An SEO professional asked John Mueller in a hangout about FAQ Schema. They explained that they have FAQ Schema on a number of pages that are not showing any errors in Google Search Console.
But Google is still not displaying their FAQ in the search results.
They were wondering if this could be a trust issue with the content on their site?
John explained that FAQ-rich results are essentially similar to other types of rich results, in that they have several levels that they take into consideration before Google will show them.
On one hand, FAQ schema needs to be technically correct, and it sounds to him from what the professional described, that they are technically correct.
On another hand, they need to be compliant with Google’s policies.
John also said that he doesn’t think there are any significant policies around FAQ-rich results, other than the fact that the content needs to be visible on the page.
The third issue that sometimes comes into play here is that Google needs to be able to understand that this site is kind of trustworthy in this regard: that they can actually trust the data on a particular website to be correct.
This is sometimes something where, from a quality point of view, if Google’s not convinced about a particular website, then they won’t show it.
These are the three steps John recommends doing: make sure the Schema is technically correct, and is it compliant with Google’s policies?
If this is all correct, then try to consider what would improve the quality of your site overall, in order to gain more trust.
This happens at approximately the 36:14 mark in the video.
John Mueller Hangout Transcript
John (Submitted Question) 36:14
We have FAQ schema on quite a few pages that don’t show any technical errors in Search Console. Are there non-technical reasons why Google doesn’t show our FAQs in the search results below posts? Could it be a trust issue with the content on our site?
John (Answer) 36:29
So FAQ-rich results are essentially similar to other types of rich results, in that we have several levels that we take into account before we show them in the search results. On the one hand, they need to be technically correct, it sounds like these are technically correct.
On the other hand, they need to be compliant with our policies. I don’t think we have any kind of significant policies around FAQ-rich results, other than that the content should be visible on the page.
And the third issue that sometimes comes into play here is we need to be able to understand that this website is kind of trustworthy in that regard, that we can trust this data to be correct. And that is sometimes something where kind of from a quality point of view, we’re maybe not convinced about a website, and then we wouldn’t show it.
But those are kind of the three steps that I would look at. Is it technically correct? Is it compliant with our policies? And then if that’s all correct, then I would think about like, well, what could I do to significantly improve the quality of my website overall?
