Local Business Schema Markup, Explained for Small Business Owners

Search engines are good at reading web pages, but they still have to guess. Is that number a phone number or an order code? Are those your hours or your tour times? Schema markup removes the guesswork by stating the key facts about your business in a format search engines read directly.

You don’t need to write code to understand it. Here’s what it is, which parts matter for a local business, and how to check that yours is working.

What is structured data, in plain terms?

Structured data is a small block of code on a page that describes what the page is about using a shared vocabulary. That vocabulary is schema.org, a standard supported by the major search engines.

Visitors never see it. It sits in the page’s code and says things like “this is a business called X, its phone number is Y, and it’s open these hours.”

There are a few formats for writing it. Google recommends JSON-LD, a separate script block that doesn’t tangle with your page’s visible content. It’s the easiest to add and maintain, and it’s what we use.

What can schema do, and what can’t it?

Be realistic about what to expect.

Schema can	Schema can’t
Help search engines understand your business type, location, contact details and hours with confidence	Guarantee a ranking boost, or make a weak page rank
Make certain pages eligible for enhanced results, such as product or event details, where Google supports them	Guarantee rich results; Google decides when to show them
Back up your Google Business Profile with a consistent, machine-readable source on your own site	Replace accurate content on the page; markup should describe what’s already visible

Google has narrowed some rich results over time. FAQ rich results, for example, were limited in 2023 to a small set of well-known government and health sites.

Schema also works best when the basics around it are right. Your name, address and phone should already match across your site and profile, as covered in our local SEO checklist section on NAP, and your profile should point to the right page, as explained in how Google Business Profile and your website work together.

Which schema types matter for a local business?

schema.org has hundreds of types. Most small local businesses only need a few.

LocalBusiness, or a more specific type

LocalBusiness is the general type. Where a more specific type fits, use it. A few examples relevant to businesses around Sedona and the Verde Valley:

• Restaurant, CafeOrCoffeeShop, Bakery
• ArtGallery
• Winery
• HealthAndBeautyBusiness, DaySpa
• LodgingBusiness, BedAndBreakfast
• RealEstateAgent

Pick the closest honest match. If nothing specific fits, LocalBusiness is fine.

Useful properties

The most useful properties for a local business:

• name: your business name, exactly as it appears elsewhere
• address: a PostalAddress with street, city, state and ZIP
• telephone
• url: your homepage
• image: a real photo of your business
• openingHoursSpecification: your regular hours
• geo: latitude and longitude
• sameAs: links to your official profiles on other sites, such as social media accounts

Other types worth knowing

• Organization on the homepage, describing the business itself, including your logo.
• BreadcrumbList to describe your site structure. Many themes and SEO plugins add this automatically.
• Event for real, dated events like gallery openings or release parties.
• Product for items you sell online, with price and availability that match the page.

Individual service pages can carry their own markup too. Our guide on how to build SEO service pages covers where schema fits alongside the rest of a service page.

What does a LocalBusiness JSON-LD example look like?

Here’s a simple JSON-LD block for a fictional gallery. Every detail is a placeholder.

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "ArtGallery",
  "name": "Example Gallery",
  "url": "https://www.example.com/",
  "image": "https://www.example.com/images/gallery-front.jpg",
  "telephone": "+1-555-555-0100",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "streetAddress": "123 Example Street",
    "addressLocality": "Sedona",
    "addressRegion": "AZ",
    "postalCode": "00000",
    "addressCountry": "US"
  },
  "openingHoursSpecification": [
    {
      "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification",
      "dayOfWeek": ["Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday", "Saturday"],
      "opens": "10:00",
      "closes": "17:00"
    },
    {
      "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification",
      "dayOfWeek": "Sunday",
      "opens": "11:00",
      "closes": "16:00"
    }
  ],
  "sameAs": [
    "https://www.instagram.com/examplegallery",
    "https://www.facebook.com/examplegallery"
  ]
}
</script>

Replace every value with your real details, and only include properties you can fill in accurately. Leaving a property out is better than guessing.

How do you add schema on your platform?

How you add schema depends on your platform:

Platform	How schema usually gets added	What to watch for
WordPress	Many SEO plugins generate organization and local business markup from their settings; some themes add their own	A theme and a plugin both outputting business markup
Shopify, Squarespace, Wix	The platform adds some structured data automatically	What’s added, and whether you can add custom code, varies; check their help docs
Custom sites	A JSON-LD block in the page’s HTML, usually on the homepage or contact page	Keeping it updated when details change

On WordPress websites, the cleanest setup is usually one SEO plugin handling the markup, with any duplicate output from the theme switched off. Whatever the method, check what’s already on the page before adding more. Duplicate or conflicting markup is a common problem.

How do you test structured data?

Three free tools cover most of what you need:

Tool	What it checks	When to use it
Google’s Rich Results Test	Which Google-supported rich result types it detects, plus errors and warnings	Before and after any change, using a URL or pasted code
Schema Markup Validator (validator.schema.org)	Your markup against the full schema.org vocabulary, including types Google doesn’t use for rich results	To confirm the whole block is valid, not just the Google-supported parts
Google Search Console	Supported structured data types Google finds across your site, and any errors	Ongoing monitoring after launch

New to Search Console? Our Google Search Console guide covers setting it up and what to check.

Test again whenever you change hours, move, change your phone number or switch themes or plugins. If you’re rebuilding your site, structured data is one of the on-page basics to carry over in a redesign.

What are the most common schema mistakes?

• Markup that doesn’t match the page. If the schema says you’re open until 6 and the page says 5, you’re sending mixed signals. Keep them in sync.
• Outdated details. Hours and phone numbers change, but the markup gets forgotten. Put it on your website maintenance checklist.
• Duplicate markup. A theme, an SEO plugin and a hand-added block can all output separate LocalBusiness entries with slightly different details.
• The wrong type. Choosing a type because it sounds impressive rather than because it fits.
• Self-serving review markup. Google doesn’t show review stars for reviews a business publishes about itself, and invented or selectively edited reviews are a trust problem regardless.
• Marking up content that isn’t visible. Structured data should describe what visitors can see on the page.
• Expecting instant results. Search engines need to recrawl the page before changes take effect.

Local business schema is a small, low-risk improvement: describe your business accurately, keep it matched to your visible content, test it, and update it when details change. If you’d rather not track it yourself, website care can include checking it whenever your details change.