Website FAQ Sections: What They Still Do After the Snippet

The change is recorded in the changelog of Google's search documentation. The entry dated 8 May 2026 states briefly that the feature would no longer be shown in Google Search from 7 May 2026 (Google Search Central). The second step followed on 15 June 2026: Google removed the documentation on FAQ rich results, explaining that the feature no longer appears in the search results (Google Search Central). Anyone who opens the old address of that guide today ends up in the changelog.

The feature in question is the display in which a few questions appeared below an ordinary search result and could be expanded right there in the results page. It was triggered by structured data of the type FAQPage, a machine-readable block in the source code that describes the questions and answers of the page once more. For the business this meant more space in the search result without any change in position. Exactly this space is now gone: the entry appears like any other, with title, address and description.

For most local businesses, however, the news is older than it looks. As early as 8 August 2023 Google had announced that FAQ results would only be shown for well-known, authoritative government and health websites (Google Search Central). A painter in Sarstedt or a tax adviser's practice in Hildesheim was not among them. Since that summer the vast majority of websites no longer saw the expanded result regularly. The step taken in May 2026 therefore ended a state of affairs that had applied to small businesses for a long time. Google had already explicitly stated that the 2023 restriction should not be considered a ranking change (Google Search Central), so anyone seeing fewer clicks since the spring should not reflexively look for the cause in the FAQ block.

The end of the snippet takes away a side effect of the FAQ section, not its purpose. People research online before they enquire: 80 percent of 16- to 74-year-olds in Germany searched online for information about goods and services in the three months before the survey in 2025 (Destatis). Whoever lands on your page in the process has concrete questions: roughly what does it cost, do you come to me, when would you have time, how does it work? An FAQ section that answers these questions is not a tool for the search engine but part of the sales conversation – the part that takes place before anyone picks up the phone.

What all four tasks have in common is that they serve the person on the page. This is also the standard Google names for content that is meant to appear in the AI features of Search: write for a human audience, make the content well written and easy to follow, and organise it in paragraphs and sections with headings that guide through the content (Google Search Central). An FAQ section that meets this standard needs no snippet to justify its place on the page. It complements what well-planned content marketing is supposed to achieve anyway: answering customers' real questions.

Objections are the questions customers rarely ask out loud: will the business even take on such a small job? What happens if the appointment is moved? Do I have to be at home during the work? Anyone who leaves such doubts unanswered loses enquiries without noticing – the visitor closes the page and calls the next business. An FAQ section is the place where these questions may be spoken out loud. The answer should be concrete and should also say when something is not possible. A sentence such as “We only take on small jobs of less than half a working day together with a larger job” filters honestly and saves both sides a phone call.

Prices are trickier, because rules apply. Under Section 3 (1) of the German Price Indication Ordinance, anyone who offers services to consumers or advertises to them stating prices must state the total prices (PAngV). An FAQ entry “What does … cost?” with a figure is such a price indication. If a price is broken down, for instance into materials and labour, Section 3 (3) requires the total price to be highlighted (PAngV). Where a fixed amount is not possible, the answer explains what the price depends on and refers to the quote. Whether a starting price, a range or a package price suits your own business is shown in our article on publishing prices on your website.

For service providers a second regulation applies. The German Services Information Obligations Ordinance requires certain information before a written contract is concluded or, where there is none, before the service is provided. This includes – if professional liability insurance exists – the name and address of the insurer and the territorial scope (Section 2 (1) no. 11 DL-InfoV). One way of meeting this is to make the information easily accessible electronically at an address provided by the business (Section 2 (2) no. 3 DL-InfoV). A question “Are you insured?” with exactly this information is therefore more than customer service. Whether your own website fully meets the obligation in this way depends on the individual case and, if in doubt, belongs with legal advice. Which details belong in business emails is covered in our article on the email signature.

A common form is the accordion: questions as a list, the answer expands when tapped. The W3C describes this pattern as vertically stacked headings that function as controls and reveal or hide their associated content (W3C). This leads to concrete requirements that also make the section accessible to people using screen readers: each question is a heading with a button inside it, the button reports via aria-expanded whether the answer is open, and it refers to the answer area via aria-controls (W3C).

For the answers themselves, what applies to text on the web in general applies here: it is scanned, not read. In an early study by the Nielsen Norman Group, 79 percent of test users scanned every new page, and only 16 percent read word by word (Nielsen Norman Group 1997). The study is old, but a simple rule for FAQ answers still follows from it: the answer comes in the first sentence, conditions and exceptions follow. An accordion that works in everyday use meets these points:

That leaves the question of placement. Service pages hold the questions that concern exactly this service – four to six are usually enough. Questions that concern the whole business, such as service area, payment methods or insurance, are better placed once on a separate FAQ page that the service pages link to. That way answers do not appear twice, and possibly contradicting each other, in different places. What such a collection page can look like is shown by our own FAQ page. And because the section aims at the conversation, the contact option belongs directly below it; how visitors turn into enquiries is described on our page on conversion optimisation.

An FAQ section goes out of date quietly. Prices change, the service area grows or shrinks, a new colleague takes over appointment scheduling – and the website still shows the old state. Because the answers are so concrete, outdated details stand out more in the FAQ section than in a general service text. Maintenance needs three things: a responsible person, a fixed rhythm and a visible date.

Responsibility sensibly lies with the person who answers the questions on the phone. They are the first to notice when a new question comes up or an answer is no longer correct. The rhythm depends on the business: one date per quarter is enough for most businesses, plus whenever prices, services or areas change. The date of the last review below the section shows visitors that the information is maintained.

New questions are not only found on the phone. Search Console shows which search queries bring people to the website; queries phrased as questions are candidates for the FAQ section. How to read the report is explained in our article on Search Console. If you do not want to handle ongoing maintenance yourself, you can hand it over as part of website maintenance.