Google tightens FAQ guidelines, disallowing Q&A repetition | Varn

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2 March 2020

Google tightens FAQ markup guidelines, disallowing the repetition of Q&A

Google has recently changed its guidelines on FAQ markups, meaning if you repeat the same question and answer in multiple FAQ pages on your site, you will be in violation of its guidelines.

Whilst FAQ schema markup has been around for a few years now, this change simply means you can no longer mark up the same question and answer with FAQ schema if that Q & A sits within multiple pages on your site. Google has made it clear that you should just mark it up on one of those FAQ pages only.

We are assuming that Google has added this new line about marking up repetitive content to prevent sites from hogging spots within the SERPs. Some bigger brands and sites have multiple FAQ pages or questions and answers that are answered across their site on multiple pages, which can give them more chance of appearing in search results.

Google has updated the guidelines of FAQ and added: “If you have FAQ content that is repetitive on your site (meaning, the same question and answer appear on multiple pages on your site), mark up only one instance of that FAQ for your entire site.” Thanks to Kenichi Suzuki who shared the information on Twitter for spotting this and sharing!

Why is this change in FAQ markup important?

If the same question must be included on multiple different pages for whatever reason, SEOs and site owners should refrain from marking it up every time it appears. Failure to follow the guidelines set out by Google may result in a site losing its eligibility to appear in featured snippets across all pages.

For more information about FAQ structured data, see Google’s documentation here.

Article by: David, SEO Account Manager More articles by David

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