Schema Markup for a Local Business: What to Add and What to Leave Out

Schema markup for a local business is structured data, usually JSON-LD, that tells search engines what the page's visible facts mean: the business name, its address or service area, its hours, its phone number and the profiles that belong to the same entity. Google treats it as a rich-result feature, not a ranking input.

The calls below come from Google's own Search Central documentation and are current as of October 2026. Where a vendor guide and the documentation disagree about what a markup type earns, this post follows the documentation.

What schema markup actually buys a local business

Schema markup buys eligibility for rich results in classic Google Search, and nothing beyond that which Google documents. Google's guide to generative AI features states that structured data is not required for AI Overviews or AI Mode and no special schema.org markup needs adding, while still recommending it for rich-result eligibility.

The wording is worth having to hand the next time a proposal quotes schema as an AI-visibility lever. Google writes: "Structured data isn't required for generative AI search, and there's no special schema.org markup you need to add." The same paragraph recommends keeping it, because it helps with being eligible for rich results on Google Search.

The three types worth emitting, and what each one needs

Three pieces of markup carry their weight on a local business site: LocalBusiness in its most specific subtype, the Organization logo property, and Organization sameAs. Google's Local Business documentation lists name as the sole required property, with geo, telephone, url, priceRange and openingHoursSpecification among the recommended ones.

The subtype instruction is the part most sites miss. Google asks for the most specific type available rather than the generic container, so a plumbing company uses Plumber and a restaurant uses Restaurant. A business spanning two types supplies an array, because the Local Business page says additionalType is not supported, and Google recommends following the Organization properties alongside the LocalBusiness ones.

sameAs is the quietest of the three and the one doing entity work. Google's Organization documentation describes it as the URL of a page on another website carrying additional information about your organization, for example a social media or review profile, and allows several values. It is the machine-readable way of saying the Business Profile, the LinkedIn page and the website are one business.

What stopped earning anything, and which page retired it

FAQPage and HowTo markup earn a local business no rich result in Google Search as of October 2026. Google restricted FAQ rich results to well-known, authoritative government and health websites in August 2023, and removed How-to rich results from desktop on September 13, 2023, which deprecated that result type outright.

Neither change carries a penalty. Google's post announcing them says the structured data can stay without causing problems, and the How-to documentation was later removed because the result is no longer shown at all. The cost of leaving the markup in place is not a ranking risk; it is maintenance on code that does nothing, plus the false impression that something works.

An FAQ section readers use, and an answer engine can lift whole, is worth having, and this site keeps its FAQ markup beside answers that render on the page. What is not worth having is an FAQ section written for the markup, or a report counting FAQPage blocks as a result.

The review stars trap

Review and aggregateRating markup about your own business does not produce star ratings in Google Search. Google's review snippet documentation states that when the entity being reviewed controls the reviews about itself, its pages using LocalBusiness or any other Organization type are ineligible for the star review feature, and names an embedded third-party widget as the same case.

The widget clause surprises people. Dropping a Google-reviews widget onto your homepage puts reviews you control on a page about you, which is the situation the rule describes, so the stars do not follow. Google's Local Business page recommends review and aggregateRating only for sites that capture reviews about other local businesses.

Mirastart emits no aggregateRating or review markup anywhere on this site, which is the answer a client gets when they ask for it. The stars people remember come from the Business Profile, and that profile is where review work pays.

If you have no street address

A service-area business with no street address can still emit useful LocalBusiness markup, because Google's Local Business documentation requires only name. The address question belongs to the Business Profile, not the site: Google Business Profile Help says a business that does not serve customers at its address can choose not to show it and list a service area instead.

What the markup must not do is invent one. Google's general structured data guidelines say not to mark up content that is not visible to readers, and that breaking a quality guideline can keep valid structured data from showing as a rich result, or cause it to be marked as spam. An address in the JSON-LD that appears nowhere in the body is that problem exactly. Mirastart publishes none itself, a service-area business working across Charlotte and the metro.

How to check what your site is emitting

Checking structured data takes two free tools and no vendor dashboard. Google's Rich Results Test reports which rich results a page is eligible for, and Search Console reports what Google recorded across the site. Passing the test is not a promise of appearance, which Google's guidelines say in as many words.

1. 1Run each page template through the Rich Results Test, then compare every fact in the markup against the rendered page. Google's guidelines require the information to be visible, so hours, a phone number or an address in the JSON-LD must appear in the body too.
2. 2Search the page source for aggregateRating and review, including anything a review widget injects after load, and take it out.
3. 3Check the Organization block for logo and sameAs, and point sameAs at profiles that exist: the Business Profile, LinkedIn, any directory listing you maintain.

What this looks like when it runs as a built system

Structured data stops being a recurring audit when it is generated from the same record the page renders. Mirastart builds sites where the name, hours, phone number, service area and profile links come from one source, so the markup and the visible page cannot drift apart, which is the condition Google's guidelines impose.

The parts that make it useful already run in production for Charlotte businesses: the live-availability booking system, the missed-call follow-up, the review request that goes to every customer at the same milestone, and the dashboard they report into. The review request belongs there because the stars live on the Business Profile, not in markup you control.