Local business schema is a small block of hidden information on your website telling a search engine, in a fixed format, exactly who you are and where. It is one of the few technical jobs in local work worth doing properly.
It explains the idea rather than the code, which your developer or your platform can handle.
What local business schema actually does
A search engine reads your page as text and has to work out what everything means. Your address might be an address, or it might be a line in a poem.
Schema removes the guessing. It labels each piece: this is the business name, this is the street, this is the phone number, these are the opening hours. Consequently the search engine no longer interprets, it simply reads.
The format itself is published openly at schema.org, and every major search engine agrees to use it. That agreement is why it is worth the effort.
The fields in local business schema that matter
The specification lists dozens of properties. Six carry almost all the value.
- Business name, exactly as you trade.
- Full postal address, split into its parts.
- Telephone number people should actually call.
- Opening hours, including any that differ by day.
- Website address of the page itself.
- Business type, chosen from the published list.
Add geographic coordinates and a link to your listing if you have them. Everything beyond that is optional, and adding twenty extra properties changes very little.
Choosing the right type
Schema has specific types beneath the general one: dentist, plumber, restaurant, legal service and many more. Choosing the specific type is better than choosing the general one, for the same reason a specific listing category beats a vague one.
If nothing fits your trade exactly, use the general local business type rather than forcing a poor match. An inaccurate type is worse than a broad one, since it describes you as something you are not.
Ideally the type in your local business schema and the primary category on your listing describe the same trade. Where they disagree, one of them is wrong, and checking both together takes a minute.
Where the markup should live
On the page a customer would treat as your business home, which is usually the homepage or the contact page. One block, on one page, describing one location.
With several branches, each branch page carries its own block with its own address and hours. Repeating the head office details on every page is the most common mistake here, and it tells a search engine you have one location when you have twelve.
Similarly, do not add local business schema to every page of the site. Once is enough, and repeating it does not strengthen the signal.
The mistakes that make local business schema worthless
Markup contradicting the visible page does more harm than no markup at all.
Hours in the code that differ from the hours on the page. An address nobody can see anywhere on the site. A phone number from before you changed it. Review stars marked up for reviews that do not exist, which breaks the rules outright and can cost you the rich result entirely.
So the rule is simple. Everything inside the markup must appear, in the same form, where a human can read it.
Testing your local business schema without guessing
Search engines publish free testing tools, and they tell you whether the markup parses and which fields they recognised. Run yours after any change to the site, because rebuilds quietly drop things.
Google documents its requirements at developers.google.com, which is the version worth following when advice disagrees.
What local business schema will and will not do
It will make your details unambiguous, help the connection between your website and your listing, and occasionally earn a richer appearance in results.
It will not lift you up the map pack on its own. Markup is a clarity improvement rather than a ranking factor, and a business expecting positions to move the week after adding it will be disappointed. What a search engine weighs locally is a different list, and markup is not on it.
That is still worth doing. Clarity compounds quietly, especially where your details appear in many places.
Getting it onto your site
Most website platforms handle this through a setting or a plugin, and filling in a form beats hand writing code you will not maintain.
Where you do add it by hand, keep it in one place so updating your hours means editing one block rather than hunting through pages. Meanwhile ask whoever maintains the site to check the markup after any redesign, since that is when it usually disappears.
Typically the platform writes the local business schema from whatever you typed into a settings screen. If those settings are stale, so is the markup, however correct the visible page looks.
A short checklist
Run through five questions once a year, or after any change to your details.
Does the markup exist on the right page? Do the six main fields match the visible page exactly? Is the type the most specific accurate one? Does each branch have its own block? Does the testing tool report it without errors? Five minutes of that keeps local business schema doing its job.
Frequently asked questions
What is local business schema?
A hidden block of labelled information on your website stating your name, address, phone number, hours and business type in a fixed format. It removes the guesswork a search engine would otherwise apply to ordinary page text.
Which fields actually matter?
Business name, full postal address, telephone number, opening hours, the page address and the business type. Coordinates and a link to your listing help. Everything beyond those six changes very little, so start and usually finish there.
Does schema improve my rankings?
Not directly. It makes your details unambiguous and can earn a richer appearance in results, and it will not lift you up the map pack by itself. Treat it as a clarity improvement rather than as a ranking tactic.
Where should the markup go?
On the page a customer treats as your business home, usually the homepage or contact page. With several branches, each branch page carries its own block. Repeating head office details everywhere tells a search engine you have one location.
What is the most common mistake?
Markup that contradicts the visible page: hours that differ, an address nobody can see, an old phone number, or review stars for reviews that do not exist. Everything in the code must appear where a human can read it.
Which business type should I choose?
The most specific accurate one from the published list, in the same way a specific listing category beats a vague one. Where nothing fits your trade, use the general local business type rather than forcing a poor match.
How do I check it is working?
Use the free structured data testing tools search engines publish. They report whether the markup parses and which fields were recognised. Run yours after any site change, because rebuilds and redesigns quietly drop it.
Do I need a developer for this?
Usually not. Most website platforms offer a setting or a plugin, and filling in a form beats writing code you will not maintain. Keep it in one place so a change of hours means editing one block.