For most small businesses, the schema types that still matter are Organization or LocalBusiness, Product (for shops), Article, BreadcrumbList and Review snippets where genuine. These still support features Google shows. FAQ rich results stopped appearing in Google Search on 7 May 2026, and several other types have been retired, so markup added only for those no longer changes how a listing looks. Schema also isn’t required for Google’s AI features.
A lot of schema advice online still recommends FAQ markup as a quick win for bigger listings. This post sets out what Google currently supports, what’s gone, and where a small business should put its effort.
What schema markup does
Schema markup, or structured data, is code added to a page that describes its content in a standard format, such as a product’s price or a business’s address. Google uses it to understand pages and to decide whether they’re eligible for rich results, such as review stars, product details or breadcrumbs, although it never guarantees them.
Google’s introduction to structured data explains that it helps Google understand the content of a page. Most sites use the JSON-LD format, a block of code in the page that doesn’t change what visitors see.
Two things are worth being clear about from the start. Structured data makes a page eligible for rich results, but Google decides whether to show them. And Google’s AI optimisation guide says structured data isn’t required for its generative AI search features, and there’s no special schema.org markup to add for them.
What’s changed recently
Google has been simplifying search results by removing several rich result features. FAQ rich results were deprecated and stopped appearing from 7 May 2026. Practice problem markup was phased out, Dataset markup is now used only by Dataset Search, and several other features were retired in 2025.
According to Google’s documentation updates page:
| Change | When | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| FAQ rich results deprecated | Announced 8 May 2026, no longer shown from 7 May 2026 | FAQPage markup no longer produces expandable FAQs in Google results |
| Practice problem phased out | Announced November 2025 | No longer shown in Google Search results |
| Dataset limited to Dataset Search | Clarified November 2025 | Not used by Google Search itself |
| Book actions, course info, estimated salary, ClaimReview, learning video, special announcement and vehicle listing | Retirement banners added June 2025 | Google flagged these features for removal as part of simplifying results |
Google gave its reason as ongoing efforts to simplify the search results page. For site owners, it means some markup that once earned a visible feature now does little or nothing for how a listing looks.
The schema types worth using
The types most worth using are the ones that match a real feature Google still supports and genuinely describe your page. For most small businesses that means Organization or LocalBusiness, BreadcrumbList, Article for blog posts and guides, and Product with offers and reviews for online shops.
Google’s structured data search gallery lists every feature it currently supports. These are the ones most relevant to small businesses:
| Schema type | Who it’s for | What Google says it supports |
|---|---|---|
| Organization | Every business | Details about the organisation, helping Google understand who runs the site |
| Local business | Businesses with premises or a service area | Business details in the knowledge panel, including opening hours, ratings and directions |
| Breadcrumb | Any site with sections | Navigation showing the page’s position in the site hierarchy |
| Article | Blogs, guides and news | Article title and larger images in various rich result features |
| Product | Online shops | Product information including price, availability and review ratings |
| Review snippet | Pages with genuine reviews of eligible items | A short review excerpt or rating, for types including Product, Local business and Software App |
| Event | Venues and event organisers | A list of events people can attend at a time and place |
| Video | Sites with video content | Video information, with options to play and show segments |
| Recipe | Food businesses and publishers | Recipes as individual rich results or in carousels |
| Job posting | Businesses hiring | Job listings in Google’s job search experience |
| Profile page | Author and team pages | A page focused on a single person or organisation affiliated with the site |
| Software app | App developers | App details, ratings and a link to the app |
Ecommerce sites have more options, such as merchant listings, product variants, shipping and return policies, which Google has been expanding. For a shop, getting Product markup and Merchant Center product data consistent matters more than adding extra types.
Should you remove FAQ schema?
You don’t need to rush to remove FAQPage markup, but don’t add it expecting a richer listing. FAQ rich results no longer show in Google Search. Visible questions and answers on the page still help readers, and they give search engines and AI systems clear content, with or without the markup.
A few practical points:
- Keep the visible FAQs where they genuinely help people. It’s the content that matters, not the markup.
- Don’t count on FAQ markup for AI features. Google says there’s no special markup needed for AI Overviews or AI Mode.
- Check your reporting. If a dashboard or SEO tool still flags “missing FAQ schema” as an error, it’s out of date for Google.
- Clean up if convenient. If your CMS or a plugin adds FAQPage markup automatically, leaving it is unlikely to cause harm, but removing it during other template work tidies things up.
Where small businesses go wrong with schema
The most common schema problems aren’t missing types. They’re broken JSON-LD that can’t be read at all, markup that describes content not visible on the page, duplicate blocks added by several plugins, and business details that don’t match the rest of the site.
When I check sites, these come up again and again:
- Invalid JSON-LD. One stray character, often a line break from a CMS field, stops the whole block being read.
- Markup that doesn’t match the page. Google’s structured data guidelines say not to mark up content that isn’t visible to readers, or misleading content such as fake reviews.
- Conflicting duplicates. A theme, an SEO plugin and a reviews app each adding their own Organization or Product markup, with different details.
- Wrong business details. An old address, phone number or name in the markup.
- Disconnected entities. Separate blocks that never link the business, website, pages and authors together, so the relationships aren’t clear.
On Shake Shack UK’s website, the technical audit found invalid structured data on menu pages and a parse error on a location page, which were corrected and republished as part of the fix list. The Shake Shack UK case study covers the audit.
How to check your schema
Test important pages with Google’s Rich Results Test to see which rich result types Google detects and whether they’re valid, then use the Search Console enhancement reports to find errors across the site. The Schema Markup Validator checks schema.org markup more generally, including types Google doesn’t use for rich results.
- Run your homepage, a product or service page and a blog post through the Rich Results Test.
- Check Search Console for structured data reports under Enhancements or Shopping, which list errors across all affected pages.
- Run pages through the Schema Markup Validator to check general schema.org markup.
- Compare the details in the markup with what’s visible on the page.
The free SEO checker also parses every JSON-LD block on a page, lists the types found and flags retired rich result types.
What I learned
The schema that pays off for small businesses is almost always the unglamorous kind: accurate business details, clean product data and breadcrumbs that match the site. When a site’s schema is causing trouble, it’s usually because too much was added by too many plugins, not because a clever type was missing.
The FAQ change is a good reminder not to build a strategy around a single search feature. Pages with genuinely useful questions and answers lost nothing important when the rich result went. Pages that existed mainly to earn it lost their reason to exist.
If you’d like your structured data checked and fixed, the schema markup service covers it from audit to implementation.
FAQ
Is FAQ schema still worth using?
Not for Google rich results. Google deprecated the FAQ rich result and it stopped appearing in Google Search from 7 May 2026. Visible questions and answers on a page still help readers and can help search engines and AI systems understand the content. The markup alone no longer changes how your listing looks.
Does schema markup help with AI Overviews?
Google says structured data isn’t required for its generative AI features, such as AI Overviews and AI Mode, and there’s no special schema.org markup to add for them. Schema still helps Google understand products, businesses and articles and supports rich results. It won’t earn an AI Overview citation on its own.
Can schema markup hurt my website?
Markup that misleads, such as reviews or prices visitors can’t see on the page, goes against Google’s guidelines and can lose a site’s eligibility for rich results. Broken or conflicting markup doesn’t usually harm rankings directly, but it wastes the benefit. Accurate markup that matches the visible page is the safe approach.
What schema does a local business need?
Most local businesses benefit from LocalBusiness or a more specific subtype, with the business name, address, phone number, opening hours and website matching the site and Google Business Profile. Organization details, BreadcrumbList for site sections and Review markup where there are genuine, eligible reviews are also worth considering.
More on technical SEO:
If you’re not sure whether your schema is helping, get in touch or ask for a free assessment.
Sources
- Latest Google Search documentation updates, Google Search Central, accessed 15 September 2026. Supports: FAQ rich result deprecation and end date, practice problem and Dataset changes, the June 2025 retirement banners.
- Structured data markup that Google Search supports, Google Search Central, accessed 15 September 2026. Supports: the supported features and descriptions in the table.
- Introduction to structured data markup, Google Search Central, accessed 15 September 2026. Supports: what structured data does.
- AI optimization guide, Google Search Central, accessed 15 September 2026. Supports: structured data not required for generative AI search features.
- General structured data guidelines, Google Search Central, accessed 15 September 2026. Supports: don’t mark up content not visible to readers, or misleading content such as fake reviews.
- Shake Shack UK, technical SEO audit, January 2026. Supports: invalid menu page structured data and the location page parse error.