Structured Data in 2026 — What to Prune, What to Keep, and How to Save Time

1. Why this change is happening

For years, marketers used every schema tag under the sun, hoping to win more space on the results page. Over time, Google’s index became bloated with redundant markup—some used by fewer than one percent of sites.

To fix that, Google began quietly phasing out low-value formats. The goal: make Search cleaner, faster, and easier for crawlers to interpret. The side effect? Some reports and validation tests inside Search Console will start showing fewer schema types—or none at all for deprecated ones—starting early 2026.

In short, Google is cutting the fluff and doubling down on structured data that genuinely improves user understanding.

2. What’s going away

By January 2026, support for several older schema types will vanish from Search Console, its API, and the Rich Results Test. These include:

• Practice Problems (education-related quizzes)

• Course Info

• Estimated Salary

• Learning Video

• Special Announcement (used heavily during COVID)

• Vehicle Listing

If you still have any of these embedded, remove them before the year ends. Keeping them won’t hurt rankings—but they’ll clutter validation and QA dashboards.

3. What stays valuable

Not all schema is losing relevance. The following types remain essential and worth maintaining:

Schema Type

Why It Still Matters

Organization / Logo

Strengthens brand identity and improves Knowledge Panel accuracy.

Product

Powers pricing, ratings, and availability visuals that still appear in Search.

Article

Helps Google understand your content hierarchy and author data.

LocalBusiness

Improves local pack visibility and supports address + review data.

Breadcrumb

Clarifies site structure, aiding both crawlers and users.

FAQ / HowTo

Still eligible for limited appearances when content is genuinely helpful.

Instead of trying to “markup everything,” focus your development efforts on these core categories that influence visibility and click-through.

4. How to clean up your structured data

Step 1: Run a site-wide schema audit

Use a crawler or plugin that extracts all structured-data snippets. List each schema type and the number of URLs using it.

Step 2: Tag deprecated items

Mark everything that’s on the phase-out list—especially if it appears in old templates, learning hubs, or legacy blog posts.

Step 3: Remove, don’t just comment out

Leaving deprecated schema in place slows down crawl processing and can generate unnecessary warnings in your reports. Delete the tags entirely.

Step 4: Validate your essentials

Run the updated pages through the Rich Results Test. Confirm that Article, Product, and LocalBusiness markup passes cleanly.

Step 5: Centralize ownership

Assign one person or team to maintain schema updates. Random edits from multiple contributors are how outdated tags sneak back in.

5. Streamline QA and reporting

If you’ve been maintaining dashboards or automated alerts for rich-result errors, trim those too. Tracking deprecated schema wastes time.

Instead, create a monthly checklist:

✅ Re-validate active schema types

✅ Review Google’s Search Documentation Updates page

✅ Remove new deprecations as soon as they’re announced

✅ Document each change internally so devs and SEOs stay synced

Treat structured data like a living system, not a one-time install.

6. How this connects to AI Overviews

While schema doesn’t directly control AI Overview visibility, it supports content trust signals.

Accurate, minimal markup helps Google connect your entity data—so when its AI compiles an overview, your brand or quote has a better chance of being cited.

The cleaner your structure, the easier it is for Google to verify your content as reliable.

7. FAQs

Will removing old schema reduce my traffic?

No. Those types no longer influence Search presentation, so deleting them won’t affect ranking or CTR.

Should I still use FAQ schema?

Yes, if it truly adds value to the page. Google shows fewer FAQs now, but high-authority or support-oriented pages can still benefit.

Do I need to re-submit after cleanup?

Not necessarily. Google will recrawl automatically. But you can trigger re-indexing for critical pages through Search Console if you prefer faster updates.

How often should I review my schema setup?

Once every quarter is enough unless Google announces another major revision.

8. Conclusion

The structured-data landscape is entering a “quality over quantity” era. Removing unused markup and refining what stays doesn’t just simplify SEO—it makes your site easier for both humans and crawlers to trust.

Stay lean, stay accurate, and your core pages will keep benefiting from structured context long after the rest of the markup noise fades.