QAPage schema for community question threads

JSON-LD example

Copy this into a <script type="application/ld+json"> tag and replace the values with your own.

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "QAPage",
  "mainEntity": {
    "@type": "Question",
    "name": "Why does my sourdough starter smell like nail polish remover?",
    "text": "My starter is three weeks old and rises well, but every morning it smells sharply of acetone. Is it ruined?",
    "answerCount": 2,
    "upvoteCount": 14,
    "datePublished": "2026-08-02T07:15-05:00",
    "author": {
      "@type": "Person",
      "name": "crumbshot",
      "url": "https://example.com/members/crumbshot/"
    },
    "acceptedAnswer": {
      "@type": "Answer",
      "text": "It's hungry, not ruined. The acetone smell shows up when the yeast runs out of food. Feed it twice a day at a higher ratio, such as 1:5:5, for a few days and the smell will fade.",
      "upvoteCount": 22,
      "datePublished": "2026-08-02T09:40-05:00",
      "url": "https://example.com/forum/starter-acetone-smell/#answer-4412",
      "author": {
        "@type": "Person",
        "name": "levain_lou",
        "url": "https://example.com/members/levain_lou/"
      }
    },
    "suggestedAnswer": [
      {
        "@type": "Answer",
        "text": "Check the temperature too. Mine did this in a warm kitchen and stopped once I moved the jar somewhere cooler.",
        "upvoteCount": 6,
        "datePublished": "2026-08-03T18:05-05:00",
        "url": "https://example.com/forum/starter-acetone-smell/#answer-4419",
        "author": {
          "@type": "Person",
          "name": "rye_and_shine",
          "url": "https://example.com/members/rye_and_shine/"
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

Properties

Pages that pass, and pages that don't

Google's examples draw the line clearly.

Mark up only the pages that fit. A forum may host thousands of eligible question threads alongside announcement threads and general chat; only the question threads get QAPage. Content that is obscene, violent, hateful or promotes dangerous activity won't be shown as a rich result even when the markup is valid.

One exception exists for education sites: homework help pages where in-house experts pick a single answer can be eligible for a Q&A carousel. That case pairs well with Quiz markup for flashcards.

Accepted, suggested and comment

The three reply types mean different things, and Google is specific about each.

• acceptedAnswer needs a real acceptance signal on your site: the asker marked it, a moderator picked it, or votes put it on top. Sorting by newest is not acceptance.
• suggestedAnswer holds every other answer. A question can have many of them.
• comment is for replies that clarify or discuss rather than answer, such as "Which flour are you using?"

Pagination changes the counts, not the markup. If a thread has 40 answers split across four pages, the first page can mark up its 10 answers while answerCount still says 40. Keep answerCount plus commentCount equal to the total replies of every kind.

Forum and help desk threads in WordPress

Forum plugins store threads as custom post types, and some print their own structured data. View the source of a live thread first; two Question blocks for one page is worse than none.

If nothing is printed, build the markup from your plugin's reply data and add it with Hydrogen SEO's hydrogen_seo_schemas filter, which runs before the plugin prints its JSON-LD:

add_filter( 'hydrogen_seo_schemas', function ( $schemas ) {
    if ( ! is_singular( 'topic' ) ) {
        return $schemas;
    }
    $question = my_forum_build_question( get_queried_object_id() ); // Your code: name, text, answerCount, answers.
    if ( $question && $question['answerCount'] > 0 ) {
        $schemas[] = [
            '@context'   => 'https://schema.org',
            '@type'      => 'QAPage',
            'mainEntity' => $question,
        ];
    }
    return $schemas;
} );

The check on answerCount matters: an unanswered question is valid markup but can't earn the rich result, so there is little point printing it. Point each author.url at a member profile page and mark those up with ProfilePage.

Before you ship it

• Compare answerCount with the visible count on the page. Stale caches are the usual reason they drift apart.
• Label AI-written or bot answers with digitalSourceType; Google assumes human authorship when the property is missing.
• Keep the question text identical to what readers see, and don't rewrite answers into shorter versions for the markup.
• Validate a thread in the JSON-LD checker, then test the live URL in Google's Rich Results Test.