The 6-step playbook to salvage value from deprecated FAQ markup

The 6-step playbook to salvage value from deprecated FAQ markup

Google killed FAQ rich results for nearly all sites back in 2023, but the markup itself never stopped being readable. As of this week, the smart move isn't deleting it — it's repurposing it. Here's the recovery sequence we've watched work:

— Audit which URLs still ship FAQPage in the DOM (Rich Results Test, not the deprecated report)
— Keep the markup if the visible Q&A still serves users; strip it if it was injected only for stars
— Re-point those Q&A blocks into a Question/Answer pair under your main entity
— Verify no orphaned mainEntity arrays remain after the swap
— Resubmit the URL for crawl, don't wait for organic recrawl
— Log a before/after in a sheet so you can prove causation later

What it means for you: AI engines still parse FAQPage even though Google won't draw a widget. Watch this — citation surfaces reward the structure Search abandoned.