FAQPage and HowTo Schema: How to Take Up More Space in the SERPs

Of all schema markup types, FAQPage and HowTo have the most immediate impact on SERP visibility. A result with FAQPage can take up twice the vertical space of a regular result, pushing competitors down and increasing CTR even without climbing in position.

FAQPage schema: questions and answers in the SERP

Google can display up to 3 expandable questions directly below your search result when it detects a valid FAQPage schema. Each question can be expanded to see the answer without entering the page. This takes up enormous space in the SERP and can double or triple CTR.

FAQPage implementation

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "FAQPage",
  "mainEntity": [
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "How long does a page with good LCP take to load?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "A good LCP is 2.5 seconds or less. Pages with LCP above 4 seconds have an experience Google considers poor."
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "Question",
      "name": "How can I measure my site's LCP?",
      "acceptedAnswer": {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "You can measure LCP with Google PageSpeed Insights, Lighthouse in Chrome DevTools, or with iRankly's Core Web Vitals Monitor to analyze multiple URLs at once."
      }
    }
  ]
}
</script>

Google's rules for FAQPage

• •The question and answer content must be visible on the page — you cannot have FAQPage schema with questions that do not appear in the page HTML.
• •Answers can contain basic HTML (links, lists, bold) but the text must be complete and useful on its own.
• •Do not use FAQPage for advertising content or to manipulate the SERP with fabricated questions.
• •If the same question appears on multiple pages of the same site, Google may choose not to show the rich result to avoid duplicate content.

Which pages should implement FAQPage?

• •Product or service pages with a real FAQ section.
• •Blog articles with a FAQ section at the end (FAQ sections are the most natural placement).
• •Landing pages that address common user objections.
• •Category pages with questions about the products in that category.

HowTo schema: steps with images in the SERP

The HowTo schema describes the steps of a process or tutorial. Google can display the steps with images directly in the SERP, especially on mobile searches. It is particularly effective for tutorials, recipes (without using Recipe schema), and step-by-step guides.

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "HowTo",
  "name": "How to audit your website's redirects",
  "description": "Step-by-step guide to auditing the SEO redirects of any website.",
  "totalTime": "PT15M",
  "tool": [
    {
      "@type": "HowToTool",
      "name": "iRankly Redirect Chain Analyzer"
    }
  ],
  "step": [
    {
      "@type": "HowToStep",
      "name": "Collect the URLs to check",
      "text": "Export your site's most important URLs from Google Search Console (Performance → Pages).",
      "image": "https://example.com/guide/step1.jpg",
      "url": "https://example.com/redirect-guide#step-1"
    },
    {
      "@type": "HowToStep",
      "name": "Enter the URLs in the analyzer",
      "text": "Paste up to 50 URLs in iRankly's Analyzer and click Analyze.",
      "image": "https://example.com/guide/step2.jpg",
      "url": "https://example.com/redirect-guide#step-2"
    },
    {
      "@type": "HowToStep",
      "name": "Review the results",
      "text": "Identify URLs with 2+ hop chains and redirect loops. Fix them in order of severity.",
      "image": "https://example.com/guide/step3.jpg",
      "url": "https://example.com/redirect-guide#step-3"
    }
  ]
}
</script>

Key HowTo properties

Combining FAQPage and HowTo on the same page

You can implement multiple schema types on the same page using the JSON-LD @graph array. For example, a tutorial article can have HowTo for the steps and FAQPage for the frequently asked questions at the end.

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@graph": [
    {
      "@type": "HowTo",
      "name": "How to implement hreflang",
      "step": [...]
    },
    {
      "@type": "FAQPage",
      "mainEntity": [...]
    }
  ]
}
</script>

Verify your schema with the validator

After implementing FAQPage or HowTo, use iRankly's Schema Validator to confirm that required properties are present and that Google can process the schema correctly. Also check with Google's Rich Results Test that the page is eligible for the rich result.