Schema Markup Types: Article, Product, FAQ, HowTo Guide 2026

Q: How many schema types should one page have?

Usually two to three: site-wide `Organization`/`WebSite` from your template, a `BreadcrumbList`, and one primary type matching the page's main content. Stacking unrelated types adds maintenance cost without benefit.

Q: What's the difference between Article, BlogPosting, and NewsArticle?

They're increasingly specific subtypes of the same thing. `BlogPosting` suits a blog; `NewsArticle` signals time-sensitive journalism and is the only one eligible for Top Stories, and only for approved publishers.

Schema.org defines over 800 types. You will use about ten of them, ever. This is the field guide to those ten: what each one describes, the properties Google actually cares about, and, the part most lists skip, whether it still earns a visible rich result in 2026, because Google has quietly retired several that older tutorials still promise.

If you're new to structured data, start with the Schema Markup Guide for the JSON-LD basics. This post assumes you know the shape and just need to pick the right type per page.

The fast answer: does it still earn a rich result?

| Type | Describes | Rich result in 2026? | | --- | --- | --- | | Article / BlogPosting / NewsArticle | A written piece | Top Stories / article treatment (news-eligible sites) | | Product | A purchasable item | Yes: price, stars, availability, merchant listings | | Review / AggregateRating | Ratings on a thing | Yes: star snippet, nested in the host type | | BreadcrumbList | A page's position in the hierarchy | Yes: visible breadcrumb trail | | Organization | Your company as an entity | Knowledge panel inputs (no standalone snippet) | | LocalBusiness | A physical location | Feeds local/Business Profile context | | Event | A dated happening | Yes: event listing / carousel | | Recipe | A cooking recipe | Yes: recipe card, one of the richest left | | VideoObject | A video | Yes: video thumbnail, key moments | | FAQPage | Q&A pairs | No, removed May 2026 | | HowTo | Step-by-step instructions | No, removed 2023 |

Keep that last column in mind. FAQ and HowTo are the two types people still add expecting a SERP enhancement that no longer exists. They're covered below for honesty's sake, and for the non-Google reasons to still use them.

The two you set once, sitewide

Organization establishes your brand as an entity. Put it in a global template, not on every page individually. The sameAs array (your verified social and Wikipedia/Wikidata profiles) is what ties the markup to a Knowledge Graph entity.

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "SEOtest.app",
  "url": "https://seotest.app",
  "logo": "https://seotest.app/logo.png",
  "sameAs": ["https://twitter.com/seotestapp", "https://github.com/seotestapp"]
}

WebSite with a SearchAction is what makes a sitelinks search box possible (Google decides whether to show it):

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "WebSite",
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "potentialAction": {
    "@type": "SearchAction",
    "target": "https://example.com/search?q={search_term_string}",
    "query-input": "required name=search_term_string"
  }
}

The content types

Article (and its variants BlogPosting, NewsArticle). Required-ish: headline, image, datePublished, author. The article rich treatment and Top Stories are gated to news-eligible publishers; for a typical blog, the value is entity clarity and date/author signals, not a guaranteed visual.

BreadcrumbList earns one of the most reliable visible results left: the breadcrumb path under your title in place of a raw URL. Put it on every page below the homepage. It's cheap, it validates easily, and it actually shows.

VideoObject needs name, description, thumbnailUrl, uploadDate. Add contentUrl and a clip/SeekToAction for video key-moments. This one still earns thumbnails and is worth it on any page with embedded video.

The commerce types

Product is the workhorse of e-commerce structured data and still earns the richest treatment: price, availability, and a star snippet, plus merchant listing eligibility. The minimum is name, image, and an offers object with price and priceCurrency. It's deep enough to deserve its own guide; see Product Schema for E-commerce SEO.

Review / AggregateRating rarely stand alone; they nest inside a host type like Product or LocalBusiness to produce the star snippet. The cardinal rule: the rating in the markup must equal the rating visible on the page. Aggregating stars from elsewhere is a policy violation.

LocalBusiness (use the most specific subtype: Restaurant, Dentist, Plumber). Key properties: address, telephone, geo, openingHours. It doesn't replace a Google Business Profile, but it reinforces the same facts for the location page.

Event needs name, startDate, and a location. Still earns event listings and date carousels, genuinely useful for venues, courses, and conferences.

Recipe is the survivor. While Google pruned FAQ and HowTo, the recipe card (image, time, rating, calories) remains one of the richest results available. Required: name, image, recipeIngredient, recipeInstructions. If your steps are for a dish, this is the type, not HowTo.

The two that no longer earn a rich result

FAQPage marks up Q&A pairs. It briefly powered collapsible FAQ dropdowns in results, but Google narrowed those to government/health sites in 2023 and removed them entirely in May 2026. The markup is still valid; it just produces no visual enhancement. Reasons it can still help (AI answer engines, on-page Q&A clarity) are in the FAQ schema deep dive.

HowTo marks up step-by-step procedures. Its rich result was limited to desktop in August 2023 and fully deprecated later that year, gone on every device since. For when (and whether) to still implement it, see the HowTo schema guide. For cooking steps specifically, use Recipe instead.

Picking the right type per page

Don't stack every type onto every page. The pattern that works:

Organization + WebSite: sitewide, once.
BreadcrumbList: on every non-home page.
Exactly one most-specific primary type per page that matches its main content.

Build any of these with our Schema Generator rather than typing brackets by hand, then confirm eligibility in Google's Rich Results Test before you ship.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which schema types still earn rich results in 2026?

Product, Review/AggregateRating, BreadcrumbList, Event, Recipe, and VideoObject all still produce visible enhancements. FAQ (removed May 2026) and HowTo (removed 2023) no longer do. Article treatment exists but is mostly gated to news-eligible publishers.

How many schema types should one page have?

Usually two to three: site-wide Organization/WebSite from your template, a BreadcrumbList, and one primary type matching the page's main content. Stacking unrelated types adds maintenance cost without benefit.

What's the difference between Article, BlogPosting, and NewsArticle?

They're increasingly specific subtypes of the same thing. BlogPosting suits a blog; NewsArticle signals time-sensitive journalism and is the only one eligible for Top Stories, and only for approved publishers.

Do I still add FAQ or HowTo schema if there's no rich result?

Only if you have a non-Google reason: AI/answer engines and other parsers still read them, and the markup doesn't hurt. Don't add it expecting a SERP enhancement; there isn't one anymore.

Can the wrong schema type get me penalised?

Mismatched or invisible markup can. Using a type that doesn't describe the page, or marking up ratings and content a user can't see, violates Google's policies and risks a manual action. Match the type to the page's actual primary content.

Schema Markup Types Explained: Article, Product, FAQ, HowTo, and More