Use the question and answer [question_and_answer] attribute to provider answers to frequently answered questions (FAQs) about your product.
On this page
When to use
Optional for each product.
Use this attribute to provide user-, merchant-, and manufacturer-authored questions and answers about the product. For example, you can use this attribute to answer detailed questions about your product from users who want to learn more, and guide their research and buying decisions.
The question and answer [question_and_answer] attribute can be used in all countries.
Format
Follow these formatting guidelines to make sure Google understands the data you're submitting. Learn more about how to submit attributes and attribute values.
| Type | Group attribute with 2 sub-attributes |
| Sub-attributes |
String (Unicode, recommended ASCII only), up to 1000 characters
String (Unicode, recommended ASCII only), up to 1000 characters |
| Repeated field | Yes (up to 30) |
| Limits | The total size of all question and answer[question_and_answer] attributes for the product is limited to 10,000 characters. |
|
Schema.org property (What's this?) |
No |
| File format | Example value |
| Text (TSV or CSV) data sources | "Does it have a headphone jack?":"This version doesn’t have a headphone jack.", "Does it support Bluetooth?":"It has full Bluetooth 6.0 support." |
| XML data sources |
|
|
API data sources |
To format your data in the Merchant API, check the Merchant API resource. |
Important: As this is a repeated group attribute, pay careful attention to the formatting requirements when your sub-attribute values contain special characters (colons, commas, quotes, and backslashes)
- For text feeds follow the detailed instructions related to quoted attributes in text feeds.
- It’s recommended that you use the TSV (tab-separate values) format for text files instead of CSV (comma-separated values) due to complexities of processing the comma symbol.
- For Google Sheets, follow the detailed instructions related to escaping characters in Google Sheets.
Minimum requirements
These are the requirements you'll need to follow to provide valid Q&As for your product:
- Submit both the question
[question]and answer[answer]sub-attributes. - Only add information about the product. Don’t add time-related information such as prices and dates. Include this offer-related data with other attributes intended for that information.
- Avoid listing keywords or search terms.
- Give correct and informative answers to the questions. Consumers rely on detailed and accurate data to make informed buying decisions.
Best practices
- Check for errors in grammar, spelling, or capitalization.
- Provide a wide variety of FAQs: Depending on the type of product, you can for example answer questions about product specifications, ingredients, package contents, or factual information about special occasions, sports, activities, or themes that the product is intended for.
- Don't duplicate data you've already submitted in other attributes, such as title
[title], description[description], product detail[product_detail], or product highlight[product_highlight]. - Don't submit if you're also submitting the document link
[document_link]attribute and the same information can be found in these documents. We'll extract FAQ information from those documents instead.
Examples
A hot water kettle with 5 FAQs
Let's take as an example a tea kettle with 5 FAQs:
| What temperature settings does this kettle have? | It has five settings: 175°F (green\white tea), 197°F (oolong tea), 200°F (French press coffee), and 212°F (boil) |
| How much water does it hold? | It has a 57 fl. oz. capacity and includes a water-level indicator |
| What are the width, depth, height, and weight? | It measures 8 in. wide x 5 in. deep x 10 in. high and weighs 4 lb. 2 oz. |
| How long does the "Keep Warm" function hold the temperature? | It maintains the selected temperature for up to 15 minutes |
| Does the kettle have safety features for boiling water? | It has an auto shutoff to help prevent operation when empty and a protective lid designed against water splash back. |
In a Google Sheet, you’d submit this in one cell as follows (note the escaping of commas, colons, and backslashes that are part of the sub-attribute values with a backslash (\)):
| N |
O |
P | |
| 1 | ... | question_and_answer | ... |
| 2 | ... |
What temperature settings does this kettle have?:It has five settings\: 175°F (green\\white tea)\, 197°F (oolong tea)\, 200°F (French press coffee)\, and 212°F (boil), How much water does it hold?:It has a 57 fl. oz. capacity and includes a water-level indicator, What are the width\, depth\, height\, and weight?:It measures 8 in. wide x 5 in. deep x 10 in. high and weighs 4 lb. 2 oz., How long does the "Keep Warm" function hold the temperature?:It maintains the selected temperature for up to 15 minutes, Does the kettle have safety features for boiling water?:It has an auto shutoff to help prevent operation when empty and a protective lid designed against water splash back. |
... |
| 3 | ... | ... | ... |
Alternatively, you can also create multiple separate columns, each containing a single FAQ. For example, to have one column for each value, you can submit this in 5 cells as follows:
| N | O | P | Q | R | |
| 1 | question_and_answer | question_and_answer | question_and_answer | question_and_answer | question_and_answer |
| 2 | What temperature settings does this kettle have?:It has five settings\: 175°F (green\\white tea)\, 197°F (oolong tea)\, 200°F (French press coffee)\, and 212°F (boil) | How much water does it hold?:It has a 57 fl. oz. capacity and includes a water-level indicator | What are the width\, depth\, height\, and weight?:It measures 8 in. wide x 5 in. deep x 10 in. high and weighs 4 lb. 2 oz. |
How long does the "Keep Warm" function hold the temperature?:It maintains the selected temperature for up to 15 minutes |
Does the kettle have safety features for boiling water?:It has an auto shutoff to help prevent operation when empty and a protective lid designed against water splash back. |
| 3 | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... |
In a tab-separate text file, you can submit the FAQs in one cell as follows (note that values containing commas and colons must be quoted, and that quotes part of the value must be double quoted). Tab characters are represented by the <tab> symbol. Each sub-attribute value has been quoted for consistency:
|
Header: …<tab>question_and_answer<tab>… Product row: …<tab>"What temperature settings does this kettle have?":"It has five settings: 175°F (green\white tea), 197°F (oolong tea), 200°F (French press coffee), and 212°F (boil)","How much water does it hold?":"It has a 57 fl. oz. capacity and includes a water-level indicator","What are the width, depth, height, and weight?":"It measures 8 in. wide x 5 in. deep x 10 in. high and weighs 4 lb. 2 oz.","How long does the ""Keep Warm"" function hold the temperature?":"It maintains the selected temperature for up to 15 minutes","Does the kettle have safety features for boiling water?":"It has an auto shutoff to help prevent operation when empty and a protective lid designed against water splash back."<tab>… |
Alternatively, you can also create multiple separate columns, each containing one FAQ. For example, to have one column for each section, you can submit this in 5 tab-separated values as follows:
|
Header: …<tab>question_and_answer<tab>question_and_answer<tab>question_and_answer<tab> question_and_answer<tab>question_and_answer<tab>… Product row: …<tab>"What temperature settings does this kettle have?":"It has five settings: 175°F (green\white tea), 197°F (oolong tea), 200°F (French press coffee), and 212°F (boil)"<tab>"How much water does it hold?":"It has a 57 fl. oz. capacity and includes a water-level indicator"<tab>"What are the width, depth, height, and weight?":"It measures 8 in. wide x 5 in. deep x 10 in. high and weighs 4 lb. 2 oz."<tab>"How long does the ""Keep Warm"" function hold the temperature?":"It maintains the selected temperature for up to 15 minutes"<tab>"Does the kettle have safety features for boiling water?":"It has an auto shutoff to help prevent operation when empty and a protective lid designed against water splash back."<tab>… |