Schema Markup for Local Business: How to Help AI Understand You
Schema markup for local business turns your website into structured facts AI can read, trust, and summarize accurately.
If you want AI answers to get your hours, services, and location right, this is one of the highest-leverage upgrades you can make.
What is schema markup for local business
Schema markup for local business is a way to label key details on your website, like your business name, address, phone number, hours, services, and service area, using a standardized vocabulary. You typically add it as JSON-LD code so search engines and AI systems can interpret your information as structured data instead of guessing from plain text.
What problem does it solve
Most websites describe a business in paragraphs, headers, and footers. That’s great for humans, but AI can misread it, especially when details are scattered across pages.
Schema pulls your “facts” into a clear, machine-readable package so systems can extract and reuse them with fewer mistakes.
If a customer asks, “Are you open right now?” and your answer lives in three different places on your site, schema helps unify that answer.
Why AI uses structured data
Q: Why would AI trust schema more than my page text
A: AI systems look for consistent, repeated signals. Structured data is explicit (it says “this is a phone number”) and it’s easier to validate against your other online signals.
When your structured data matches what’s on-page and what customers see elsewhere, the model has fewer reasons to “fill in gaps.”
What AI is trying to do
When someone searches “best plumber near me” or asks an AI assistant for recommendations, the assistant is assembling a mini profile of each business. Schema helps your site provide that profile cleanly.
- Entity clarity: It’s obvious you’re a business, not a blog or a directory listing.
- Attribute clarity: Your hours, location, and service area are labeled as facts.
- Disambiguation: It reduces mix-ups with similarly named businesses.
- Coverage: It gives machines more “fields” to extract and summarize.
- Consistency: It nudges everything toward one coherent version of the truth.
Which schema types matter most
Not all schema is equally useful for a local company. Start with the schemas that define who you are, what you do, and how someone can hire you.
| Schema type | What it tells AI | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| LocalBusiness (or a specific subtype) | Your core identity: name, location, hours, contact info | Every local business |
| Service | What you offer, who it’s for, where it’s delivered | Service-area and appointment businesses |
| FAQPage | Direct Q&A content that can be reused in answers | Common questions: pricing, coverage, timelines |
| Review / AggregateRating | Reputation signals (only if accurate and supported) | Businesses with real, visible reviews |
| WebSite + Organization | Brand-level identity and site purpose | Multi-location or brand-first businesses |
Q: What fields should I prioritize first
A: If you do nothing else, get these right and consistent across your site:
- Name (exactly as you want it referenced)
- Phone (one primary number for customers)
- Address (or service area if you don’t show an address)
- Opening hours (including special hours if relevant)
- Services (plain-language names customers use)
- Service area (cities, counties, or radius)
- URL (canonical homepage you want AI to treat as “home base”)
Only mark up information that’s visibly true on your site. Schema isn’t a place to “pitch.” It’s a place to state facts clearly.
How to implement schema markup for local business
A simple, reliable workflow
- Pick the right business type: Use the closest match (for example, a specific local business subtype) so AI understands your category.
- Create one “source of truth” block: Decide on the exact spelling, phone, address, and hours you’ll use everywhere.
- Add JSON-LD to your homepage: Place it in the page HTML (commonly in the head or near the end of body).
- Mark up services on the services page: Keep service names consistent with your navigation and headings.
- Optionally add FAQPage schema: Use real questions customers ask, with direct answers.
Example JSON-LD (starter template)
This is a clean baseline you can adapt. Replace placeholder values with your real business information.
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "LocalBusiness",
"name": "Example Local Business",
"telephone": "+1-555-555-5555",
"url": "https://example.com",
"image": "https://example.com/logo.png",
"address": {
"@type": "PostalAddress",
"streetAddress": "123 Main St",
"addressLocality": "Your Town",
"addressRegion": "NJ",
"postalCode": "00000",
"addressCountry": "US"
},
"openingHoursSpecification": [
{
"@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification",
"dayOfWeek": ["Monday","Tuesday","Wednesday","Thursday","Friday"],
"opens": "09:00",
"closes": "17:00"
}
],
"areaServed": [
{ "@type": "City", "name": "Your Town" },
{ "@type": "City", "name": "Nearby Town" }
],
"sameAs": []
}
</script>Q: What if I’m a service-area business and don’t show an address
A: You can still use LocalBusiness schema, but you should emphasize areaServed and keep contact details crystal clear. If you hide your address publicly, don’t invent one in schema.
How to test and maintain schema
Q: How do I know if my schema is helping
A: Think of schema like labeling boxes in a warehouse. The payoff is fewer mix-ups over time, not always an overnight spike.
What you’ll notice is better consistency when platforms summarize your business, fewer wrong hours, and fewer “we couldn’t find that” moments.
Maintenance checklist
- Update schema the same day you change hours, phone, address, or service area.
- Keep your service list aligned with what you actually sell today.
- Don’t mark up offers, ratings, or claims you can’t back up on-page.
- Use one canonical version of your business name everywhere.
- If you have multiple locations, avoid mixing details across pages.
AI answers are built from patterns. When your details stay consistent and structured, your business becomes easier to recognize and harder to misquote.
Quick recap
Schema markup for local business helps AI understand who you are, what you do, and how customers can reach you, without guesswork.
Start simple: business identity, hours, service area, and a clean services list. Then expand into FAQs once your basics are rock solid.
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Re-check the essentialsFAQ
Does schema markup directly improve rankings?
Sometimes, but that’s not the best way to think about it. Schema mainly improves understanding and accuracy, which can support better visibility and richer results over time.
How much schema is “enough” for a local business?
Enough is when your key facts are unambiguous: name, phone, address or service area, hours, and primary services. After that, add only what you can keep updated.
Should I add schema to every page?
Not necessarily. Put your core LocalBusiness markup on the homepage (and location pages if you have them). Add Service schema on service pages and FAQPage schema on FAQ pages.
What’s the biggest mistake businesses make with schema?
Inconsistency. If your site shows one phone number and your schema shows another, AI has to guess which is real. Keep one clean version of the truth everywhere.