What Is QAPage Schema and How Does It Work?

QAPage vs. FAQPage: Which Should You Use?#

These two schema types are commonly confused. The distinction is critical — using the wrong one will either prevent rich results or result in a guideline violation.

When Not to Use QAPage Schema#

Google's documentation specifies that QAPage is only intended for pages where a single question is asked and the community can submit their own answers. Do not use it for:

• FAQ pages where a publisher provides all answers (use FAQPage schema instead)
• Blog posts or articles written in Q&A format by the author
• How-to guides structured as questions and steps
• Essay or opinion pages written as a single question with an authored answer
• Pages where users cannot submit their own answers

Greadme always issues a content-guideline warning reminding you that QAPage must be used only for genuine user-submitted Q&A formats.

Required Properties#

acceptedAnswer vs. suggestedAnswer#

QAPage supports two answer types — a key difference from FAQPage:

You can include both types simultaneously. A page might have one acceptedAnswer and multiple suggestedAnswer objects representing top community responses. Google may display any of them in search results.

Recommended Properties#

QAPage Schema Code Example#

A complete QAPage with one accepted answer and one suggested answer:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "QAPage",
  "mainEntity": {
    "@type": "Question",
    "name": "How do I center a div in CSS?",
    "text": "I've tried margin: auto but it doesn't always work. What's the modern approach?",
    "answerCount": 14,
    "upvoteCount": 382,
    "datePublished": "2026-03-01T08:00:00+00:00",
    "author": {
      "@type": "Person",
      "name": "css_newbie",
      "url": "https://example.com/user/css_newbie"
    },
    "acceptedAnswer": {
      "@type": "Answer",
      "text": "Use flexbox: set the parent to display:flex, justify-content:center, align-items:center.",
      "url": "https://example.com/q/123#answer-1",
      "upvoteCount": 215,
      "datePublished": "2026-03-01T09:15:00+00:00",
      "author": {
        "@type": "Person",
        "name": "css_expert",
        "url": "https://example.com/user/css_expert"
      }
    },
    "suggestedAnswer": {
      "@type": "Answer",
      "text": "CSS Grid also works: place-items:center on the parent container.",
      "url": "https://example.com/q/123#answer-2",
      "upvoteCount": 87,
      "datePublished": "2026-03-01T10:00:00+00:00",
      "author": {
        "@type": "Person",
        "name": "grid_fan",
        "url": "https://example.com/user/grid_fan"
      }
    }
  }
}

Common Mistakes to Avoid#

• Using QAPage for FAQ content: If you wrote the questions and answers yourself, use FAQPage schema (or no schema if Google has deprecated the rich result for your content type). QAPage requires genuine user-submitted answers.
• Missing answerCount: This is a required field. For unanswered questions, set "answerCount": 0 — but be aware that unanswered questions are not eligible for rich results.
• Answer.text under 20 characters: Greadme warns on very short answer text. Answers must be complete and useful to be eligible for rich result display.
• Missing Answer.url: Google recommends providing an anchor URL for each answer so users can navigate directly to it. Greadme warns and deducts 8 points per answer when this is missing.
• Non-question format in mainEntity.name: The name should be phrased as a question (starting with how, what, why, when, where, who, or ending with "?"). Greadme warns when the format does not match.

How Greadme Validates QAPage Schema#

Greadme validates QAPage schema with the following key deductions from a starting score of 100:

Run your page through Greadme Schema Validator to see this scoring applied to your own QAPage markup — scan a live URL or paste the JSON-LD directly to verify the Question, acceptedAnswer, and suggestedAnswer structure before you publish. It is free and needs no account.

Frequently Asked Questions#