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§ 3.11 ARTICLE
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Schema · § 3.11 · How-to

HowTo schema on Squarespace, post-2023

Google removed the HowTo rich result in September 2023 across desktop and mobile1 and retired the dedicated HowTo documentation page. The Schema.org HowTo type2 remains valid in the vocabulary (current at version 30.0) and still parses for any consumer of structured data, including AI engines. The 2026 install rule for Squarespace: use HowTo only on articles that are genuinely step-by-step procedural instructions, validate at validator.schema.org (Google's tool no longer specifically tests HowTo), and don't expect a SERP enhancement.

HowTo is the second-most-honest schema type in this library. The first is FAQ. Both lost their Google rich result and both still have a narrow role to play in AI-engine attribution. The discipline is the same in both cases: keep the schema where it genuinely describes the content, remove it where it doesn't.

What HowTo schema is

HowTo is the Schema.org type for step-by-step procedural instructions — a tutorial, a recipe (with the more specific Recipe subtype), a maintenance procedure. The shape: a top-level HowTo object with a name and description, plus a step array of HowToStep objects. Each HowToStep has a name and text, and optionally an image or video. Additional HowTo properties: tool (a HowToTool array — objects used but not consumed), supply (a HowToSupply array — consumed), totalTime (an ISO 8601 duration), estimatedCost, performTime, prepTime, yield.

The inheritance chain runs Thing > CreativeWork > HowTo, with Recipe as the well-known subtype that remains a separately documented Google rich-result type (Recipe still triggers Google rich results in 2026; HowTo does not).

The September 2023 deprecation

Google removed the HowTo rich result across both desktop and mobile in September 2023. The Search Central changelog announcement was terse: the rich result was no longer shown, and the dedicated HowTo documentation page was retired. The deprecation was complete — there were no carve-outs by vertical (unlike FAQ, which retained eligibility for government and health authorities), no regional differences, no plans to reintroduce in any form Google has communicated.

The reason Google gave was unification across desktop and mobile: HowTo had originally been a mobile-first rich result that Google brought to desktop, then decided neither surface justified the visible enrichment given how rarely users interacted with it. The Schema.org type itself was unaffected by the change — it remains a valid type at current Schema.org versions and is parsed by AI engines and other structured-data consumers.

HowTo schema in 2026

Sep 2023

the month Google removed HowTo rich results across desktop and mobile.

Google Search Central · 2023-09
Valid

the Schema.org HowTo type at version 30.0 (March 2026) — still in the vocabulary, still parseable.

Schema.org · 2026-03-19
AI

engines still parse HowTo for procedural extraction — the structured data is useful even without the SERP enhancement.

Schema.org · 2026-03-19

When to use HowTo in 2026

Install HowTo only on articles that are genuinely step-by-step procedural instructions. A blog post with a few tips is not a HowTo. A 7-step setup guide with named steps is. The test: can the article be reduced to a numbered list of named steps without losing its essential structure? If yes, HowTo applies. If no, skip it. Squarespace owners often install HowTo on articles that aren't really procedural — a 'how to choose the right paint colour' post that's really an opinion piece, for example — which is structurally invalid and adds maintenance burden without benefit.

A second rule for the FAQ-era over-installer: HowTo schema does not need to ship on every “how to” article. The title format and the schema type are independent. A blog post titled “how I learned to photograph weddings in low light” uses Article schema, not HowTo. The defining property is procedural structure, not the words in the title.

Required and recommended fields

Schema.org's HowTo type has no hard required fields, but a useful install carries: name (the procedure title), description (a short summary), step (an array of HowToStep, each with name + text). Recommended additions where applicable: tool (a HowToTool array, objects used but not consumed), supply (a HowToSupply array, consumed), totalTime (ISO 8601 duration), image (an image of the finished result), estimatedCost (when relevant).

  • name — the procedure title. Plain text.
  • description — a 1-2 sentence summary.
  • step — an array of HowToStep objects.
  • HowToStep.name — the step's short title.
  • HowToStep.text — the step's instruction text.
  • tool — optional. Array of HowToTool objects (e.g. screwdriver, software application).
  • supply — optional. Array of HowToSupply objects (e.g. paint, clay).
  • totalTime — optional. ISO 8601 duration (e.g. PT45M for 45 minutes).
  • estimatedCost — optional. MonetaryAmount or string.

Copy-paste JSON-LD example

The block below is a HowTo schema for a 5-step Squarespace photo-prep procedure. The example mirrors the howTo prop format already used inside the Article layout on this site — every page passing a howTo prop ends up emitting structurally similar JSON. Replace the procedure name and steps with your own.

JSON-LD HowTo schema for a 5-step Squarespace image-prep procedure 
 <script type="application/ld+json"> { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "HowTo", "name": "Prepare images for a Squarespace 7.1 site in 5 steps", "description": "The end-to-end image prep pass: resize, compress, name, alt-text, upload.", "totalTime": "PT15M", "step": [ { "@type": "HowToStep", "position": 1, "name": "Resize to 2500px wide", "text": "Squarespace serves images responsively from one master file. Start at 2500px on the long edge." }, { "@type": "HowToStep", "position": 2, "name": "Compress to under 500 KB", "text": "Use Squoosh or ImageOptim. JPG quality 75-80 for photography; PNG for graphics with text." }, { "@type": "HowToStep", "position": 3, "name": "Rename descriptively", "text": "coastal-vase-no-3-hero.jpg, not IMG_4729.jpg. Squarespace uses the file name as a fallback for alt text." }, { "@type": "HowToStep", "position": 4, "name": "Write descriptive alt text", "text": "One factual sentence describing the image content. Skip 'image of' or 'photo of'." }, { "@type": "HowToStep", "position": 5, "name": "Upload via the image block", "text": "Drag into the Squarespace image block. Confirm alt text in the block's image settings tab." } ] } </script>

Where to paste it on Squarespace

HowTo goes per-page on the article that carries the procedural instructions. Open the article page in the Squarespace editor, Page Settings > Advanced > Page Header Code Injection, paste the script block, save. The schema only makes sense on a page that actually contains a step-by-step procedure visible to users — installing HowTo on a page that doesn't display steps technically violates the content-fidelity policy.

For Squarespace pages that already use this site's Article layout, HowTo is emitted automatically when the page's frontmatter passes a howTo prop. View source on any leaf page in Pillar 1 or 3 of this site for a working example — the howTo prop wires through the Article.astro layout's JSON-LD graph builder.

Validation steps

Validate at validator.schema.org rather than Google's Rich Results Test. Since Google retired the HowTo rich result, the Rich Results Test no longer specifically tests HowTo — it parses the markup but reports 'no rich result available' as expected. The Schema.org validator confirms structural validity against the current Schema.org vocabulary. A clean Schema.org validation is the success signal.

Common structural errors: HowToStep objects without name or text, position values out of order, totalTime not in ISO 8601 duration format. Fix each error and re-run.

Common gotchas on Squarespace

Three gotchas catch most HowTo installs. First: installing HowTo on articles that aren't actually procedural — a how-to-style title with discursive content. The schema parses but misrepresents the page. Second: expecting a Google rich-result enhancement after the 2023 deprecation — none arrives. The win is AI engine extraction and structural integrity. Third: schema/visible mismatch — the schema lists 7 steps but the page only displays 5 visibly. Audit by reading the page top to bottom and matching each visible step to a schema step.

A fourth Squarespace-specific gotcha: Squarespace's auto-emitted BlogPosting block on procedural blog posts does not include HowTo nested inside. Adding HowTo manually means both schemas exist on the same page — that's correct, an Article can contain a HowTo as a related entity. The validator handles it. The pattern is parallel top-level entities, not nested ones.

HowTo typically ships alongside Article on the same page — the Article describes the page as editorial content, the HowTo describes the procedural structure inside. Recipe is the HowTo subtype that still triggers Google rich results in 2026 (for food recipes specifically); use Recipe instead of HowTo when the procedure is a recipe. BreadcrumbList belongs alongside on every page.

  • Article schema — HowTo's natural pair on procedural blog posts.
  • FAQ schema — the sibling deprecation. Both lost their rich result; both still have a narrow role.
  • BreadcrumbList — install on every procedural article alongside HowTo + Article.

Keep reading · § 3.11