Google stopped showing FAQ rich results on 7 May 2026. Firms that read that as a reason to stop writing FAQ content read it wrong, and so did the ones who responded by rewriting their schema.
Answer engines kept quoting criminal defense FAQ pages straight through it. At Lexicon Legal Content we read every source link behind 131 cited URLs, and the pages that got quoted share one trait that has nothing to do with markup or with the word FAQ. Any firm tracking criminal defense FAQ answer engines by watching rich results has been watching a feature that no longer renders.
Answer engines quote criminal defense FAQ pages that put one question on its own URL, and they quoted none of the stacked FAQ pages tested.
None of the cited FAQ pages carried FAQPage markup, and FAQ rich results stopped appearing in Google Search on 7 May 2026.
The Rich Result Died and the Citations Did Not
Rich results and AI citations were never the same mechanism. Google’s structured data documentation confirms the FAQ search appearance is gone, with the rich result report and Rich Results Test support following it, after a 2023 change had already narrowed eligibility to government and health sites.
Citation runs on separate rails and it did not slow down. Law firm websites held 91 of the 131 URLs cited on criminal defense client questions, roughly 69 percent, with government and legal aid taking the rest.
Criminal defense firms are not trying to break into these answers. They are already inside them, so the useful question is what separates the pages that get quoted from the ones that do not.
What Gets Quoted Is a URL That Answers One Question
Seven cited pages sat in an FAQ directory, and every one of them answered a single question:
westcoastdefense.com/faqs/vehicle-search-with-a-warrant-in-california/combswaterkotte.com/faqs/whats-the-difference-between-a-felony-and-a-misdemeanor-in-illinois/davidmckenzielawfirm.com/faqs/what-happens-at-a-preliminary-hearingbrill-legal.com/our-services/criminal-defense/criminal-defense-faq/what-are-my-rights-if-i-am-questioned-by-police/
Across 131 cited URLs, not one stacked FAQ page, accordion or twenty-question list was quoted.
The reason is mechanical. An accordion holding twenty questions is one URL, so an engine answering one of them has no way to point at the part that matters. Twenty pages give it twenty places to point.
Two firms demonstrated what that buys. Combs Waterkotte was cited on the felony question and again on how long a case takes. David McKenzie Law Firm was cited on DUI reduction and again on preliminary hearings. Both from the same FAQ directory, one question per page, earning a second slot on a question unrelated to the first.
It Is Not the Markup and It Is Not the Label
None of the cited pages carries FAQPage structured data. Their markup is ordinary business schema: LegalService, Organization, LocalBusiness, WebPage, a BreadcrumbList. Whatever earned them a citation, FAQ markup was not it.
The word FAQ is not doing the work either. Pages filed under blogs were built identically and quoted just as often, including mccartylarson.com/what-happens-if-you-miss-a-court-date-in-texas/ and lafatalaw.com/blog/can-you-refuse-a-field-sobriety-test-in-illinois-what-to-know/.
What the cited pages share is narrower than a content type: one question, one URL, the question restated in the slug and again as the H1 in the words a client would use, usually with the state alongside it. Eighteen state and city names appeared inside cited slugs.
That puts the answer-first FAQ structure in its place. Format decides what an engine does after it reaches a page. Architecture decides whether it reaches it.
Expungement Is the Question That Is Not Open
Some criminal defense questions have no slot to win. Expungement returned zero law firm URLs, going to Illinois Legal Aid, Justia, Cook County courts, Michigan Legal Help, a federal court FAQ and Wikipedia.
Legal aid organizations own record-clearing content because record-clearing help is the service they exist to provide. Budget spent there competes with an incumbent that has owned the topic for years. The same budget spent on arrest, search or court-date questions lands where firms are already being quoted.
What to Change on a Criminal Defense FAQ Page
Three changes follow, and none of them is a new content program:
- Split the accordion. Every question a client actually asks gets a URL, with the hub page kept as a directory linking out to them.
- Say the question three times. In the slug, in the H1, and in the first sentence, phrased the way a client would type it, with the state named.
- Stop spending on markup as the lever. No cited page relied on FAQ schema, and site structure for AI search is where the pattern actually appeared.
The last two cost an afternoon. Splitting costs real work, and it is the only one with a clear pattern behind it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should a criminal defense firm split its FAQ page into separate URLs?
All seven FAQ pages cited in this testing answered one question on their own URL, and two firms were cited twice from the same FAQ directory. No stacked FAQ page was quoted at all.
Why do AI answers name different criminal defense firms each time?
Engines personalize to account activity and location. The same question asked signed in and signed out returned different lead firms in the same minute, so a signed-in visibility check reflects the searcher’s own history.
Criminal Defense FAQ Answer Engines Reward Structure, Not Volume
Splitting an accordion into separate pages is a week of work, and most firms already own the answers. What changes is where they live, which means the expensive part is architecture rather than writing.
Firms that would rather see their current citation list before rebuilding anything can start there. Call 877-486-8123 or contact us online and name the three questions your clients ask most, or read the law firm content writing we have produced for more than 300 firms across North America.
