Hi Rosana. No apologies. It’s what I’m here for.
1a – I wouldn’t quite categorize it as a penalty. Penalties are direct actions to lower the exposure of a website. Instead, I’d say the site quality is just deemed “lower than others,” so it shows it lower than others, but doesn’t ban it.
1b – This is fine.
External links aren’t bad, especially when they’re supportive. The devaluing can happen when the website is ad-heavy.
2a – I rarely add any more “Product” schema, with the exception like on Packers Pine we added ingredients. Because if it’s a Product website, therefor it’s usually not also a Service website.
2b – When applicable, I do also add FAQ schema.
Any extra schema is best to be added where it’s most directly applicable. So if the FAQ is about a specific product, I add it on that product. If it’s about the company in general, I add it to the About or Contact page.
2c – Any specific type of coding in mind? Schema you don’t have to learn much. You can almost always Google “XYZ schema generator” and find what you’re looking for, fill in the blanks, copy and paste onto your website.
Similarly, platforms like WordPress and Shopify made it easy to not “need” coding. Sure, you can squeeze in a few extra wins here and there, but you can optimize 90%+ of a website without custom coding.