# HowTo Schema: What It Is and What Happened in Google

> What HowTo is in Schema.org, how it marks up step-by-step instructions, why Google retired its result in September 2023 and what the markup is still good for.

URL: https://clione.ai/glossary/howto-schema/
Lang: en

If someone proposes marking up your guides with HowTo so they show up in Google with the steps in view, **that promise expired on September 13, 2023**. The type still exists in [Schema.org](/glossary/schema-org/) and is still correct; what disappeared was the Google result that displayed it. It still matters to a store, because instructions are common ecommerce content: how to assemble a piece of furniture, how to choose a size, how to care for a garment or how to install a part. Knowing what the markup does today keeps you from paying for something that no longer delivers what it promised.

## What it includes

Schema.org defines HowTo as instructions that explain how to achieve a result by performing a sequence of steps. It is a type of work (Thing > CreativeWork > HowTo) and its properties describe the whole task:[^schemaorg-howto]

| Property                     | What it describes                                                                                                                  |
| ---------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `step`                       | Each step: a HowToStep, a text, a document or a video, or a HowToSection that groups several steps under a name.[^schemaorg-howto] |
| `supply`                     | What gets consumed by following the instructions.[^schemaorg-howto]                                                                |
| `tool`                       | What gets used but not consumed.[^schemaorg-howto]                                                                                 |
| `totalTime`                  | The total time, preparation included, in an ISO 8601 duration format.[^schemaorg-howto]                                            |
| `prepTime` and `performTime` | The preparation time and the performance time, separately.[^schemaorg-howto]                                                       |
| `estimatedCost`              | The estimated cost of what gets consumed.[^schemaorg-howto]                                                                        |
| `yield`                      | What you get when you finish; Schema.org's example is a paper airplane or ten personalized candles.[^schemaorg-howto]              |

HowTo has a more specific type, Recipe, for cooking recipes.[^schemaorg-howto] According to the Schema.org page, with data from Google's index as of August 2026, HowTo is used on between 100,000 and a million domains.[^schemaorg-howto]

As with any [structured data](/glossary/structured-data/) markup, the usual format is [JSON-LD](/glossary/json-ld/), and Google's rule that does not depend on the type still stands: **do not mark up content the visitor can't see**. If the markup describes some steps, the page has to show those same steps.[^google-sd-policies]

## What Google did with the HowTo result

Of Google's [rich results](/glossary/rich-results/), the instructions one disappeared in two steps and within a few weeks:

| Date                  | What changed                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| --------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| August 8, 2023        | Google announces that the HowTo result will only be shown to desktop users, not on mobile. It recalls that, with mobile [indexing](/glossary/indexing/), the mobile version of the site had to carry the markup for the result to appear on desktop.[^google-howto-faq-2023]                     |
| September 13, 2023    | Google stops showing the result on desktop too, and declares it deprecated.[^google-howto-faq-2023]                                                                                                                                                                                              |
| September 14, 2023    | Google removes from its documentation the HowTo structured data guide, because the result is no longer shown on desktop or mobile, along with its case study.[^google-updates]                                                                                                                   |
| The following 30 days | Google announces it is removing the HowTo search appearance in [Search Console](/glossary/google-search-console/), its rich results report and its support in the [Rich Results Test](/glossary/rich-results-test/); support in the Search Console API, within 180 days.[^google-howto-faq-2023] |

Google framed it as part of its effort to simplify the results page.[^google-howto-faq-2023] Today, HowTo is not on the list of structured data features Google supports, and Recipe is.[^google-gallery]

### What the markup does today

In Google, nothing visible. In the 2023 announcement, Google wrote that structured data it doesn't use **causes no problems in Search, though it has no visible effects there either**.[^google-howto-faq-2023] What remains true of any markup is that Google uses the structured data it finds to understand the content of a page and to gather information about the web.[^google-structured-data] Since it removed the HowTo documentation,[^google-updates] Google describes no specific use of that markup, and there is no special markup for its generative AI features either.[^google-ai-guide]

Outside Google, HowTo is still the standard way to describe instructions with structured data: a current vocabulary type, with steps, materials, tools and times that any system that reads Schema.org can interpret.[^schemaorg-howto] What really counts is the content it marks up: **clear instructions, with the steps in order and the concrete details**, are still useful to the shopper even if no search engine dresses them up.

## In a store

A **made-up example**: a furniture store publishes the guide "How to assemble the Arga bookshelf", with the steps visible on the page. The markup repeats exactly what is read:

```json
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "HowTo",
  "name": "How to assemble the Arga bookshelf",
  "totalTime": "PT30M",
  "tool": [{ "@type": "HowToTool", "name": "Phillips screwdriver" }],
  "supply": [{ "@type": "HowToSupply", "name": "Wall anchors and screws" }],
  "step": [
    { "@type": "HowToStep", "text": "Screw the two sides to the base." },
    { "@type": "HowToStep", "text": "Slot the three shelves into the guides." },
    { "@type": "HowToStep", "text": "Fix the bookshelf to the wall with the anchors." }
  ]
}
```

It reads like this: `totalTime` says half an hour in ISO 8601 format (`PT30M`), the screwdriver is a tool because it isn't used up, the anchors are a supply because they stay in the wall, and each step is a HowToStep with the same text as the guide. That markup goes on the guide's page, not on the bookshelf's [product page](/glossary/product-page/), which is described with [Product](/glossary/product-schema/). Today it will not produce any special result in Google; what it does give you is a well-written guide that the product page can link to.


That, if the Rich Results Test doesn't show your HowTo, the markup is wrong. Google announced in September 2023 that it was removing HowTo support from that tool,[^google-howto-faq-2023] so its silence says nothing about the markup. To know whether it is well written, the tool is a [Schema.org validator](/glossary/schema-markup-validator/); to know whether it is worth anything, the question is whether the instructions on the page are really instructions.


## How to check it

1. **Search for `HowTo` in the source code** of your guides and your product pages. On a product page, not finding it is the normal outcome.
2. **Compare step by step.** Each `step` in the markup has to be on the page, with the same words and in the same order.[^google-sd-policies]
3. **Validate the syntax with a Schema.org validator**, not with the Rich Results Test, which stopped supporting HowTo.[^google-howto-faq-2023]
4. **Don't look for it in Search Console.** The HowTo search appearance and report were removed in 2023.[^google-howto-faq-2023]
5. **Decide what to do with the markup you already have.** If it is correct and matches the page, it causes no problems;[^google-howto-faq-2023] if it doesn't match, fix it or remove it. What makes no sense is creating new HowTo expecting a result Google no longer shows.

## Related concept: FAQPage

[FAQPage](/glossary/faqpage/) fell in the same announcement, by another route. In August 2023 Google limited the FAQ result to well-known, authoritative government and health sites,[^google-howto-faq-2023] and in 2026 it stopped showing it altogether and removed its documentation.[^google-updates] The difference at heart is in the content: **FAQPage marks up questions with their answers; HowTo marks up a task with its steps**. An assembly guide is a HowTo; the section "Can it be fixed to a drywall wall?" in that same guide is a frequently asked question.

To go further, the [product graph](/glossary/product-graph/) explains what markup does hold up a product page, and the [structured data reading path](/learn/structured-data/) orders the rest of the types.