Local Business Schema Markup: How to Add It, Test It, and What It Does for AI Search

Your website already says your business name, street address, phone number and opening hours somewhere on the page. Local business schema markup says the same things a second time, in a fixed vocabulary that search engines can read without guessing. It is one of the few pieces of technical SEO a business owner can add, test and check on their own.

It is also easy to oversell, especially now that every business wants to show up in AI answers. Google's own documentation makes a much more modest promise. This guide covers both: how to add the markup step by step, and what it can and cannot do for you in classic search and in AI answers.

In this guide:

1. Pick the most specific business type
2. Collect your facts from what the page actually shows
3. Write the JSON-LD
4. Put it on the right page
5. Test it with two free tools
6. Keep it in sync

Plus: a table of common mistakes, a pre-launch checklist, and a plain-English look at what each search and AI engine has said about schema.

What local business schema markup is

Schema markup is a block of structured data, usually written in a format called JSON-LD, that sits in your page's HTML. Visitors never see it. It uses the shared vocabulary at schema.org, where LocalBusiness is the type for a physical business or branch, with more specific subtypes such as Plumber, Electrician, Dentist, MovingCompany and RoofingContractor.

Google explains what it does with it on its Local Business structured data page: when people search for a business, Google may show a knowledge panel with its details, and "with Local Business structured data, you can tell Google about business hours, different departments within a business, reviews (if your site captures reviews about other businesses), and more."

Note the words tell and may. Markup is a clear statement of facts, not a ranking switch.

How many sites actually use it

Fewer than you might think. The HTTP Archive Web Almanac 2024, an annual study of the HTTP Archive's web crawl, found the LocalBusiness type in the JSON-LD of 3.97% of mobile pages it crawled.

Source: HTTP Archive Web Almanac 2024, Structured Data chapter. Share of mobile pages, not share of businesses.

That figure covers every page on the web, most of which are not about a local business, so it does not tell you how many local businesses have markup. What it does show is that this is not a crowded field.

What schema does in search and AI answers, engine by engine

Before you spend time on it, set expectations. Here is what each company has said publicly.

Where people find you	What the company has said about schema	Source
Google Search (classic results, knowledge panel)	Local Business markup can tell Google your hours, departments and more. Rich results are not guaranteed.	Google Search Central
Google AI Overviews and AI Mode	"There's also no special schema.org structured data that you need to add." Google lists "making sure your structured data matches the visible text on the page" among the SEO basics that still apply.	Google: AI features and your website
Bing and Microsoft Copilot	Microsoft's Fabrice Canel said at SMX Munich in March 2025 that schema markup helps Microsoft's LLMs understand content.	Search Engine Land
ChatGPT, Perplexity and others	No official public guidance on schema that we could find. Search Engine Land noted at the time that it was not clear whether these engines use it.	Search Engine Land

So the honest pitch is this. Schema will not make an AI engine recommend you. It removes ambiguity about who you are, where you are and when you are open, for the search systems that many AI answers are built on. Bing matters more here than most local businesses assume; we have written about why one of your AI engines runs on Bing.

The same logic applies to new "AI files" for your site. Google says you don't need to create "new machine readable files, AI text files, or markup" to appear in its AI features, which matches what we argued in stop optimizing the things that don't move the needle. Schema is worth doing because it is cheap and standard, not because it is a trick.

Step 1: Pick the most specific business type

Google's guidance is to "use the most specific LocalBusiness sub-type possible." Browse the list of subtypes on schema.org/LocalBusiness and pick the one that matches what you do.

If you are a...	Use this type	Instead of
Plumbing company	Plumber	LocalBusiness
Electrical contractor	Electrician	HomeAndConstructionBusiness
Dental clinic	Dentist	MedicalBusiness
Moving company	MovingCompany	LocalBusiness
Roofer	RoofingContractor	HomeAndConstructionBusiness
Heating and cooling company	HVACBusiness	LocalBusiness

If you genuinely do more than one thing, Google accepts an array, for example "@type": ["Electrician", "Plumber"]. Google notes that additionalType isn't supported for this. Only list types you actually advertise on the page.

Step 2: Collect your facts from what the page actually shows

Google's general structured data guidelines are blunt: "Don't mark up content that is not visible to readers of the page." So before writing any code, copy these from the visible page (usually your contact or location page):

• Name, exactly as it appears on your signage and your Google Business Profile
• Street address, split into street, city, province or state, postal code and country
• Main phone number, with country and area code (Google asks for both)
• Opening hours, including any seasonal closures
• The page URL for this location
• Price range, if you show one (Google ignores it if it is 100 characters or longer)
• Map coordinates, to at least five decimal places, which Google requires for geo
• Your official profiles elsewhere: Google Business Profile, Facebook, LinkedIn, industry directories

Every one of these should match your Google Business Profile word for word. AI answers often pull from both, and conflicting hours or addresses are exactly the kind of thing that ends up repeated. We covered why that profile matters in your Google Business Profile is training the model too.

Step 3: Write the JSON-LD

Here is a complete example for a fictional Vancouver plumber. Replace every value with your own.

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Plumber",
  "@id": "https://www.example.com/#business",
  "name": "Harbourline Plumbing",
  "url": "https://www.example.com/",
  "telephone": "+1-604-555-0142",
  "image": "https://www.example.com/images/storefront.jpg",
  "priceRange": "$$",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "streetAddress": "1234 Example Street",
    "addressLocality": "Vancouver",
    "addressRegion": "BC",
    "postalCode": "V5K 0A1",
    "addressCountry": "CA"
  },
  "geo": {
    "@type": "GeoCoordinates",
    "latitude": 49.28100,
    "longitude": -123.04000
  },
  "openingHoursSpecification": [
    {
      "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification",
      "dayOfWeek": ["Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday"],
      "opens": "08:00",
      "closes": "18:00"
    },
    {
      "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification",
      "dayOfWeek": "Saturday",
      "opens": "09:00",
      "closes": "14:00"
    }
  ],
  "areaServed": ["Vancouver", "Burnaby", "North Vancouver"],
  "sameAs": [
    "https://www.facebook.com/example",
    "https://www.linkedin.com/company/example"
  ]
}
</script>

What each part is doing:

• @type is the specific subtype from Step 1.
• @id gives this business a stable identifier, so other markup on your site can point to the same entity.
• name and address are the only two properties Google lists as required. Everything else is recommended.
• openingHoursSpecification follows Google's format. To show a day as closed, Google says to set both opens and closes to "00:00". For holiday closures, add validFrom and validThrough dates.
• areaServed and sameAs are schema.org properties. Google's Local Business page doesn't list them as supported for rich results, but sameAs appears in Google's own Organization markup examples and helps tie your site to your other official profiles. That matters if another company shares part of your name, a problem we described in your brand has a doppelganger problem in AI.

Leave out review stars. Google's review snippet guidelines say that if a business controls the reviews about itself, its LocalBusiness pages are "ineligible for star review feature." That includes reviews embedded through a third-party widget. aggregateRating on your own business page is for sites that review other businesses.

Step 4: Put it on the right page

• One location: Google's Organization guidance recommends your home page or a single page that describes your organization, such as the about page. You don't need it on every page.
• Several locations: give each location its own page and its own LocalBusiness block, with that branch's address, phone, hours and URL. Google asks that url be "the fully-qualified URL of the specific business location."
• Departments with different hours or phone numbers: use the department property, as shown in Google's department store example.

The code goes inside the page's <head> or <body>. Most website builders and CMSs, including Webflow and WordPress, let you add custom code to a single page without a developer.

Step 5: Test it with two free tools

1. Google's Rich Results Test. Paste the URL or the code. It shows whether Google can read the markup and flags critical errors (fix these) and non-critical warnings (worth fixing, but Google says they don't block eligibility).
2. The Schema Markup Validator. It checks the markup against the full schema.org vocabulary, including properties Google doesn't use, such as areaServed.

After you publish, open URL Inspection in Google Search Console to see the page as Google fetched it, and confirm it isn't blocked by robots.txt, noindex or a login. Google warns that it "may take several days after publishing a page for Google to find and crawl it."

Step 6: Keep it in sync

Markup goes stale the same way a website does. The two moments that matter most:

• When something changes. New phone number, new hours, a move. Update the page text, the markup and your Google Business Profile on the same day.
• Before holidays. Add a seasonal openingHoursSpecification with validFrom and validThrough instead of leaving your normal hours in place.

If Google reports problems, the Search Console structured data reports and the Unparsable structured data report will show them.

Common mistakes and how to fix them

Mistake	Why it's a problem	Fix
Review stars on your own business page	Google says self-controlled reviews make LocalBusiness pages ineligible for star results	Remove aggregateRating and review about yourself
Markup describes something the page doesn't show	Against Google's general guidelines; can lead to a manual action	Only mark up facts visible on the page
Street address in markup but hidden on the site	Same visibility rule	Show the address on the page, or leave it out of the markup
Generic LocalBusiness type	Google asks for the most specific subtype	Use Plumber, Dentist, MovingCompany, etc.
Phone without country code	Google asks for country and area code	Use +1-604-... style
Coordinates with too few decimals	Google requires at least 5 decimal places for geo	Copy precise coordinates from a map
Every branch marked up on the home page	Each location needs its own URL and details	One page and one block per location
Hours in markup differ from Google Business Profile	Conflicting facts can get repeated in answers	Update both on the same day

Pre-launch checklist

• ☐ Most specific @type chosen
• ☐ name and full address included, matching the visible page
• ☐ Phone number with country and area code
• ☐ Hours match the page and your Google Business Profile
• ☐ geo coordinates have at least 5 decimal places
• ☐ url points to this location's page
• ☐ No review stars about your own business
• ☐ sameAs lists only official profiles you control
• ☐ Rich Results Test shows no critical errors
• ☐ Schema Markup Validator shows no errors
• ☐ URL Inspection confirms Google can fetch the page

The bottom line

Local business schema markup is an afternoon of careful copying, not a growth hack. Do it because it states your facts clearly to the search systems that many AI answers draw on, and because it keeps your website, your markup and your Google Business Profile telling the same story. Don't expect it to change what an AI engine recommends on its own. With 45% of U.S. consumers in BrightLocal's 2026 survey saying they used AI tools for local business recommendations in the past year, the useful next step is checking what those answers actually say.

That is what Beket AI does. It shows which of your customers' questions name your business on ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overview, and which name a competitor instead. A free Beket AI audit covers 25 prompts across 3 engines. Beket AI Pro is $49/month and re-audits daily, starting at 50 prompts across 3 engines. Run a free audit at beket.ai.

Guidance in this article reflects Google Search Central and schema.org documentation as checked on October 23, 2026.