Is FAQPage still worth it if Google no longer shows the questions?

Yes, with the right expectations. The questions and answers should be on the page anyway, as visible text, for people and for AI systems. The markup adds clarity for machines at almost zero cost. Do not expect a rich result from it.

Is structured data a ranking factor?

Google says it is not a direct ranking factor. It helps understanding and eligibility for rich results, which can lift click-through rate. It does not compensate for weak content.

Structured data for AI search: schema.org, JSON-LD and what

The same page, read by a machine

Your service page tells a human everything they need: "Dental implant from 3,500 lei, Cluj, free consultation, open Monday–Friday 9–19". For a program reading HTML, those are just strings of text. Which one is the price? Which is the address? Is "free consultation" a service or an offer? Structured data answers these questions in a format machines read without guessing.

What it is: schema.org and JSON-LD

schema.org is the vocabulary — a shared dictionary, started in 2011 by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Yandex and now maintained by a community — with types such as Organization, LocalBusiness, Product, Article. JSON-LD is the format Google recommends for writing it: a <script type="application/ld+json"> block in the page, separate from the visible HTML.

The types that matter for a business

Organization — who you are: name, logo, address, contact, sameAs. Google uses it to tie the site to the company entity and for knowledge panel elements.
LocalBusiness (and subtypes: Dentist, Restaurant, LegalService) — for businesses with a physical location. It pairs with Google Business Profile.
Product / Offer — products with price, availability, reviews. The basis for product rich results and merchant listings in Google.
Article — guides and articles: author, dates, headline, image.
BreadcrumbList — the page hierarchy; helps convey the site structure.
Person — authors and founders; ties expertise to a real human.
FAQPage — questions and answers on the page. Useful for machines; see below for what Google shows.

What Google shows in 2026 — and what it does not

Honesty is needed here, because much of what is written online is old:

FAQ rich results: since August 2023, Google shows them only for well-known, authoritative government and health websites. For an ordinary business, FAQPage no longer produces the question accordion in results. It is not useless — see the next section — but it is no longer a visibility trick.
HowTo: removed from results in 2023.
In 2025 Google dropped support for several low-usage types (among them courses, claim reviews, estimated salaries, vehicle listings).
What still works, with correct markup: products (price, availability, reviews), local businesses, articles, breadcrumbs, events, recipes, job postings, organizations.

The list changes. The single source is Google Search Central's structured data documentation, plus the enhancement reports in Search Console.

Why it still matters, beyond rich results

Structured data has two functions and only one is visible:

Display — rich results in Google. Fewer than in 2022.
Understanding — Google, Bing and, indirectly, the AI systems that lean on those indexes receive the facts about you without ambiguity: this is the organization, this is the price, this is the author, these are its official profiles.

Honestly: there is no public evidence that ChatGPT or Perplexity read JSON-LD directly or cite you more often because of it. There are solid reasons to have it anyway: Google confirms it uses it to understand content; Bing (which Copilot relies on) documents it; and the discipline of writing it forces you to keep your facts consistent — exactly what AI systems demand.

Validation

Two tools, two different questions:

Rich Results Test (Google) — "Can this page produce rich results in Google?" It checks only the types Google displays, against Google's requirements.
Schema Markup Validator (validator.schema.org) — "Is the markup valid according to schema.org?" It checks any type, including those with no rich results.

After publishing, the enhancement reports in Search Console show errors and warnings across the whole site, not just one page.

Common errors

Markup that does not match visible content. Google's rule is strict: mark up only what the user sees on the page. A price in JSON-LD but not on the page is a violation.
Self-serving reviews — aggregateRating on your own Organization or LocalBusiness, from reviews you control. Google does not display them and treats them as spam.
Missing required fields — an Offer without priceCurrency, an Article without a valid author, a LocalBusiness without address.
Contradictory data — two Organization blocks on the same page with different names, or hours in JSON-LD that differ from Google Business Profile.
Markup on the wrong page — Product on a category page with 40 products; FAQPage with questions that are not on the page.
Forgotten after a redesign — the old plugin was removed, the JSON-LD disappeared, nobody noticed. Check after every launch.