Schema · Retired feature
HowTo schema: required fields and common mistakes
Marked a set of steps. Google stopped showing these as a rich result.
Google no longer shows a rich result for HowTo
The markup remains valid structured data and our validator will not call it a defect. It reports “not applicable” instead, which is the honest answer: valid markup that no longer earns a feature.
Required properties
- name and step with HowToStep items
Common mistakes
- Expecting a rich result. It was retired alongside FAQPage.
- A step list in the markup that does not match the visible instructions.
- Assuming our validator is wrong when it says not applicable — it is reading the retirement from a rule, and the rule is visible in lib/checks/rich-results.ts.
What markup cannot do
Structured data describes the page; it does not make the page true. Google also requires the visible content to match, and it decides eligibility on its own published requirements — which change without notice. A valid block that matches the page is the whole of what you control.
Test it on a real URL with the free schema validator — no account, and it reports eligible, ineligible, or not applicable without inventing a score.
Other schema types
- Product — Marks a page as a product, with its price and availability.
- Article — Marks a page as a news or blog article. Covers BlogPosting and NewsArticle too.
- LocalBusiness — Marks a page as a physical business, with an address and opening hours.
- Organization — Marks a page as representing an organisation rather than a person.
- BreadcrumbList — Marks a page as a position in a hierarchy, for the breadcrumb in a result.
- Person — Marks a page as being about, or written by, a person.
- WebSite — Marks the site itself, usually on the homepage.
- FAQPage — Marked a question-and-answer page. Google stopped showing these as a rich result.