Summary
Google has continued to narrow the set of Google structured data types that produce rich results. The headline change for 2026 is the removal of FAQ rich results, which stopped appearing in Google Search on May 7, 2026. This follows the deprecation of How-to rich results in 2023, the retirement of seven schema types in June 2025, and the removal of Practice Problem reporting in January 2026. This article covers what has actually been removed, what still produces rich results, and how B2B SEO teams should adjust as Google shifts structured data from a search-display feature toward a content comprehension and AI citation signal.
Most of the panic you will read online overstates the impact. Rankings are not affected by any of these deprecations. What changes is how your result looks on the page, and increasingly, how machine systems read your content. The practical work is smaller than the headlines suggest, but the strategic shift behind it is real and worth understanding.
The One Change That Defines 2026: FAQ Rich Results Are Gone
On May 7, 2026, Google added a deprecation notice to its FAQ structured data documentation. FAQ rich results, the expandable question-and-answer dropdowns that used to sit under a search listing, no longer appear in Google Search.
The rollout has three dates worth putting in your calendar:
- May 7, 2026: FAQ rich results stopped showing in search results.
- June 2026: The FAQ search appearance filter, the rich result report in Search Console, and Rich Results Test support are removed.
- August 2026: Support for the FAQ rich result in the Search Console API is removed, so any dashboards or BigQuery exports pulling that field will return null after this date.
For most commercial B2B sites, the real-world impact is close to zero, because FAQ rich results already disappeared for everyone except authoritative government and health sites back in August 2023. The May 2026 change simply ends that last bit of eligibility. If you have been pulling FAQ rich result impressions into client reporting, export the historical data before the June and August cutoffs so you keep a clean baseline.
One important distinction: the FAQPage schema type itself is not deprecated. The markup is still valid Schema.org vocabulary, it will not cause errors, and it does not need to be removed. What ended is the visual SERP feature, not the underlying data.
How-to Rich Results: Already Gone
If your structured data strategy still treats How-to markup as a live rich result opportunity, update it. How-to rich results were deprecated on desktop in September 2023, after being limited on mobile earlier, and they no longer appear in Google Search on any device. The How-to documentation and case studies have been removed from Google Search Central. This is settled, not pending.
The June 2025 Retirements
In June 2025, Google retired seven structured data types in a single simplification pass. These are frequently misremembered as 2026 changes, so to be precise, the seven were:
- Book Actions
- Course Info
- Claim Review (the markup behind Fact Check results)
- Estimated Salary
- Learning Video
- Special Announcement
- Vehicle Listing
There is a notable reversal here. In November 2025, Google removed the deprecation banner from the Book Actions documentation and confirmed that Book Actions remains supported, because a feature in Google Search still uses that markup. So if you read older guidance that lists Book Actions as fully retired, that guidance is out of date.
The January 2026 Cleanup
In January 2026, Google removed support for Practice Problem structured data across Search Console rich result reporting, the Rich Results Test, and the search appearance filters. The Search Console API supported the type through January 2026 to give teams time to adjust. This mostly affects education and math instruction sites.
Google also confirmed that Dataset structured data is used only by Dataset Search and not by general Google Search, which clears up a long-standing point of confusion for research and data publishers. Alongside these, Google retired several small interface elements such as Nutrition Facts panels, Nearby Offers, local bike-share status, and the Today’s Doodle box, as part of the same effort to reduce clutter and speed up the results page.
What Still Produces Rich Results
The core schema types that B2B sites depend on are fully supported and continue to generate rich results:
- Organization for entity and brand identity, leadership, and relationships.
- Article and BlogPosting for content metadata like authors, headlines, and publish dates.
- Product, Offer, Review, and AggregateRating for commerce and social proof.
- BreadcrumbList for navigation context in the SERP.
- LocalBusiness for location-based visibility.
- Event for webinars, conferences, and gatherings.
- JobPosting for recruitment and employer branding.
- Video and Recipe where relevant to the content type.
The pattern across every deprecation is consistent. Google removes features that were rarely used, easy to abuse, or no longer added enough value, and it keeps the schema types that map to genuine business use cases and clear user needs.
The Real Story: From SERP Display to AI Trust Signal
The feature list is the surface. The shift underneath it is what should change how you think about structured data.
Google’s March 2026 core update reduced rich result display for schema types that had been widely abused, including FAQ, Review, and How-to markup placed on pages where it was not the primary content. At the same time, Google’s AI Mode, powered by Gemini, began reading structured data as a trust and entity verification signal rather than a display trigger. Accurate schema that matches your visible content increases the probability of being cited in an AI answer, even when no traditional rich result is shown.
The scale of this shift is visible in the data. An Ahrefs study of 863,000 SERPs in February 2026 found that only 38 percent of pages cited in Google AI Overviews rank in the top 10 of traditional search, down from 76 percent in mid-2025. The signals that earn AI citations are not always the same signals that earn traditional rankings, and clean, accurate structured data is one input that helps AI systems trust and select a source.
A note on honesty here, because this is where a lot of SEO commentary overreaches. Google’s own AI features guidance states that there is no special schema required for AI Overviews or AI Mode, and that any structured data you use should match the visible text on the page. Some practitioners argue FAQPage markup makes a page more likely to be cited by AI systems; others, observing Google’s behavior after the deprecation, argue FAQ markup is not weighted as an AI surface signal at all. Pages get cited in AI Overviews with no FAQ schema present. The honest position is that structured data is a comprehension and trust layer, not a guaranteed AI citation lever. Build it because it accurately describes your content, not because you expect a specific surface to reward it.
What B2B SEO Teams Should Do Now
- Audit your markup against the current supported list. Use the Rich Results Test and Search Console enhancement reports to find any deprecated types still on your pages. Deprecated markup will not hurt your rankings, but it clutters your code and can trigger Search Console warnings.
- Export FAQ rich result data before the cutoffs. The Search Console report goes in June 2026 and the API support goes in August 2026. Pull your historical FAQ appearance data and CTR now so your reporting baseline stays intact.
- Keep FAQ content where it genuinely answers user questions. Stop adding FAQPage markup to product or service pages purely to capture SERP real estate, because that real estate is gone. Where your content is actually a set of questions and answers, keep the content strong and the markup clean.
- Prioritize the schema types that still produce rich results and that map to real business value. Organization, Article, Product, Review, Breadcrumb, Event, and JobPosting are the dependable core for most B2B sites.
- Treat structured data as a comprehension layer for both Google and AI systems. Make sure your schema accurately reflects your visible content, your entity names are consistent, and your markup validates. This is what positions content to be understood and cited as search splits across more surfaces.
- Set a quarterly review cadence. Google has run structured data cleanups across 2023, 2025, and 2026. Re-read the Search Central updates log, re-validate your schema, and review the SERP features for your top URLs on a regular schedule rather than reacting to each announcement.
Preparing for What Comes Next
The direction of travel is clear. Google keeps trimming low-value visual features and keeps the structured data that helps machines understand content. As AI Overviews and AI Mode resolve more informational queries directly, the value of structured data moves away from decorating a listing and toward establishing what your content is, who stands behind it, and why it can be trusted.
Organizations managing complex SEO across many pages benefit from tracking these changes against their own Search Console data, so they are responding to real trends rather than data artifacts caused by a feature being retired. Proton Effect works with B2B teams to keep technical SEO aligned with how search and AI systems actually read content, so the focus stays on visibility that drives qualified attention.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: When did Google remove FAQ rich results?
FAQ rich results stopped appearing in Google Search on May 7, 2026. The Search Console FAQ report and Rich Results Test support are removed in June 2026, and Search Console API support ends in August 2026. The FAQPage schema type itself remains valid and does not need to be removed from your pages.
Q: Are How-to rich results still available?
No. How-to rich results were deprecated on desktop in September 2023 and no longer appear in Google Search on any device. The How-to documentation has been removed from Google Search Central.
Q: Which structured data types did Google retire in June 2025?
Google retired seven types: Book Actions, Course Info, Claim Review, Estimated Salary, Learning Video, Special Announcement, and Vehicle Listing. Book Actions was later un-deprecated in November 2025, because a feature in Google Search still uses that markup.
Q: Will any of these deprecations hurt my rankings?
No. Google has stated repeatedly that these are search appearance changes, not algorithmic ones. Your rankings are not adjusted because a rich result feature was removed. The effect is on how your result looks and, in some cases, on click-through rate for pages that previously showed an enhanced listing.
Q: Should I remove deprecated structured data from my site?
It is not urgent. Google has said unused structured data does not cause problems for Search. Clean it up during your next maintenance cycle to keep your code tidy and to avoid Search Console warnings, and prioritize high-traffic pages.
Q: Does FAQ schema help with AI Overviews and AI search?
This is contested. Google states that no special schema is required for AI Overviews or AI Mode, and that structured data should match your visible content. Some practitioners report a correlation between clean schema and AI citation; others find no evidence that FAQ markup specifically is weighted by AI systems. Treat structured data as a comprehension and trust layer that accurately describes your content, not as a guaranteed AI citation lever.
Q: What structured data should B2B websites prioritize in 2026?
Focus on Organization for brand and entity identity, Article and BlogPosting for content, Product and Review for commerce and social proof, BreadcrumbList for navigation, and Event and JobPosting where relevant. These core types remain fully supported and map to genuine B2B use cases.
