Google completely deprecated How-To rich results from desktop search on September 13, 2023, making them officially deprecated. This means that they will no longer appear in Google Search results on either desktop or mobile devices.
How-To Rich Results
In August 2023, Google made this move official, stating that it was done to “simplify Google’s search results.” The company said that it will continue to display various sorts of rich results, such as featured snippets and image packs, and that it remains dedicated to giving people helpful and informative content. Previously, Google downgraded HowTo Rich results only for mobile devices.
Continuing our efforts to simplify Google's search results, we're extending the How-to change to desktop as well, which means this result type is deprecated. Learn more: https://t.co/xYY3qBMLN3
— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) September 14, 2023
If you have HowTo rich results on your website, you don’t need to remove them. However, they will no longer be displayed in Google Search results. You may want to consider updating your content to focus on other types of rich results, such as featured snippets, or on improving your organic search rankings.
Before changes to HowTo and FAQ rich results, search results for the query “How to do sun salutation” appear like below.
But now, for the same query, the search result has changed.
Google updated its announcement post on September 14, 2023:
Continuing our efforts to simplify Google’s search results, we’re extending the How-to change to desktop as well. As of September 13, Google Search no longer shows How-to rich results on desktop, which means this result type is now deprecated.
This change will be visible in the metrics for the How-to search appearance in the performance report, and in the number of impressions reported in the How-to enhancement reports.Since How-to results no longer appear in Google Search, we will be dropping the How-to search appearance, rich result report, and support in the Rich results test in 30 days.
To allow time for adjusting your API calls, support for How-to in the Search Console API will be removed in 180 days.
How this Update Will Impact Bloggers?
The removal of How-To rich results from Google Search on the desktop will have some impact on bloggers, but it is important to note that the impact will vary depending on the type of blog and the content that is published.
The impact will probably be greatest for bloggers who post how-to articles. As readers can no longer view How-To rich results for their queries, these bloggers may experience a drop in Google Search traffic.
This change is probably not going to have much of an effect on bloggers who don’t post how-to content. However, it is still crucial for all bloggers to concentrate on producing good content that is educational as well as useful to their target audience. Additionally, bloggers should create backlinks to their blogs and optimize their blog posts for search engines.
