HowTo schema markup

Does Google still show a rich result for this?

Retired. Google removed the HowTo documentation on 14 September 2023, stating the rich result is no longer shown on either desktop or mobile. There is no current documentation page for it.

When to use it

There is no search-feature reason to add it, and no Google documentation left to conform to. If you already have it, leaving it in place is harmless — unsupported structured data is ignored rather than penalised. The effort belongs in the instructions themselves, which is what both readers and answer engines actually use.

Recommended properties

• name
• step
• step.text
• totalTime
• tool
• supply

Example

// Google removed the HowTo documentation on 14 September 2023, so there is no
// specification to conform to and no rich result to earn. The schema.org vocabulary
// still exists, and this is the shape it defines — valid, but decorative:
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "HowTo",
  "name": "How to register for VAT",
  "totalTime": "PT30M",
  "step": [
    { "@type": "HowToStep", "text": "Check whether your turnover is above the threshold." },
    { "@type": "HowToStep", "text": "Gather your business details and bank account." }
  ]
}

Common mistakes

• Following a tutorial that still promises step-by-step results in search. Check the publication date on anything recommending this type — a great deal of advice predates the September 2023 removal and has never been revised.
• Removing existing HowTo markup in a panic. It does nothing, but it costs nothing either, and there is no penalty for unsupported markup.
• Looking for a HowTo report in Search Console. There is not one, and its absence is not a fault with your markup.
• Reaching for HowTo when the content is a recipe. Recipe is a separate type and its rich result is still supported.

Verified against Google’s structured data documentation and its changelog on 28/07/2026. Google changes what it supports without much notice — if you are reading this long afterwards, check the current documentation before acting on it. Background on why this markup matters beyond rich results is in the answer engine optimisation guide.