How to Add FAQ Schema in WordPress [without Involving Your Developers]

Looking for ways to add FAQ Schema in a WordPress website? You have reached the right place.

When I was implementing FAQ Schema for my website, I had a lot of questions to which I couldn’t find an answer at one single place.

The purpose behind this detailed guide is to help you add FAQ Schema, without the need to include your developers.

Here’s how.

A. What is FAQ Schema?

You would have noticed that many web pages have a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) section within the content.

FAQ Schema markup is a technical method to inform Google about the presence of these FAQs on the webpage. 

The end results include rich results in the SERPs, thereby attracting eyeballs and improving organic click through rate.

FAQ Schema markup example

Here’s one of the blog posts from OnPage Champ, answering a couple of questions around on-page SEO tools.

This is how the same “marked up” page appears in search results:-

Clearly, you can see that an “FAQ Schema marked up” page shines out against the other search results.

B. Benefits of implementing FAQ Schema

1. Increases visibility in SERPs

Results marked with FAQ Schema occupy much larger real estate within the SERPs. 

If you are ranking within the top 10 results, this ensures you can capture user attention and generate a click.

Thus FAQ Schema is not just about increased visibility but also about increased traffic.

It also increases the probability of your answer getting picked for the “People Also Asked” section, thus improving the visibility of the same webpage even further.

2. Increases visibility through Google Assistant

A page marked up with FAQ Schema is eligible to be added to the Google Assistant directory. 

That means your answer can be used by Google as a direct response to a user query. That definitely means additional visibility of your webpage, especially for the voice search.

C. Tools to add FAQ Schemas in WordPress

There are multiple WordPress plugins that you can use to generate FAQSnippets (like RankMath).

However, I use Matthew Woodward’s FAQ Page Rich Snippet Generator. 

It’s easy like a breeze, and technically works similar to how any plugin would embed the Schema script to your page.

D. How to add FAQ Schema in WordPress easily?

Using the steps below, you can easily add FAQ Schema in WordPress and improve your SEO & CTR.

Highlighting the steps before I explain them in details:-

1. Ensure your content meets Google Guidelines. Then identify the questions and answers you want to show in FAQ section.
2. Prepare the JSON-LD format by using Matthew Woodward’s FAQ Schema Generator
3. Within Matthew’s tool, key in the FAQs, then select > WordPress >Page or Post, and key in the page/post id
4.  Copy the script and paste in Appearance > functions.php
5. You are done. Don’t forget to put the FAQ section in your main content through the WordPress Editor

Below, I have explained these steps using screenshots.

Step 1: Ensure your content meets Google’s guidelines

Google has clearly defined guidelines that you must follow for your FAQ Pages. 

The gist of the guidelines is that you should use FAQ Schema only for cases where the website is answering some questions, and there is no option for users to submit their answers.

If the user can submit their answer (like in the case of forums or communities), the page should be marked with Q&A Schema instead of FAQ Schema.

Step 2: Prepare the JSON-LD Code for FAQ Schema

Next, prepare the JSON-LD code for the FAQ Schema.

First, identify the questions and their answers that you want to use in the markup.

Second, go to Matthew’s Schema Generator tool. There, just paste the questions & answers as they appear on your web page.

Third: Choose “WordPress”, select whether you are marking up a post or a page, and enter the ID in the box. Click on the button to copy the code.

You can pick the Post/Page ID within the WordPress editor:-

Step 3: Embed the script within WordPress

Go to the WordPress Theme Editor and select “functions.php” file.

Next, come to the last part of the text within the file and paste your script just before the closing ‘?>’ tag. Update the file and you are done.

You are now done marking up your pages with FAQ Schema.

E: Validate the FAQ Schema

Next, validate if the FAQ Schema has been implemented properly in the WordPress.

For that, go to Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool and key in the URL.

You will see the FAQPage entries detected by the Schema Markup tool.

Click on it and you can also see the FAQs,along with the responses.

F. Submit a recrawl request to Google

This is an optional step to ensure your pages are crawled at the earliest.

For that, go to Google Search Console, key in the marked up URL in the “URL inspection box”, and then click on “Request Indexing”.

Once Google recrawls your website, FAQ snippets will be visible as rich results within the organic search results.

G. Misconceptions related to FAQ Schemas

1. It helps in an immediate SEO boost

Contrary to a popular belief, FAQ Schema markup doesn’t boost your website ranking right away.

What SEO specialists claim is to improve your SEO in 30 minutes, whereas how it comes out is to improve your SEO ranking in 30 minutes. 

Do you agree?

For example, here’s Neil’s blog on this topic:-

He is right. Schemas improve your SEO.

However, to improve your search rank, It will take much longer.  

Moreover, it won’t happen directly due to FAQ Schema. 

It will be a result of increased CTRs, thanks to FAQ Schema.

2. You need not retain the FAQs on the page

Google’s guidelines clearly states that all FAQ content should be visible on the web page.

That means you need to put the FAQs in your content, and then again within the script that you generate.

If you are not doing that, Google won’t show your FAQs during the search.

3. Your FAQs will appear every time

Even after marking up the page, Google may not show your FAQ Schema during the search. 

Visibility of FAQPage is based on the search query of the user, and how well your FAQs address that.

H. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

#1. How many FAQ schema results appear in SERPs at the same time?

As of now, only three FAQ schema results are shown to you in SERPs, irrespective of how many have implemented the FAQ schema.

 

#2. Will Emojis And HTML Tags Work With FAQPage Schema?

Yes, Google allows you to include emojis and HTML tags within the FAQ schema, along with other unicode characters.

 

#3. Does FAQ snippet appear both on mobile and desktop devices?

Yes, you can see FAQ snippets both on mobile and desktop.

 

#4. Can I add FAQ markup to non-FAQ pages like my homepage?

You can add schema to your homepage but it won’t matter as Google doesn’t pick FAQs from homepage. So I would recommend not adding the FAQ schema. Also, Google does not show schema markup for single page websites.

 

#5. What is the difference between FAQ and QA schema markup?

Both FAQ and QA schema markups are used to get rich results for your pages but have different use cases.

If you have a page that allows users to submit multiple answers to questions (such as Quora) then you would use a Q & A schema. If you have a page with specific questions and answers to those questions that are not user generated (like this one), you need to use the FAQ schema.

I. Time for action

Adding FAQ Schema to your WordPress pages is a low hanging fruit for your SEO.

There won’t be immediate gains if you rank beyond the top 10.

But if you are in the top 10, you should see an immediate spurt in your traffic and CTRs. That should ultimately push you up within the Google ranks.

What’s your experience with the FAQ schema? Did you see increased clicks? Do comment below.