengthen your Google Merchant Centre data. With less SERP real estate available through organic rich results, the importance of complete, accurate product feeds in Google Merchant Centre increases. Make sure your product titles, descriptions, GTINs, and high-quality images are comprehensive.
5. Build topical authority through content depth. Instead of thin FAQ pages designed to trigger rich results, create in-depth buying guides, comparison content, and product education materials that establish your site as an authority in your category.
The On Tap perspective
The deprecation of FAQ rich results is a symptom of a much larger structural shift. Google is continuously reducing the organic SERP features that gave eCommerce sites differentiated visibility, and the response is not to chase the next schema format - it is to build genuine content across multiple discovery channels simultaneously.
The merchants who thrive in this environment will be those who treat their product and category content as assets that need to perform across traditional search, AI-powered search, social commerce, and voice assistants. The FAQ content you have built is not worthless. It is finding a new home - and with the right strategy, it can be even more valuable there.
At On Tap Group, we help eCommerce brands build organic strategies fit for the AI era, with a focus on authority, structured data, and content that performs across every discovery channel. Get in touch with our team to discuss how your SEO strategy needs to evolve.
