What it is, in one paragraph
Schema markup is a block of code in the background of a page that describes what the page is about in a format machines understand. Your page might say "Open 9 to 6, Monday to Friday". The markup says the same thing in a structure a search engine can read without guessing.
It usually sits in a script tag as JSON-LD, which is Google's preferred format. Visitors never see it.
Schema is not a ranking factor. Google has said so repeatedly. It does not make you rank higher. What it can do is change how your listing looks, and a better looking listing gets more clicks at the same position.
What it actually does
- Rich results. Star ratings, recipe times, event dates, breadcrumb trails instead of a raw URL
- Removes ambiguity. It tells Google you are a business in Oldham rather than a page mentioning Oldham
- Feeds the knowledge panel, connecting your site to your Business Profile and social accounts as one entity
- Increasingly, it helps AI assistants describe you accurately, since structured facts are easier to quote than prose
Which types are worth it for a local business
LocalBusiness or a subtype
The important one. Name, address, phone, opening hours, area served, price range. Use the most specific subtype that fits, such as Plumber, HairSalon or ProfessionalService, rather than the generic one.
BreadcrumbList
Genuinely worth doing and often skipped. It replaces the raw URL in search results with a readable trail like Home › Services › Web design. Small change, better looking listing.
Service
One per service page, describing what it is, who provides it and where. Helps Google understand a page is about a specific offering rather than the business generally.
Article
For guides and blog posts. Headline, author, publisher, dates and an image.
Organization
On the home page, with a sameAs list linking your social profiles. This is how Google connects the accounts into one entity.
Two types that no longer do what people think
This is the part most guides have not updated, and it matters because people still pay for both.
FAQPage
In August 2023 Google restricted FAQ rich results to well known, authoritative government and health sites. For an ordinary business the markup is now essentially invisible. It causes no harm, but adding it to twenty pages achieves nothing.
HowTo
Retired entirely. Google removed the documentation and stopped showing the results on both desktop and mobile. If someone quotes for adding HowTo markup to boost your visibility, they are working from old information.
The rules that get you penalised
Structured data is one of the few areas where doing it wrong is worse than not doing it. Google issues manual actions for spammy markup.
- It must match visible content. Marking up opening hours that are not on the page, or a rating you invented, is the fastest route to a penalty
- No fake reviews. Obvious, and heavily policed
- Self serving review markup is not eligible. This one catches almost everyone: reviews about your business, displayed on your own site, cannot produce star ratings. Google names embedded Google review widgets specifically. Show your reviews for conversion, but do not expect stars in search
- Do not mark up content that is not there. Hidden markup describing things the visitor cannot see is a breach
That third point is worth repeating because so much SEO advice gets it wrong. If someone promises star ratings in search results from reviews on your own website, they are describing something Google does not allow.
Your Google Business Profile. Those stars in local and map results are driven by reviews left on Google itself, not by anything on your website. Collecting reviews is the lever, not markup.
How to check yours
- Google Rich Results Test. Paste a live URL. It shows what Google can extract and flags errors. Needs a public URL, so it will not work on a local copy
- Schema.org validator. Stricter, catches invalid properties even where Google is tolerant
- Search Console. Under Enhancements it reports issues across your whole site rather than one page at a time
A useful habit: run the Rich Results Test after any significant change. Markup silently breaks when pages are edited, and nothing tells you.
Do you need to pay someone for this?
Probably not as a separate line item. Correct LocalBusiness, Breadcrumb and Service markup is an afternoon's work for someone who knows the format, and it should be part of building the site rather than an upsell.
Be wary of quotes for "advanced schema implementation" promising ranking improvements. It is not a ranking factor, and the honest description of the benefit is better looking listings and clearer signals, not higher positions.
Every page on this site carries markup, including the breadcrumbs you can see at the top of this one, and we deliberately do not use review markup for the reason above. Related: how to actually get reviews, and what local SEO involves.