Self-canonical vs noindex tag

My client has 5 different service landing pages each with its own FAQ section. All of these FAQs are repeated on the general FAQ page: domain.com/faq.

Is self-canonical tag the correct signal for Google to avoid treating URL content as duplicated?

In my opinion, canonical works very well in such cases, only 99% of these pages must be the same. If there are bigger differences canonical may not work and then you will have duplicates.

You can apply a noindex tag to the general FAQ page (domain.com/faq) if it is not critical for ranking. This prevents it from appearing in search results and reduces the risk of competing with service pages. Alternatively, consider modifying the FAQs on each service page to provide unique content.

Setting the canonical tag to the general FAQ page will work well. You could also use the no index tag for the duplicate FAQ sections on the service pages. This will signal Google not to index those pages, helping to avoid any duplicate content issues.

Yes, using a self-canonical tag on each FAQ page is a good approach. It helps Google recognize each page as unique and prevents it from being seen as duplicate content.

Is the rest of the page content unique? If so, self canonicalise for sure. If the rest of the page content isn't unique, then ditch the pages entirely. If the FAQ content is replicated, make sure it's not using primary or secondary keywords and causing cannibalisation for important queries. If you're trying to get featured snippets from any of the FAQ though, stop trying.