Do you need schema markup for your local business?

Short answerSchema markup is code that labels facts on your page, such as your name, address and hours, for machines. Google says structured data is not required to appear in its AI features, but it can help search engines understand a page, so it's a sensible low-cost extra if done correctly.

A simple example

This goes in the page's head or body inside a script tag of type application/ld+json. Replace every value with your own, and make sure it matches what's visible on the page.

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "LocalBusiness",
  "name": "Your Business Name",
  "url": "https://yoursite.co.uk/",
  "telephone": "+44 20 0000 0000",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "streetAddress": "1 High Street",
    "addressLocality": "Richmond",
    "postalCode": "TW9 1AA",
    "addressCountry": "GB"
  },
  "openingHours": "Mo-Fr 09:00-17:00"
}

Rules that matter

• Only mark up what's visible on the page.
• Keep it identical to your Google, Bing and Apple details.
• Test it with Google's Rich Results Test or the Schema.org validator.
• Don't add fake reviews or ratings. Google can penalise misleading markup.

Questions people ask

Related guides

• What to put on your website so AI can describe you
• Is your robots.txt blocking AI crawlers?
• Do I need an llms.txt file?

Sources

• Google Search Central: Optimizing for generative AI features
• Google Search Central: Local business structured data
• Schema.org: LocalBusiness