Spotted confusion here so here's the clean sequence for process queries:
— Phrase the H2 as 'How to [task].'
— Use a numbered ordered list, one action per step, verb-first ('Open,' 'Select,' 'Confirm').
— 4-8 steps. Beyond 8, Google crops and you lose the payoff steps.
— No nested sub-steps inside list items — flatten them.
— Put a one-line context sentence above the list, not below.
Note: HowTo rich results were deprecated, but the plain how-to PARAGRAPH and LIST boxes still fire. Don't chase the dead markup — chase clean list structure.
Why it matters: people still over-invest in retired schema and under-invest in the list format that actually pulls. Watching this.
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Checklist: Win the How-To Box the Right Way
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