To let users have a richer search experience, Google has always recommended the use of structured data on websites to understand the content of the page, as well as to gather information about the web and the world in general.
At Google I/O, Google announced support for FAQ and How-to structured data on Google Search and the Google Assistant, including new reports in Search Console.
This new update will help you to monitor how your site is performing and will bring rich search results to life.
How-to on Search and the Google Assistant:
This feature lets you expand your content to new surfaces, to help users complete tasks wherever they are, and interactively progress through the steps using voice commands.
Benefits of Adding How-to on Search:
- Adding structured data to the steps, tools, duration, and other properties will enable a How-to rich result for your content on the search page.
- Users will get richer previews of web results that will guide them through step-by-step tasks.
- As per the announcement, if your page uses images or video for each step, make sure to mark up your visual content to enhance the preview and expose a more visual representation of your content to users.
- It will also provide an incredibly lightweight way for web developers to expand their content to the Assistant.
FAQ on Search and the Google Assistant:
By using FAQ Page structured data, you will be able to make your content eligible to display questions and answers directly on Google Search and the Assistant.
Benefits of FAQ on Search:
- FAQ report in Search Console will not only help you monitor FAQ issues and search appearance, but will also show all errors, warnings and valid items related to your mark-up FAQ pages.
- It will enable users to quickly find answers to frequently asked questions.
- Your users will be able to invoke your FAQ content by asking direct questions and getting the answers that you marked up in your FAQ pages.
Google welcomes your thoughts and stories on how FAQ or How-to structured data works for you. Feel free to submit your feedback through Twitter or Google Webmaster Forum.
