The best way to Enhance Your search engine optimisation Utilizing the FAQ Web page Scheme
I tested a new SEO hack and it works regardless of how old or new your website is. What is it? It is the FAQpage scheme.
Even if you have almost no links, this strategy can help.
Unlike most SEO changes, it doesn't take months or years to show results. You can literally see the results in less than 30 minutes.
Even crazier, I had my team crawl 10,000 websites to see how many people were using this SEO technique and only 17 websites were using the FAQpage scheme.
In other words, your competition may not yet know about this SEO strategy!
Google's ever-changing search results
Before we get into the FAQpage schema, I'd like to dwell on Google's ever-changing search results.
Google not only changes its algorithm regularly, but also tests new design elements.
For example, if you search for "food near me," you'll see a list of local restaurants and their ratings.
When you look up someone, Google may show you a picture of that person and a quick overview.
Over the years, Google has tweaked its search results to give you the best experience possible.
For example, if you search for "2 + 2", Google will show the answer "4" so you don't have to click through and go to a webpage.
But you know that already.
What's new is that nobody really uses FAQpage schema markup.
Here's what I mean: if you search for "digital marketing," you'll find that I rank on Google. But my entry doesn't look like most people's:
As you can see above, Google pulled FAQ-rich results from my website.
Best of all, I could do it in under 30 minutes. This is how quickly Google added the FAQpage schema addition and adapted the SERP list.
Literally everything in 30 minutes.
You can do the same with reply cards if you have pages of questions and answers.
How can you do that?
Choosing the right schema markup: QA vs FAQpage schema
Before we get this started with your site, you need to choose the right schema markup. There are two types: QA and FAQpage schema.
The FAQpage scheme is used when you offer a frequently asked questions page or have a product page that contains frequently asked questions about the product itself.
That way, under your SERP, you can get a collapsible menu with the question, which when clicked will show the answer.
You can also qualify for the frequently asked questions that appear in the Google Assistant. This can potentially help get you noticed by people who use voice search to find an answer!
The Q&A scheme is used when people can contribute different types of answers and vote on which answer they think is the best. This will provide the extensive result cards under your SERP and display all of the answers with the top answer highlighted.
After making sure you understand what these are used for, Google has additional guidelines as to when you can and cannot use these schemas:
Google FAQpage Schema Guidelines
Google has a list of guidelines for FAQ page schemes.
Use FAQPage only if your page contains a list of questions with answers. If your page has a single question and users can submit alternative answers, use QAPage instead. Here are some examples:
Valid use cases::
- An FAQ page has been created on the website itself that does not allow users to submit alternative answers
- A product support page that lists frequently asked questions without allowing users to submit alternative answers
Invalid use cases::
- A forum page where users can submit answers to a single question
- A product support page where users can submit answers to a single question
- A product page where users can submit multiple questions and answers on one page
- Do not use FAQPage for promotional purposes
- Make sure that each question includes all of the text of the question and make sure that each answer includes all of the text of the answer. The entire question text and the answer text can be displayed.
- Question and answer content may not display rich results if it includes any of the following types of content: obscene, profane, sexually explicit, graphically violent, promoting dangerous or illegal activity, or hateful or harassing language.
- All FAQ content must be visible to the user on the source page.
And here are the guidelines for the Q&A scheme:
Use QAPage markup only if your page contains information in a question and answer format. This is a question followed by the answers.
Users must be able to submit answers to the question. Do not use QAPage markup on content that has only one answer to a specific question, without allowing users to add alternative answers. Use FAQPage instead. Here are some examples:
Valid use cases::
- A forum page where users can submit answers to a single question
- A product support page where users can submit answers to a single question
Invalid use cases::
- An FAQ page has been created on the website itself that does not allow users to submit alternative answers
- A product page where users can submit multiple questions and answers on one page
- A guide that answers a question
- A blog post that answers a question
- An essay that answers a question
- Do not apply QAPagemarkup to all pages of a website or forum unless all content is authorized. In a forum, for example, many questions can be asked that are individually relevant for the markup. However, if the forum also contains pages that are not questions, those pages are not eligible.
- Do not use QAPagemarkup on FAQ pages or pages with multiple questions per page. QAPagemarkup is intended for pages where the focus of the page is on a single question and its answers.
- Do not use QAPage markup for promotional purposes.
- Make sure that each question includes all of the text of the question and make sure that each answer includes all of the text of the answer.
- The answer markup is used to answer the question, not for comments on the question or comments on other answers. Do not mark unanswered comments as a reply.
- Question and answer content may not display rich results if it includes any of the following types of content: obscene, profane, sexually explicit, graphically violent, promoting dangerous or illegal activity, or hateful or harassing language.
If your content follows these guidelines, the next step is to find out how to implement the schema on your website and what type to use.
How do I implement a QA and FAQ page scheme?
There are two ways to implement the schema either via JSON-LD or via microdata.
I recommend picking a style and sticking to it throughout your website, and I also recommend not using both types on the same page.
JSON-LD is recommended by Google wherever possible, and Google has currently added support for markup-based functionality. JSON-LD can be implemented in the header of your content and it can take very little time to implement.
The other option is microdata, which is where elements are encoded into your website. This can be a challenging process for any reason, I prefer. Below are examples of how each element works.
FAQpage schema JSON-LD:
FAQpage schema microdata:
What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing is any form of marketing a product or service that is an electronic device.
Q&A scheme JSON-LD:
{
"@Context": "https://schema.org",
"@Type": "QAPage",
"MainEntity": {
"@Type": "Question",
"Name": "Can I tie my shoe with one hand?",
"Text": "I currently have a hobby of performing many actions with one hand, and I am not currently sure how to tie a shoe with one hand." Can I tie my shoe with one hand? ",
"AnswerCount": 2,
"UpvoteCount": 20,
"DateCreated": "2019-07-23T21: 11Z",
"Author": {
"@Type": "Person",
"Name": "Expert in shoes"
},
"Accepted Answer": {
"Enter @answer",
"Text": "It is possible to tie your shoe with one hand, using your teeth to hold the other tip",
"DateCreated": "2019-11-02T21: 11Z",
"UpvoteCount": 9000,
"URL": "https://example.com/question1#acceptedAnswer",
"Author": {
"@Type": "Person",
"Name": "AnotherShoeMan"
}}
},
"suggested answer": (
{
"Enter @answer",
"Text": "It is not possible to tie your shoe with one hand",
"DateCreated": "2019-11-02T21: 11Z",
"UpvoteCount": 2,
"URL": "https://example.com/question1#suggestedAnswer1",
"Author": {
"@Type": "Person",
"Name": "Best Shoe Man"
}}
}}
)
}}
}}
Microdata on the Q&A scheme:
Can I tie my shoe with one hand?
itemprop = ”name”> Shoes expert
You can tie your shoe with one hand by holding the other tip with your teeth.
It is not possible to tie your shoe with one hand
itemprop = ”name”> Best shoemaker
When you implement it on your website, you can use the templates above and modify them with your content.
If you are unsure whether or not your code is implemented correctly, use Google's Structured Data Testing Tool. You can add your code snippet or the page you implemented the schema on and see if you got it right or wrong.
You will also receive feedback on whether there are bugs or problems with your code.
You can also try Google's Rich Result Tester. This gives you a brief overview of what your structured data will look like in the results!
Get results using the FAQ page scheme in less than 30 minutes
Once you've made the changes to a page that you think would fit well, you'll want to log into Google Search Console and enter the URL of the page you changed in the search bar at the top.
Then you want Google to crawl this page so that the results can be indexed. All you have to do is click "Request Indexing".
Typically, within 10 minutes you will find out that it starts. If you do a Google search, you'll see your updated listing.
The key to doing this work is to do so with pages and terms that are already on page 1. That's where I saw the greatest improvement.
Does the FAQ page scheme help me with the ranking for people who also have questions and selected snippets?
Does this help with People Ask and Featured Snippets? Until now, there has been no correlation between schema markup and People Also Ask or Featured Snippets, and you don't need them to be featured in them.
Optimizing your content for this won't do you any harm, however, and it may improve your chances of being here.
Google tested how to display these types of Q&A, FAQ, and how-to results and examined structured data to better understand them.
Better to be early in the game and help Google understand your pages and possibly take part in one of Google's experiments.
Does the FAQ page scheme help me with ranking for voice search?
As more and more people are using mobile devices to find answers to questions, this is a very relevant question!
Especially when you consider that in the near future, more than half of searches on Google will be done using voice searches.
Voice search questions get most of the answers from presented excerpts.
Adding structured data to your website increases the likelihood that you will be included in selected snippets, which increases the likelihood that you will be featured in voice searches.
I also recommend reading these voice search SEO tips for more strategies for voice search ranking.
Conclusion
This simple hack can potentially increase your brand visibility and help improve your website's authority. It's a simple solution that can take a single day to implement on your main question, product, or FAQ page.
I've been using it a lot in the last week or so. As long as I pick keywords that I already rank on page 1 for, I'll see great results.
And as mentioned above, when we analyzed 10,000 websites, we found that only 17 websites use the QA and FAQpage scheme. In other words, less than 1% of websites are using this. If you take advantage now, you'll be ahead of the game.
What do you think of the FAQ page schema tactics? Will you use it