Schema Markup for Local Business, Explained Field by Field

September 14, 2026 · Brett D Henderson

Someone told you that you need schema, so here is the answer: schema markup for a local business is a short block of code on your website that tells Google and AI tools, in a format machines read exactly, who you are, where you are, when you are open and how to reach you. Google treats it as help understanding your page, and your rankings still come from everything else. Below is one working example for a made-up plumbing company, every line explained, ready to hand to whoever runs your site.

Key Takeaways

The code is short and invisible to visitors. It states your name, address, phone, hours and service area in a format Google and AI tools read exactly.
Google says it helps them understand a page and can make it eligible for richer results, with no guarantee and no general ranking boost.
Match your Google Business Profile word for word: the same name, phone number and hours.
Keep one honest copy. Leave out star ratings about yourself, towns you do not serve, and any second block a plugin already adds.
Check it for free with Google's Rich Results Test and the Schema Markup Validator.

What is local business schema?

It is a description of your business written for machines. Google defines structured data as "a standardized format for providing information about a page and classifying the page content," and schema is the shared vocabulary that format uses. It is maintained at schema.org, so search engines and AI tools all read the same labels the same way. When people say LocalBusiness schema, they mean the part of that vocabulary built for businesses with an address and opening hours.

The code is usually written in JSON-LD, a tidy list of labels and values. Google recommends it because it is the easiest format for site owners to keep free of mistakes.

Think of it as a name tag. Visitors never see it. It sits in the page's code and repeats facts already printed on the page: your business name, phone number, address and hours. It normally lives on your homepage or contact page, wherever those details appear.

If you are not sure whether your site already has it, a quick call will tell you.

What does schema markup for a local business actually do?

It hands Google a clean, labeled copy of your key facts, which helps Google understand the page and can make the page eligible for richer search results. Eligible is the important word. Google's own guidelines say it "does not guarantee that your structured data will show up in search results, even if your page is marked up correctly."

Rankings come from the rest of your site and your profile. Google's John Mueller has said there is "no generic ranking boost" for structured data, as reported by Search Engine Roundtable on April 3, 2018, though it can help Google understand what a page is about. Google's penalty rules point the same way. When a site breaks the structured data rules, the page loses its eligibility for rich results, and Google says that "doesn't affect how the page ranks in Google web search." That tells you how much weight the code carries on its own.

AI answers follow the same logic. Google states there is "no special schema.org structured data that you need to add" to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode (Google's AI-written answers), and it asks that structured data match the visible text on the page. The value is consistency across every place your business details appear. When your code, your pages and your Business Profile all say the same thing, the answer engines behind AI summaries have one clear version of your business to repeat.

Book a call if you want to see how machines currently describe your business.

A local business schema example you can hand off

Here is a complete LocalBusiness block for Example Plumbing Co., a made-up company with a placeholder website and a 555 phone number. Replace the business details (business type, name, web address, phone, street address, coordinates, hours, towns and profile link) with your own, and leave everything else, including the labels, quotation marks, commas and brackets, exactly where it is. One missing comma breaks the whole block.

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Plumber",
  "name": "Example Plumbing Co.",
  "url": "https://www.example.com/",
  "telephone": "+1-217-555-0142",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "streetAddress": "100 Example Street",
    "addressLocality": "Springfield",
    "addressRegion": "IL",
    "postalCode": "62701",
    "addressCountry": "US"
  },
  "geo": {
    "@type": "GeoCoordinates",
    "latitude": 39.80172,
    "longitude": -89.64371
  },
  "openingHoursSpecification": [{
    "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification",
    "dayOfWeek": ["Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday"],
    "opens": "07:00",
    "closes": "18:00"
  }],
  "areaServed": ["Springfield, IL", "Chatham, IL", "Rochester, IL"],
  "sameAs": ["https://www.facebook.com/your-business-page"]
}
</script>

If you also open on Saturdays, your web person adds a second set of hours inside the square brackets, with its own days and times. More towns go into the areaServed list in the same format.

This block goes on your site once, on the page that shows this address and phone number. Have it entered through your website's SEO plugin (an add-on that manages search settings) or its schema setting, which keeps it safe through theme updates and stops a second copy from appearing.

What each line means, in plain English

@context and @type tell machines which vocabulary you are using and what kind of business you are. Google's LocalBusiness guidance, last updated September 8, 2026, asks you to use the most specific type that fits, so a plumber says Plumber. The schema.org list of home and construction businesses also includes HVACBusiness, Electrician, RoofingContractor and GeneralContractor.

name, url and telephone are your identity. Use your business name exactly as it appears on your Google Business Profile, and nothing more: town names and service keywords stay out of it. The URL must be a working link. The phone number needs the country code and area code, and it should be the same number customers see on your site and on your Business Profile.

address is one of the two properties Google requires, along with name, and service-area businesses hit a snag here. Google tells a business that travels to its customers to "remove your address from your Business Profile," and its structured data rules say to mark up only what visitors can see. If your street address is private, give the city, state and ZIP code you already show publicly, and let areaServed describe where you work.

geo holds your latitude and longitude, which Google wants given to at least five decimal places. openingHoursSpecification lists your days and hours in 24-hour time. A 24/7 emergency line is written as opening at 00:00 and closing at 23:59.

areaServed is, in schema.org's words, "the geographic area where a service or offered item is provided." List only towns you actually serve and are licensed to work in, and keep them inside the roughly two-hour drive Google allows for a Business Profile service area. sameAs lists profiles you control, such as your Facebook page, so machines can tell they all belong to one business. That is a small piece of entity hardening, which means making it unmistakable what your business is and what it does.

We are glad to look over your version before it goes live, so book a call when it is ready.

What should you leave out of your schema?

Leave out star ratings about yourself. Some popular guides still tell owners to add their own review score to their schema. Google's review rules say that when a business controls the reviews about itself, its LocalBusiness markup is "ineligible for star review feature." The stars never appear, and the block gets longer for nothing.

Leave out anything a visitor cannot find on the page. Google's rule is direct: "Don't mark up content that is not visible to readers of the page." That covers a street address you hide everywhere else, services you never list, towns you never drive to, and a business name padded with keywords.

Leave out the second copy. Many SEO plugins, themes and website builders already add their own business schema, and pasting another block on top gives machines two versions of you that can disagree about your hours or phone number. Skip step-by-step "how-to" markup on service pages as well, because it is built for instructions and a service page describes a business. Keep one block from one source.

A short call is enough to find out whether your site is carrying a second copy.

How do you check that your schema works?

Use two free tools. Google's Rich Results Test accepts a page address or pasted code and shows which structured data Google can read from it. The Schema Markup Validator checks the code against the schema.org vocabulary and flags anything misspelled or misplaced.

Errors need fixing. A typical error is a missing comma, a curly quotation mark copied from a word processor, or a misspelled label. If a test finds no business details at all, the block is either missing or sitting on a different page from the one you tested. Warnings about optional fields are a judgment call, and Google itself says fewer complete, accurate properties beat a long list of badly formed ones.

Then build one habit. Whenever your phone number, hours or address change, update your Business Profile and your schema on the same day. Re-test after any redesign, new theme or plugin change, because those are the moments a block quietly disappears or doubles.

Our free AI visibility audit is comprehensive, and it checks whether your schema is present and formatted correctly.

Where local schema markup fits with the rest of your visibility

The block above is the basic layer, and for a single location it covers the core facts. Businesses with several locations need a separate block on each location page, with that location's own address, phone number and hours. Describing each service you offer and tying the business to its owner and its profiles across the whole site is specialist work, and it is the advanced local schema side of what we do.

Schema also works alongside other machine-readable signals: your Business Profile, and the small files that tell AI crawlers what they may read, explained in our guide to llms.txt and robots.txt. A local SEO audit looks at all of these signals together. When you are ready for the advanced layer, book a call and we will map it out.

Frequently asked questions

Does schema markup help local SEO?

It helps Google understand your business and can make your pages eligible for richer results, though Google guarantees neither. It carries no general ranking boost on its own. Its real job is keeping one accurate, machine-readable version of your details that matches everything else.

Do I need schema if I already have a Google Business Profile?

Yes. The profile describes your business on Google's side, and schema describes it on your own website. Keep the two identical: the same name, phone number and hours. Two sources that agree leave machines nothing to reconcile.

Where do I put local business schema markup on my website?

Put it on the page that shows your address and phone number, usually the homepage or contact page, and enter it through your SEO plugin or schema setting. If you have several locations, each location page gets its own block with that location's details.

Can I add my Google reviews to schema to get stars?

No. Google's rules make reviews a business controls about itself ineligible for star review features in LocalBusiness markup. Show real reviews on your page for customers to read, and keep rating markup out of your own schema.

What if I work from my truck and do not show an address?

Include the city, state and ZIP code you show publicly, and list the towns you serve in areaServed. Keep your street address out of the code when it is hidden everywhere else, because Google wants structured data to match what visitors can see.

Your next step

Open Google's Rich Results Test, paste in your homepage address, and look at what it finds. If no business details come back, or they differ from your Business Profile, you now know exactly what to hand your web person. Run your contact page too if your address lives there. GetLocalLeads.AI is an AI visibility and digital marketing agency for local and multi-location service brands. Book a call when you want someone to check it for you.