What Is QAPage Schema? The Complete Guide (2026)

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:

Frequently Asked Questions