Structured data for local businesses, explained plainly

Structured data is a small block of labelled information in your website's code. A customer never sees it. It tells search engines, in a fixed format, facts your page already says in plain words: this is a café, this is its address, these are its hours.

You may also hear it called schema or schema markup. This guide explains what it does for a local business, which details Google asks for, what it will not do for you, and how to check your own site without touching any code.

What structured data actually is

Picture your contact page. A person reads "Open Tuesday to Sunday, 7am to 3pm" and understands it straight away. Software has to work out that those words are opening hours and not, say, the hours of an event.

Google describes structured data as a standardised format for providing information about a page and classifying its content. It uses the shared vocabulary published at schema.org, so every website labels the same facts in the same way.

There are three accepted formats. Google says all of them are equally fine as long as the markup is valid, and it recommends one called JSON-LD. That is the one you will usually come across: a short script in the page code that sits apart from the text your customers read, so it can be changed without touching the design.

The details Google asks for

Google's documentation for local businesses separates required details from recommended ones. As of its last update on 8 September 2026, the list looks like this.

Required:

• name: the name of the business
• address: the physical location, with as many parts as you can give (street, suburb, state, postcode, country)

Recommended, and useful for most small businesses:

• telephone: the main number for customers, with country and area code
• url: a working link to the page for that location
• openingHoursSpecification: your days and hours
• geo: latitude and longitude, to at least five decimal places
• priceRange: a short guide to your prices, under 100 characters
• menu and servesCuisine: for places that serve food

Google also asks you to use the most specific type of business you can. Its own examples include Restaurant, DaySpa and HealthClub. A general LocalBusiness is valid, but a café labelled as a café says more. If you have several locations, each one is defined as its own business.

What it will not do

This is the part sales pitches tend to skip, so here it is clearly.

It does not promise anything in search results. Google states plainly that correct markup does not mean your structured data will show up. Valid code makes you eligible for some features. It does not make them appear.

It is not a ranking shortcut. Google's help page on local results names three main factors: relevance, distance and prominence. Be wary of anyone who sells schema as the way to reach the top of Maps. Clean markup helps software read your details correctly, and that is the honest size of the benefit.

It does not replace your Google Business Profile. On Maps, your Profile does most of the work. If you are unsure how the two fit together, read Google Business Profile vs website.

It will not put review stars next to your own site. Google's documentation says the review properties for local businesses are only recommended for sites that capture reviews about other businesses. Marking up your own testimonials to earn stars does not qualify for that feature. Keep the testimonials on the page for people to read, and leave them out of the markup.

The rules that can get you in trouble

Google's structured data policies come down to one idea: the markup has to describe what a visitor can see. A few situations come up often for small businesses.

• Hidden details. Do not mark up content that is not visible on the page. If your hours are in the code, they should be on the page too.
• Misleading content. Google names fake reviews as an example of what not to mark up. A location you do not trade from falls into the same spirit.
• Out-of-date facts. New hours on your page and old hours in your code is the most common way this goes wrong. It usually happens when a site is edited by hand and nobody remembers the block in the code.

Breaking the policies can lead to a manual action, which means the page loses eligibility for rich results. You can check for one in the Manual Actions report in Search Console.

If you do not have a shopfront

Plumbers, mobile groomers and other businesses that travel to customers have a real question here, because Google lists address as required and describes it as the physical location of the business.

The Business Profile rules let a service-area business hide its address, and you should not publish a home address on your website just to fill a box. Schema.org does have a property called areaServed for the places you cover, but it is not on the list in Google's local business documentation, so treat it as helpful labelling and do not expect a feature from it. Without a published address, the page may not be eligible for that rich result. That is an acceptable trade for keeping your home address private. Write the suburbs you cover on the page in plain words, which helps customers either way.

How to check your own site in five minutes

You do not need to read code for any of this.

1. Go to Google's Rich Results Test and paste in your home page or contact page address.
2. Run the test and look for a local business entry. Critical errors need fixing. Google says fixing non-critical issues can improve quality but is not necessary for eligibility.
3. For a fuller view of everything marked up on the page, paste the same address into the Schema Markup Validator at validator.schema.org.
4. Compare what the tool found against your page and your Google Business Profile. The name, address, phone and hours should agree. Our guide to name, address and phone consistency has a routine for that.
5. If you changed anything, use the URL Inspection tool in Search Console to ask Google to crawl the page again. Google notes it can take several days.

If nothing appears, your site may simply not have any structured data yet. That is common and easy to fix.

How to add it

On WordPress or another content management system, Google notes that a plugin may be the easiest route. Fill in the business details once, run the test above, and check you do not now have two competing blocks from a theme and a plugin.

On a site builder, look in its SEO or business information settings first, then run the test to see what it actually produces.

On a custom site, whoever built it can add the block to your contact page or home page, because Google says the page that holds your business information is the sensible place for it. Ask them to tell you where the hours live so they get updated together.

Every Realtiq website includes this as part of the local search basics:

Website care covers small changes like keeping these details current.

Common questions

Do I need structured data if I have a Google Business Profile?

Your Profile matters more for Maps, so start there if you have to choose. Structured data is still worth having, because it labels the same details on the website you own and takes little effort once it is set up.

Will adding schema get me more customers?

Nobody can promise that. It helps search engines read your details correctly and can make a page eligible for some features, but Google decides what to show.

How often do I need to update it?

Whenever a fact in it changes: hours, phone, address or the business name. Check it after a move or a change of hours, and put it on the list when you update holiday hours on your Profile.

Can I just copy a code example from another site?

You can start from one, but every value has to be true for your business and visible on your page. Run the result through the Rich Results Test before you rely on it.

Which page should it go on?

Google says you can add it to any page, though it makes most sense on one with information about your business. For most small businesses that means the home page or the contact page.