FAQ Schema That Doesn't Match Your Page

What this means

Why it matters

How to fix it

1. 1

   Open the page and find the block

   Start from the page the audit named. View source and search for application/ld+json, then find the script block whose @type is FAQPage or QAPage. Read the mainEntity array against the page itself and identify which question or answer is not there. Be ready for the block not to live in the file you edit: SEO plugins, theme partials and tag managers all inject JSON-LD, and an FAQ block that nobody can find in the template is usually coming from one of those.

2. 2

   Decide which side is wrong, then make them match

   There are exactly two ways to satisfy the rule, and both are legitimate. If the question is one you genuinely want to answer, publish the answer in visible text on the page and keep the markup. If it is a question you no longer answer, or one that was written for a search engine rather than a reader, delete that Question object from the JSON-LD. What you must not do is split the difference by hiding the text on the page — a zero-height container, display: none, white-on-white text or an off-screen block is the violation restated, not a workaround for it.

3. 3

   Fix a QAPage that is really an FAQ

   If the finding is qapage_multiple_questions and you wrote both the questions and the answers, the type is wrong rather than the content. Change "@type": "QAPage" to "FAQPage" and make sure every entry in mainEntity is a Question carrying an acceptedAnswer, which is an Answer object with a text property. QAPage also allows suggestedAnswer for community answers that were never accepted; FAQPage has no equivalent, so fold that content into the single accepted answer or drop it. If the page really is a community thread and really does hold several separate questions, the markup is not the thing to change: Google's rule is one question per page, so the fix is to give each question its own URL.

4. 4

   Fix the generator, not just this page

   A single mismatched block is a typo; a template that produces them is a recurring bill. Find what writes the JSON-LD and make it read from the same content that renders the page, so the two cannot drift. The FAQ blocks in Yoast SEO and Rank Math do this by construction, because you type the question and the answer into the editor and the markup is generated from that. A snippet pasted into a theme header, or an FAQ block injected through a tag manager, does not: the markup and the page are then edited by different people in different systems, which is exactly how the drift starts.

5. 5

   Consider whether to keep the block at all

   This is a real option, not a shrug. FAQPage markup earns no Google rich result, Google says structured data is not required for its AI features, and only Microsoft claims a benefit for Copilot. If you have an FAQ block that nobody owns and nothing keeps in sync, deleting it costs you very little and removes the risk completely. Keep it when the markup is generated from the visible content and stays correct on its own; that version is cheap and harmless. Keep a block you have to hand-maintain only if you are actually going to maintain it.

6. 6

   Validate, then re-run this audit

   Paste the corrected block into validator.schema.org to confirm it still parses and uses the vocabulary correctly. Google removed FAQ support from the Rich Results Test in June 2026, so that tool will not check an FAQ block at all (Google Search Central changelog, read 2026-09-23). Note what the Schema.org validator does and does not do: it checks syntax and vocabulary, and it does not compare your markup against your visible text, so a clean pass there is not evidence this finding is resolved. Re-run this audit to confirm it clears. If the page already picked up a structured data manual action, fix the mismatch first, then request a review in the Manual Actions report in Search Console.

Example

<!-- WRONG: the page shows the shipping question, but the returns question and
     its answer exist only here. Nothing on the page says "30 days", so this is
     content marked up but not visible to readers. -->
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "FAQPage",
  "mainEntity": [
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "How long does shipping take?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Standard orders ship within 2 business days."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "What is your return policy?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "You can return unused items within 30 days for a full refund."
      }
    }
  ]
}
</script>

<!-- WRONG: an owner-written FAQ typed as QAPage. Google allows exactly one
     Question per QAPage, and says not to use it for FAQ pages at all. -->
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "QAPage",
  "mainEntity": [
    { "@type": "Question", "name": "How long does shipping take?" },
    { "@type": "Question", "name": "What is your return policy?" }
  ]
}
</script>

<!-- RIGHT: FAQPage, and every question and answer is on the page. The <details>
     blocks start collapsed, which is fine — the text is in the HTML and a
     reader can open it. -->
<h2>Frequently asked questions</h2>
<details>
  <summary>How long does shipping take?</summary>
  <p>Standard orders ship within 2 business days.</p>
</details>
<details>
  <summary>What is your return policy?</summary>
  <p>You can return unused items within 30 days for a full refund.</p>
</details>

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "FAQPage",
  "mainEntity": [
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "How long does shipping take?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Standard orders ship within 2 business days."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "What is your return policy?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "You can return unused items within 30 days for a full refund."
      }
    }
  ]
}
</script>

The first block marks up an answer the page never gives; the second gives an owner-written FAQ the QAPage type. The third publishes every question and answer and marks up exactly what is there.

Frequently asked