Is LocalBusiness schema required to appear on Google Maps?

No. Map pack visibility comes mainly from your Google Business Profile, reviews, relevance and distance. Schema supports those signals by confirming your details on your website.

What are the required properties for LocalBusiness schema?

Google requires name and address. Telephone, url, openingHoursSpecification, geo and priceRange are recommended, and adding them is worthwhile when they are accurate.

Can I add review stars to my own LocalBusiness markup?

You can add the property, but Google does not show review stars for self-serving reviews on LocalBusiness or Organization markup. It is better left out.

Should I use JSON-LD or microdata?

JSON-LD. Google recommends it, and it keeps the markup separate from your visible design, which makes it easier to edit and less likely to break.

How long until Google picks up my schema?

It depends on when Google recrawls the page, typically days to a few weeks. You can request indexing for the page in Search Console to speed it up.

Does schema help with AI search answers?

It can. Clean structured data gives AI assistants and answer engines unambiguous facts about your hours, location and services, though no engine guarantees how it is used.

Local SEO & Getting Customers

LocalBusiness Schema Markup Explained for Business Owners

By ITCM Team · Updated November 2026

LocalBusiness schema is a small block of structured data that tells search engines, in a format machines read without guessing, who you are, what kind of business you run, where you are, when you are open and how to reach you. It will not rocket you to the top of Google Maps on its own, but it removes ambiguity, supports your Google Business Profile, and feeds AI assistants clean facts about your business. This guide walks through picking the right type, the properties that matter, what the code contains, where it goes, how to test it, and the mistakes we see most often when we audit small business sites.

Key takeaways

Google requires only two properties for LocalBusiness markup: name and address. Phone, URL, hours, geo coordinates and price range are recommended and worth adding.
Pick the most specific type you can, such as Dentist, Plumber or Restaurant. Google allows an array of types for multi-trade businesses.
Service-area businesses that hide their address should not publish a street address in schema; use a type with areaServed and keep details matching the Business Profile.
Review stars from reviews of your own business are not shown by Google, so do not add aggregateRating to your own LocalBusiness markup to chase stars.
Your name, address and phone in schema must match what is visible on the page and on your Google Business Profile.
Test every change with Google's Rich Results Test and the Schema Markup Validator, and remove duplicate blocks added by plugins.

What is LocalBusiness schema, in plain terms?

Schema markup is a shared vocabulary from Schema.org that Google, Bing and other engines understand. LocalBusiness is the part of that vocabulary for businesses with a physical location or a defined service area that customers visit or that visits customers.

It is usually written in JSON-LD, a short script block that sits in your page code and is invisible to visitors. Google recommends JSON-LD because it is easy to add and maintain without touching your visible design.

Think of it as a labeled business card for machines. Your page already says your phone number somewhere; schema says, without doubt, this string is the telephone, this one is the street address, these are the opening hours.

Does LocalBusiness schema help local SEO?

Honestly, it helps indirectly. Google's ranking in the map pack is driven mainly by relevance, distance and prominence, and your Google Business Profile carries most of the weight there. Schema will not replace reviews, a complete profile or a strong service page.

What it does well: it confirms your core facts, connects your website to your business entity, can make your listing details more consistent across Google, Bing and AI answers, and gives Google clean data for knowledge panels. For a few minutes of work, that is a good trade.

If you have not finished the basics yet, start with our local SEO guide for small businesses and come back to schema afterward.

Which schema type should you pick?

Google's guidance is to use the most specific LocalBusiness subtype that fits. A dentist should be Dentist, not just LocalBusiness. If you do several trades, you can list more than one type, for example Electrician and Plumber together. Google notes that additionalType is not supported for this feature, so do not rely on it.

If no specific subtype fits, plain LocalBusiness is fine. A fitting parent type, like HomeAndConstructionBusiness or MedicalBusiness, is better than a wrong specific one.

Business	Suggested @type
Dental clinic	Dentist
Plumber	Plumber
Electrician	Electrician
HVAC company	HVACBusiness
Roofer	RoofingContractor
Auto repair shop	AutoRepair
Restaurant or cafe	Restaurant / CafeOrCoffeeShop
Hair or beauty salon	HairSalon / BeautySalon
Law office	LegalService or Attorney
Cleaning company	HomeAndConstructionBusiness

Which properties are required and which are recommended?

According to Google's LocalBusiness documentation, only name and address are required. Everything else is recommended, but the recommended list is where most of the value is. Fill in what is true and visible on your site; skip what does not apply.

Property	Status	What to enter
name	Required	Your exact business name
address	Required	Street, city, region, postal code, country
telephone	Recommended	Main number with country code
url	Recommended	Full URL of this location's page
openingHoursSpecification	Recommended	Days, opens, closes
geo	Recommended	Latitude and longitude, 5+ decimals
priceRange	Recommended	Short, under 100 characters, e.g. $$
image / logo	Useful	Photo of the business and logo URL
sameAs	Useful	Your Business Profile and social pages
menu / servesCuisine	Food only	Menu URL and cuisine type

What does a finished JSON-LD block contain?

You do not need to read code to understand it. A typical block for a plumber, described in words, contains these lines in order:

Because one typo or missing comma breaks the whole block, we suggest you generate it rather than type it. Our free LocalBusiness schema generator asks for your details in plain form fields and outputs clean JSON-LD ready to paste.

The context line, pointing to schema.org.
The type, here Plumber.
The name, exactly as on your sign and Business Profile.
An image and logo URL.
The address as a PostalAddress: street, city, region, postal code, country code.
The geo coordinates: latitude and longitude.
The telephone with country code, and the page URL.
Opening hours: for example Monday to Friday 08:00 to 18:00, Saturday 09:00 to 13:00.
A priceRange and a sameAs list linking your profiles.

What about service-area and remote businesses?

Many plumbers, cleaners, mobile detailers and remote studios do not serve customers at their address, and Google Business Profile lets service-area businesses hide it. Your schema should follow the same rule: if the address is hidden on your profile and not shown on your site, do not publish it in markup.

Practical options: keep a LocalBusiness subtype with only city, region and country in the address, plus areaServed listing the cities or regions you cover. Or, if you are fully remote with no local customer presence, use Organization (or ProfessionalService) with areaServed and contactPoint. Either way, the areas should match the service areas on your profile and your service pages.

For the bigger picture on ranking without a storefront, read SEO for service-area businesses.

Where do you paste the schema?

Put the main block on the page that best describes the business, usually the homepage or contact page. If you have several locations, give each its own page with its own LocalBusiness block and its own URL, phone and hours.

The block can live in the head or body of the page. How you add it depends on your platform:

WordPress: a header-and-footer code plugin, or your SEO plugin's local settings. Use one method, not both.
Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy: the custom code or structured data setting in site settings, applied to one page.
Custom site: ask your developer to add it to the template for the relevant page.
Shopify: the theme's layout or a dedicated app, again only once.

How do you test LocalBusiness schema?

Use two free tools after every change. Google's Rich Results Test shows whether Google can read the markup and flags errors and warnings for features it supports. The Schema Markup Validator at schema.org checks the block against the full vocabulary, which catches issues that Google's tool may not report.

Run both on the live URL, not only on pasted code, so you see what plugins and themes actually output. Then check the Enhancements area in Search Console over the following weeks; Google recrawls in its own time. A website health check is a quick way to spot other technical problems on the same page.

What are the most common schema mistakes?

These are the problems we find most often during audits. Most are easy to fix once you know to look.

Mistake	Why it matters	Fix
aggregateRating on your own business	Google does not show stars for self-serving reviews; risk of manual action if misleading	Remove it; collect Google reviews instead
Fake or invented reviews in markup	Violates review guidelines	Delete; only mark up real, visible content
NAP mismatch	Conflicting name, address or phone confuses engines	Match site, schema and Business Profile
Duplicate blocks from plugins	Two businesses with different data on one page	Keep one source; disable the other
Wrong or generic type	Weaker signal about what you do	Use the most specific subtype
Address shown for a hidden SAB address	Contradicts your profile	Use city, region and areaServed only
Hours not updated for holidays	Wrong info in search and AI answers	Update schema and profile together

How ITCM handles schema on client sites

When we rebuild or repair a site, including hacked WordPress sites we recover, schema is part of the cleanup. We often find two or three conflicting LocalBusiness blocks left by old SEO plugins and themes, sometimes with an outdated phone or an old address. We keep one source of truth, generated from the same business details the admin panel uses, so a change of hours updates the site and the markup together.

We also check the facts against the Google Business Profile and directory listings, because schema that matches your citations is the whole point. If you prefer to do it yourself, the generator and the two testing tools above are all you need; it is a reasonable DIY task for most owners.

Get a site with clean schema built free

If your current site is messy, slow or hard to update, ITCM will build your new website and installable app first, with clean LocalBusiness schema, 24/7 online booking, lead management, an admin panel and 3 design options. You see it finished, and you pay $150 one-time only if you are happy. Anything extra gets a fixed quote before any work begins.

See how it works on the free website offer page.

Frequently asked questions

Is LocalBusiness schema required to appear on Google Maps?: No. Map pack visibility comes mainly from your Google Business Profile, reviews, relevance and distance. Schema supports those signals by confirming your details on your website.
What are the required properties for LocalBusiness schema?: Google requires name and address. Telephone, url, openingHoursSpecification, geo and priceRange are recommended, and adding them is worthwhile when they are accurate.
Can I add review stars to my own LocalBusiness markup?: You can add the property, but Google does not show review stars for self-serving reviews on LocalBusiness or Organization markup. It is better left out.
Should I use JSON-LD or microdata?: JSON-LD. Google recommends it, and it keeps the markup separate from your visible design, which makes it easier to edit and less likely to break.
Do I need schema on every page?: No. Put the main LocalBusiness block on the page that best describes the business, usually the homepage or contact page, and one block per location page if you have several locations.
How long until Google picks up my schema?: It depends on when Google recrawls the page, typically days to a few weeks. You can request indexing for the page in Search Console to speed it up.
Does schema help with AI search answers?: It can. Clean structured data gives AI assistants and answer engines unambiguous facts about your hours, location and services, though no engine guarantees how it is used.

Get a website + app built for free

We build your website and mobile app first, and you see it finished. If you’re happy, you pay $150 one-time. If you’re not, you pay nothing.

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