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SEO · TechnicalLocal business schema markup: a practical setup guide
LocalBusiness schema is structured data that explicitly tells search engines (and increasingly, AI engines) your business name, address, hours and category in a machine-readable format — rather than hoping they infer it correctly from your page text.
The fields worth including
| Field | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| name, address, telephone | The core NAP data — must exactly match your Google Business Profile |
| openingHours | Feeds "open now" search features directly |
| priceRange | Sets buyer expectations before they click |
| geo (latitude/longitude) | Reinforces location for map-based search |
| aggregateRating | Can enable star ratings directly in search results, if you have genuine review data to reference |
Common mistakes
- Mismatched NAP data. If your schema says one phone number and your Google Business Profile says another, you've created the exact inconsistency that confuses both search and AI engines.
- Fake or unverifiable review data. Marking up ratings you can't back up violates guidelines and risks losing the rich result entirely.
- Copy-pasting a template without updating every field. A generic schema block that still says "Your City" is worse than no schema at all.
How this connects to GEO
The same structured, consistent facts that help local search rankings are exactly what AI engines rely on to describe your business accurately when someone asks for a recommendation nearby — see our entity SEO guide for the fuller picture of why consistency compounds across both systems.
Validate before you publish. Use Google's Rich Results Test to confirm your markup is actually read correctly — a single syntax error can invalidate the entire block silently.
The full build
Schema implementation is part of our Technical SEO and Local SEO practices — see the broader schema markup guide for other schema types worth adding.
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