Difference between FAQ and Q&A schema

Every Schema snippet is different from each other and has different uses. I was going through notifications on my Quora account and found someone has this question.

What is the difference between FAQ and Q&A (Question and Answer) Schema?

It was very clear that he wanted to know the difference between FAQ and Q&A schema. I liked the question and just after answering on Quora, I though it is a good information to share with other people who visit my blog for SEO tips and Tricks.

So today, we will learn the difference between FAQ and Q&A schema and some SEO benefits of using these schema types on your website or blog. But before getting into the benefits and SEO results, let’s understand what these schema are and how they work.

FAQ Schema

According to its name, this schema type represents Frequently Asked questions type. It contains a list or set of questions and answers which are related to your business or products and services. You could answer all basic questions and put them on your contact us page to serve your customers better. If you mark questions and answers correctly, it will show up in rich results (SERP). Let’s take a look at given below example.

This rich snippet feature is available in almost every country where people use Google Search Engine. This feature is available on both the devices i.e. Desktop and mobile. In order to test or create FAQ Schema, you could visit Google Developers platform and choose between JSON-LD or Microdata. Given below is the example of Microdata for FAQ Schema.

Microdata for FAQ Schema

As you can see in above image, I have defined the schema according to questions. Apart from Title & headings, there are three sections which you need to edit in order to adjust markup.

1. Itemtype
2. Itemprop
3. Itemsope

As you can see in above image, I have adjusted the items according to my need. While editing, you could use basic HTML features to make it look more appealing as shown in example. The answer may contain HTML content such as links and lists. Valid HTML tags include: <h1> through <h6>, <br>, <ol>, <ul>, <li>, <a>, <p>, <div>, <b>, <strong>, <i>, and <em>.

Content Guidelines

You need to follow the guidelines strictly to get positive results. Use this feature wisely in your website content. Use FAQ schema where you have set of questions and answers. Don’t use it if your page has single question. It should be used where question has one possible answer or users can’t submit another answer to question. For example, if you are answering a question related to product on your website, then there should be no alternate answer.

• It should not look like a forum page where users could visit and submit their answers. Apart from this there few more things to keep in mind while using FAQ Schema.
• Never use it for marketing purpose.
• Make sure to write complete question or a question which contains complete text and answers should have complete answer text in answers section.
• All the answers should be visible to users.

Now let’s move on to the Q&A Schema Type.

Q&A Schema

Questions and Answers pages are those web pages which contains questions and answers related to particular question. In this type a question could have multiple answers. For example, let’s take example of How to Add Google Analytics Tracking to a Website. There are multiple ways to enable Google analytics tracking on a website. Majorly by adding JSON Tracking Code to website, Using Meta and uploading Google HTML file to server. So the Q&A Page would enable users to write possible answers to question.

For example:

As you can see in the image, if the pages are marked correctly it shows a Q&A Snippet in SERP. For example, whenever someone types how to get admission in B.tech, they get options of questions asked by users which could have multiple answers. Every college has its own criteria of admission so according to best answers; Google will show you the results and a snippet of related question & answers. Also, marking up your websites Q&A page, helps search engines (Google) to generate a better rich snippet for your Q&A page. This is also a multi device schema which works good on both Desktop and Mobile Device.

Let’s have a look on Microdata for Q&A Schema

Microdata for Q&A Schema

I have highlighted the area where I have edited the information according to question. You could see in the results that edited information is taken and reflecting on right hand side results.

You could follow Guidelines for this markup and use it wisely on your website or blog.

Hope now you could understand the difference between FAQ and Q&A Schema. If you have further questions then do let me know. You could also share your valuable feedback for this information with me. Comment below your suggestions and help me to provide quality information for readers.

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