Do FAQ Rich Snippets Help or Hurt SEO Traffic? (Case Study from 59 Articles)

 

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UPDATED SEPT 21, 2020 WITH SEARCH CONSOLE TRAFFIC DATA

This year you and I read how adding FAQ rich snippets boosted search rankings for various bloggers.  I say “you” because I assume you read the same industry blogs I do.  In this case, I’m referring to Neil and Matthew’s blogs.

Both of them explained the concept, set out loads of proof (screenshots) and were nice enough to step everyone through on how to execute the technical aspects.

As a niche site publisher, I wanted to know how FAQ rich snippets would perform across dozens of articles on a non-industry blog (i.e. real-world niche site like knitting, sneakers, pets, etc.).  I suspect you want to know the same.

Should you add FAQ rich snippets to your niche site, or not?  

I publish several real-world niche sites.  After learning about FAQ rich snippets, I was curious if these snippets would grow traffic on a real-world niche site.

I’ve published FAQ sections on some articles on my niche sites for years but hadn’t incorporated FAQ rich snippets.

It was time to put it to the test on a bigger level.

This post isn’t going to go into how to actually create the code for rich snippet FAQ because Neil and Matthew do a great job stepping you through it.

Instead, I want to share results of FAQ rich snippets for a whole lotta articles on a real-world niche site.

It’s been 3+ months since I added the first FAQ rich snippets to 59 articles on one of my niche sites.  Here are the results.

Results Overview

For those of you who don’t want to wade through a long table of data, here’s the short version:

• Total number of articles with FAQ rich snippets added:  59
• Number of articles where traffic increased: 34
• Number of articles where traffic decreased: 25
• Average increase in traffic:  10.7%

FAQ Case Study Details

I added FAQ rich snippets to mostly established articles but also some new articles from July 13 to August 26, 2019.

• Average word count for FAQ section: 989 words (just the FAQ section, not the entire article).
• Average number of questions and answers I added to an article: 10.3
• Most articles were established (1+ years), but some were new.

FAQ Rich Snippet Results Table

PDF version of the table: Click here to download

Article	Date FAQ Added	FAQ Word Count	# of Questions & Answers	June 2019 (Search Visits)	July 2019 (Search Visits)	August 2019 (Search Visits)	September 2019 (Search Visits)	October 2019 (Search Visits)	% increase June to Oct.
1	July 15, 2019	1,200	10	186	216	242	438	390	109.7%
2	July 15, 2019	1,011	14	4,795	4,187	4,353	3,594	3,578	-25.4%
3	July 16, 2019	766	7	182	318	395	401	528	190.1%
4	July 16, 2019	607	7	0	11	27	42	66
5	July 16, 2019	756	9	20	72	212	328	508	2440.0%
6	July 16, 2019	1,504	14	92	75	71	117	147	59.8%
7	July 16, 2019	969	14	286	300	329	350	447	56.3%
8	July 16, 2019	901	10	25	43	52	31	37	48.0%
9	July 17, 2019	750	10	270	232	183	165	145	-46.3%
10	July 17, 2019	801	10	6,164	5,835	4,101	5,176	5,247	-14.9%
11	July 18, 2019	915	14	886	775	933	758	623	-29.7%
12	July 18, 2019	765	9	413	376	560	524	756	83.1%
13	July 25, 2019	878	8	63	86	82	59	79	25.4%
14	July 19, 2019	504	6	452	282	249	255	174	-61.5%
15	July 19, 2019	650	7	1,353	1,526	1,342	1,004	1,144	-15.4%
16	July 25, 2019	856	7	351	404	348	357	373	6.3%
17	July 25, 2019	763	8	277	261	268	277	214	-22.7%
18	July 19, 2019	780	7	823	735	757	628	695	-15.6%
19	July 26, 2019	847	10	674	653	487	874	1,296	92.3%
20	July 26, 2019	900	11	351	343	322	245	258	-26.5%
21	July 29, 2019	999	9	110	126	82	121	133	20.9%
22	July 29, 2019	804	7	326	311	277	295	263	-19.3%
23	July 30, 2019	707	7	560	448	427	550	550	-1.8%
24	July 30, 2019	663	6	250	311	386	524	537	114.8%
25	July 30, 2019	500	6	1,346	1,244	1,152	1,552	1,362	1.2%
26	July 31, 2019	813	9	169	210	144	121	115	-32.0%
27	July 31, 2019	775	9	99	70	117	106	130	31.3%
28	July 31, 2019	750	8	321	257	260	324	312	-2.8%
29	July 31, 2019	905	10	106	126	172	191	174	64.2%
30	July 31, 2019	1,001	8	32	49	73	86	81	153.1%
31	August 1, 2019	1,043	11	881	845	908	976	1,178	33.7%
32	August 1, 2019	850	9	283	271	228	245	243	-14.1%
33	July 26, 2019	850	10	0	0	18	51	37
34	August 2, 2019	752	9	533	586	464	581	584	9.6%
35	August 2, 2019	1,153	7	191	212	199	220	233	22.0%
36	August 2, 2019	1,163	13	216	225	226	278	241	11.6%
37	August 2, 2019	925	8	283	280	297	308	339	19.8%
38	August 13, 2019	884	9	272	194	212	174	206	-24.3%
39	August 13, 2019	1,008	12	328	363	379	410	444	35.4%
40	August 13, 2019	1,400	18	926	800	1,042	1,345	2,498	169.8%
41	August 13, 2019	1,313	16	2,309	2,100	2,009	1,387	1,325	-42.6%
42	August 14, 2019	681	7	488	458	539	649	525	7.6%
43	August 14, 2019	1,038	9	135	140	160	90	164	21.5%
44	August 15, 2019	1,158	9	277	262	308	315	294	6.1%
45	August 16, 2019	1,227	11	1,068	978	1,038	1,334	1,610	50.7%
46	August 16, 2019	1,437	14	3,235	3,766	3,429	2,688	2,989	-7.6%
47	August 16, 2019	1,024	10	2,115	2,346	2,954	2,847	2,410	13.9%
48	August 19, 2019	807	9	218	232	194	216	216	-0.9%
49	August 19, 2019	800	9	168	174	155	136	152	-9.5%
50	August 19, 2019	1,254	12	74	67	66	172	164	121.6%
51	August 20, 2019	1,300	14	6,895	6,693	7,866	14,777	16,173	134.6%
52	August 20, 2019	1,560	14	2,280	2,317	2,345	2,427	2,442	7.1%
53	August 20, 2019	1,550	13	3,673	2,952	3,532	3,558	3,512	-4.4%
54	August 21, 2019	1,552	18	4,076	2,912	2,457	2,810	2,736	-32.9%
55	August 21, 2019	1,581	19	9,567	9,038	7,688	8,534	8,101	-15.3%
56	August 21, 2019	1,504	12	1,980	1,913	1,817	1,731	1,787	-9.7%
57	August 22, 2019	1,051	10	369	363	308	343	344	-6.8%
58	August 22, 2019	1,274	12	947	653	523	387	351	-62.9%
59	August 26, 2019	816	9	701	782	866	965	827	18.0%
		983 (Avg.)	10.2 (Avg.)	65,470	61,804	60,630	69,447	72,487	10.7%

PDF version of the table: Click here to download

A few notes about the table:

• The date column refers to the date I added the FAQ section and schema markup to the article.
• The word count pertains to the word count of the FAQ section, not the entire article.
• Apples to apples: Because some months have 31 days and others 30 days, for the months that have 31 days, I only used traffic data through the 30th.  This was for July, August and October.

Search Console Clicks Data

It’s now September 21, 2020 which is almost a year after this was originally published.  As you can see below, the FAQ snippets themselves do drive a decent amount of traffic to my site.  Here’s the chart:

How many FAQ snippets are registered in Search Console?  There are 82 URLs that are registered.

That means 82 sets of FAQ snippets drove 57,377 visitors in 30 days.  That comes out to 699 visitors per snippet.  I’d say those are very good numbers.

Caveats

1. Many variables – correlation (not causation):

SEO case studies can do more harm than good.  They can be downright dangerous and here’s why.  It’s almost always impossible to say with any certainty what causes search traffic changes.  With over 200 ranking factors, there are so many variables that impact search traffic that concluding changes are a result of one action is usually overreaching.

However, data can help us understand search to some degree.  While I can’t claim FAQ rich snippets increased my search traffic on the whole, I can say there is some correlation between a slight upswing in traffic and implementing FAQ rich snippets for my niche site.

2. Only 2 to 3 months duration: 

Also, it’s only been 2 months since the last FAQ rich snippet was published.  Maybe traffic will improve.

3. Seasonal impact:

I definitely had some articles in that list that are seasonal. Some would have dropped in traffic no matter what (do well in Summer) and some would increase in traffic no matter what (Fall/Winter topics).

Conclusion

Mixed results, but on the balance, traffic eaked upward.  Overall, results aren’t impressive. There’s no way I can conclude that FAQ rich snippets improved my organic Google traffic.

Just think, I spent well over $1,000 plus umpteen hours doing all this for not much of an improvement.  That said, IMO, the FAQ sections make for a better website so I don’t regret a penny or a minute of time invested.

I’m not sure you can take much away from this other than have realistic expectations if you decide to implement FAQ rich snippets. It’s a huge and costly job for no tangible results.

If that’s the case, why bother publishing this case study? 

Practical answer: Folks love reading case studies even if the results don’t necessarily provide clear conclusions or guidance.

Feel good answer:  I felt the need to contribute to the blogging community with meaningful data to further our collective knowledge and understanding of SEO.

Greedy answer: These types of posts attract links, which increases traffic and makes me more money.

Snarky answer: My blog, my topics.

That’s a wrap.

P.P. (as in post post):

Where’s the FAQ section for this article?  There isn’t one. I don’t want to lose traffic.