HowTo schema after 2023: Crawl Audit check 15

Short answer: HowTo markup used to turn step-by-step instructions into a rich result in Google. Google stopped showing How-to rich results in September 2023 and removed the documentation. The markup is still valid schema.org, but it no longer earns anything visible in Google Search. What helps now is plain: numbered steps in a real list, each step a full sentence. Crawl Audit check 15 warns when a page looks instructional but has no HowTo markup. Treat that warning as low priority.

What Crawl Audit checks

• Pass: the page has a HowTo node.
• Warning: no HowTo node, but the page looks instructional. That means the text contains "how to " or "step" followed by a number, or "step-by-step", or there are four or more items in numbered lists (<ol>).
• Pass: nothing instructional, so the markup isn't needed.

The trigger is broad. A menu link that says "How to order", or a numbered list of features, is enough to set it off. If the page isn't really a tutorial, ignore the warning.

What happened to How-to rich results

Google first limited How-to results to desktop in August 2023. Then on 14 September 2023 it updated the announcement: "As of September 13, Google Search no longer shows How-to rich results on desktop, which means this result type is now deprecated." The same day it "Removed the How-to structured data documentation, as this rich result is no longer shown in search results, on both desktop and mobile devices."

schema.org still defines HowTo as "Instructions that explain how to achieve a result by performing a sequence of steps." Adding it is harmless if your platform does it for you. Don't spend time adding it by hand.

What helps step-by-step content instead

• A real numbered list. Use <ol> and <li>, not paragraphs that start with "1." typed by hand. MDN describes <ol> as "an ordered list of items", for when the order matters, which is exactly what steps are.
• One action per step, in a full sentence. "Open Settings, then Crawlers" reads clearly when quoted alone. "Next, do the same" doesn't.
• The result first. One line that says what the reader will have at the end, before step 1.
• Steps as text, not only in a video or screenshots. A crawler can't read steps that only exist inside an image.

How to build steps on your platform

• WordPress: the List block (type /list) can be switched to a numbered list.
• Shopify: the rich text editor in pages and blog posts has a numbered list button.
• Wix and Squarespace: use the text editor's numbered list option, not typed numbers.
• Next.js: <ol> and <li>. No markup needed beyond that.

Sources

• Google Search Central blog, Changes to HowTo and FAQ rich results, 8 August 2023, updated 14 September 2023.
• Google Search Central, documentation updates (14 September 2023 entry), checked 3 October 2026.
• schema.org, HowTo; MDN, <ol>; WordPress, List block.