How should comments on questions and answers be marked up?

Definition: In QAPage structured data, a comment is a clarification or discussion that is attached to a Question or Answer with the comment property. An Answer object describes an answer to the question, so a comment should remain a nested Comment object rather than being represented as another answer.

Key facts

• Google's QAPage documentation says Answer markup is for answers to the question, while comments on the question or other answers use comment and Comment.
• A Comment inside a Question describes a clarification or discussion about that question, and a Comment inside an Answer describes a clarification or discussion about that answer.
• A Comment can contain another Comment through its own comment property when a threaded reply is present.
• Google documents commentCount for both questions and answers when some comments are absent from the markup.
• Schema.org defines Comment as a comment on an item whose content is expressed with text and whose topic is expressed with about.

When is a reply an Answer or a Comment?

Google's content guidelines make the distinction by meaning. An Answer responds to the page's Question and is placed under acceptedAnswer or suggestedAnswer. A comment on the question or on another answer is neither the question nor an answer, so it belongs under comment as a Comment object.

Schema.org describes an Answer as “An answer offered to a question; perhaps correct, perhaps opinionated or wrong.” Its vocabulary also describes Comment as “A comment on an item - for example, a comment on a blog post.” These definitions support treating a clarification, discussion remark or threaded reply as a different object from the answer it discusses.

Where does a nested Comment go?

The Question is nested under mainEntity in the QAPage object. A comment about that question is nested inside the Question. A comment about an answer is nested inside that Answer. Google's documentation allows a Comment's comment property to hold “A nested, threaded comment replying to the comment, if applicable.” This gives a threaded discussion a parent Comment and a child Comment without changing the child into an Answer.

The following reduced fragment follows Google's JSON-LD example. The Comment is inside a suggested Answer and records the text of a clarification.

"suggestedAnswer": {
  "@type": "Answer",
  "comment": {
    "@type": "Comment",
    "text": "I'm looking for ounces, not fluid ounces."
  }
}

Which counts describe replies?

Google defines answerCount as the total number of answers to the question, including answers that are not all present in markup because of pagination. It defines commentCount as the number of comments about the question, and says that answerCount plus commentCount should equal the total number of replies of any type. For an Answer, commentCount is useful when not every comment appears in the Comment markup.

Each Comment should carry its full text. Google's guidance says that marking only part of a comment can prevent Google from determining the best text to display. The same requirement applies to an Answer: its text value should contain the full answer text.

How should the markup be checked?

Google's structured data instructions recommend the Rich Results Test for validation and preview. The page must represent one question followed by its answers, and users must be able to submit answers for QAPage markup. The documentation says there should be only one QAPage type definition and one Question type definition on a page.

Schema.org's Comment definition supplies the general vocabulary, while Google's QAPage guide supplies the search-specific placement and content rules. The Schema.org Answer definition describes the answer type independently of those Google Search rules.

Related terms

• QAPage structured data
• Structured data
• Schema.org @id
• FAQPage structured data

FAQ

Can a clarification be marked as an Answer?

No. Google's QAPage documentation reserves Answer markup for answers to the question. A clarification or discussion about the question or an answer uses comment with the Comment type.

Can a Comment reply to another Comment?

Yes. Put the replying Comment in the parent Comment's comment property. Google describes this as a nested, threaded comment replying to the comment.

Should commentCount include comments omitted from the markup?

Yes. Google's documentation describes commentCount as useful when comments are not all present in the Comment markup. For the question, it also relates answerCount and commentCount to the total replies of any type.

Sources

1. Google Search Central, "Q&A (QAPage) structured data", 8 September 2026
2. Schema.org, "Comment", undated
3. Schema.org, "Answer", undated

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