An FAQ that helps customers, Google and AI assistants

A good FAQ on your website answers questions customers really ask, with the answer in the first sentence and the text in the page’s HTML. That way the FAQ helps visitors who want to decide quickly, and search engines and AI assistants can read the answers. Google has not shown FAQ rich results since 7 May 2026, so the value lies in the content itself.

Where do the questions come from?

Start with the questions you already get. Over a few weeks, collect:

• questions from email, chat and phone calls;
• doubts raised in quote requests and abandoned orders;
• questions your sales staff or engineers keep hearing;
• search queries in Google Search Console for which your pages already appear.

Write the question down the way the customer asks it. “Can I collect my bike in the evening?” is a better FAQ question than “Collection options”. People type and speak in full sentences, and an AI assistant receives those same sentences.

Then remove questions that exist only to mention a search term. A question like “Who is the best plumber in Utrecht?” on your own site, answered with your own business name, helps nobody choose.

How do you write a good answer?

Put the answer in the first sentence. Start with “Yes”, “No”, “Within two working days” or “That depends on the type of roof”. The explanation or condition comes after.

A few rules that almost always work:

1. Repeat the topic. Write “The warranty on our solar panels” rather than “It”. An answer may be read or reused separately from its question.
2. Keep it short. A few sentences are often enough. If the answer needs a step-by-step guide or a table, it probably belongs on its own page, with a link from the FAQ.
3. Be specific. Give timeframes, conditions and exceptions. “Fast delivery” says nothing; “Order before 4 pm for delivery the next working day, except on Sundays” does.
4. Say what you don’t do. “No, we don’t deliver outside the Netherlands” is a useful answer. It saves an enquiry that would lead nowhere.

Example: from raw question to useful answer

Say a painting company in Amersfoort keeps getting the same question on WhatsApp: “Can you paint exteriors in winter too?”

The second answer starts with “Yes”, states the condition, explains what it means for scheduling and says what is always possible. (This is an invented example; the exact conditions should come from your own way of working and your supplier’s product information.)

Notice what isn’t there: no encouragement to get in touch when that adds nothing, and no repetition of the business name just to mention a search term.

Because the answer can be read on its own, an AI assistant can summarise it without twisting the question. This is what that can look like:

Which questions belong on which page?

Put questions on the page where the customer asks them. A product page gets questions about that product: size, maintenance, warranty. A service page gets questions about how that service works, scheduling and costs. A general FAQ page is useful for questions about your business, ordering, payment and returns.

Keep one fixed answer per question. If a question belongs on several pages, use the same text or link to the place where the answer lives. Two different versions of “What are your delivery times?” drift apart within a few months, and then nobody knows which is right.

How do you make sure the answers are in the HTML?

Many websites show an FAQ as an accordion that expands on click. That’s fine. In its guidance on helpful content, Google counts information behind tabs and expandable sections as part of a page’s main content.

The difference lies in how the accordion is built:

An accordion that keeps the answer in the HTML can be built with a standard HTML element and no JavaScript:

<details>
  <summary>Can you paint exteriors in winter too?</summary>
  <p>Yes, but only in dry weather and above the minimum temperature
  the paint manufacturer specifies. Interior work can be done all year round.</p>
</details>

Google can process JavaScript, as long as it isn’t blocked. Not every crawler does. So put the answers in the HTML the server returns directly. How to check that is explained in JavaScript and AI crawlers.

What does FAQPage schema still do?

FAQPage schema is structured data that tells systems, in the code, that a page contains questions and answers. Schema.org describes FAQPage as a web page presenting one or more frequently asked questions. For years, Google could show those questions directly in search results, as expandable lines under your page. That feature disappeared in two steps:

What does that mean for your website?

• There is no longer an extra feature in Google. An FAQ block in search results is no longer a reason to add schema.
• Existing schema can stay. In 2023, Google wrote that structured data that isn’t used doesn’t cause problems for Search. Whether Google still reads FAQPage markup for anything else isn’t stated in the changelog.
• FAQPage remains a valid schema.org type. Other services can read it. We have not found confirmation in the official documentation of AI providers that any particular AI assistant uses it.
• If it’s wrong, remove it. Google points out that structured data must match the visible text on the page. Schema with outdated answers is worse than no schema.

According to Google’s guide to generative AI features, no special structured data is needed for its AI features. What does count is that the question and answer are readable on the page. Bing names FAQ sections, along with clear headings and tables, as a way to make key information findable in AI answers. More on what structured data does and doesn’t do is in structured data explained.

How do you keep the FAQ up to date?

An FAQ goes out of date quietly. Prices, delivery times and terms change, while the answer in the FAQ stays put. Agree a fixed moment, every quarter for example, when someone:

• compares each answer with your current terms and prices;
• adds new questions from customer contact;
• removes questions nobody asks any more;
• checks whether the schema, if you use it, still matches the visible text.

Only change the “Updated on” date when something has changed in substance.

How Outseen approaches this

At Outseen, a writer drafts FAQ answers from your briefing and sources, a reviewer checks the text and you give feedback before anything goes live. We call answering specific customer questions on your website AEO. How to write the rest of your pages so AI assistants can use them is covered in writing content AI can cite.

What does this mean for your business?

You don’t need a new FAQ page to get started. Take your existing questions and set them against what customers actually asked over the past month. Rewrite the answers that don’t open with the answer, drop the questions nobody asks and check whether your accordion keeps the answers in the HTML.

Don’t count on an FAQ block in Google’s search results; it no longer exists. The value lies in customers who choose faster and need to ask less, and in answers that search engines and AI assistants can read. To see how this fits with the rest of your visibility in AI answers, read What is GEO?