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Running a local business and getting it noticed online isn’t as simple as listing your information on your website and hoping customers find you. It takes strategic optimization—particularly for local search.
One effective way to do this is knowing how to add LocalBusiness schema markup to your website. With that in your toolkit, you not only increase your chances of showing up in local packs and map listings, but can enhance your overall SEO visibility too.
LocalBusiness schema is a form of structured data markup by Schema.org, which can be added to your website to help search engines to understand your business. It provides detailed information like your business name, address, phone number, and operating hours.
LocalBusiness is actually a subtype of the broader Organization schema, designed for businesses that serve a specific area that allows businesses to include more relevant, location-based details.
With this schema type being used for your website, you make it easier for search engines to display your business details right in the search results, often in eye-catching formats called rich snippets. This means more chances for local customers to notice you and drive more traffic to your business.
While often overlooked, LocalBusiness schema plays a big role in enhancing your visibility in local search results. It allows search engines to better understand and present your business to the right audience at the right time. It’s a simple way to give your local SEO a powerful edge.
Author’s Note: Adding schema markups to your SEO strategy is an easy and indirect way of boosting your rankings and visibility on search. To support you in this, I’ve launched a series of practical guides. Start exploring with my tutorials on adding AggregateRatings, Organization, VideoObject, and Event schema to your site.
Getting the most out of your LocalBusiness schema involves adding the required and recommended properties. These include:
Property | Description | Required? |
@context | Always “https://schema.org” | Yes |
@type | Always “LocalBusiness” or a more specific subtype (e.g., “Restaurant”) | Yes |
name | Name of your business | Yes |
image | URL of your logo or relevant image | No, but recommended |
@id | Unique identifier for your business page (usually your homepage URL) | No, but recommended |
url | Website URL of the business | Yes |
telephone | Business phone number | Yes |
address | Full business address in PostalAddress format | Yes |
geo | Latitude and longitude of the business location (GeoCoordinates) | No, but recommended |
areaServed | The geographic area where a service or offered item is provided. | No, but recommended |
openingHoursSpecification | Days and times the business is open | No, but recommended |
priceRange | Typical cost range (e.g., “$$”, “₱₱₱”) | No, but recommended |
paymentAccepted | Cash, Credit Card, Cryptocurrency, Local Exchange Tradings System, etc. | No, but recommended |
sameAs | Links to social media or business profiles (e.g., Facebook, Google Maps) | Optional |
aggregateRating | Average rating from reviews | No, but recommended |
review | Individual customer reviews | Optional but helpful |
Adding LocalBusiness schema markup is easier than you might think, and well, worth the effort. With just a few steps, search engines can understand and highlight your business in the local search results better.
Start by collecting all the important details about your business. Here’s what you’ll need:
Having all of this information ready will make it easier to add your LocalBusiness schema markup, while ensuring that your business is accurately and consistently represented across search results.
Google strongly prefers the JSON-LD format for adding structured data to a webpage. It is easy to implement, cleanly separates code from content, and allows search engines to efficiently read and process the information.
Here’s an example (that you can also modify and use):
<script type=“application/ld+json”>
{
“@context”: “https://schema.org”,
“@type”: “LocalBusiness”,
“name”: “SEO Hacker”,
“url”: “https://seo-hacker.com/”,
“image”: “https://seo-hacker.com/wp-content/themes/SEO-Hacker/img/seohacker.svg”,
“logo”: “https://seo-hacker.com/wp-content/themes/SEO-Hacker/img/seohacker.svg”,
“telephone”: “+63917-155-3379”,
“email”: “info@seo-hacker.com”,
“address”: {
“@type”: “PostalAddress”,
“streetAddress”: “3F, Unit C, C&C building, Aguirre Avenue, BF Homes”,
“addressLocality”: “Paranaque”,
“addressRegion”: “Metro Manila”,
“postalCode”: “1720”,
“addressCountry”: “PH”
},
“openingHours”: “Mo-Fr 09:00-18:00”,
“priceRange”: “$$”,
“aggregateRating”: {
“@type”: “AggregateRating”,
“ratingValue”: “4.9”,
“ratingCount”: 18
},
“contactPoint”: {
“@type”: “ContactPoint”,
“telephone”: “+639171553379”,
“contactType”: “sales”
},
“sameAs”:[[
“https://plus.google.com/+Seohackerpage/about”,
“https://seo-hacker.com/”,
“https://seo-hacker.org/”,
“https://www.facebook.com/SEOHacker/“,
“https://twitter.com/seo_hacker”,
“https://www.linkedin.com/company/seo-hacker”
]
}
script>
You can customize these values with any of the relevant details of your business.
Once you’ve created your JSON-LD schema markup, copy the entire block and paste it into your website’s HTML—either in the section or just before the closing tag.
If you’re using a CMS like WordPress, you can easily insert the code using a plugin or by adding it to a custom HTML block.
After adding your LocalBusiness schema, it is important that you should test it using tools like Google’s Rich Results Test.
It’s a quick way to check if your markup is working properly, see what features might show up in search, and identify errors or warnings you might need to fix.
To ensure your LocalBusiness schema delivers the best results, it’s important to follow key best practices:
Adding LocalBusiness schema markup to your website is an easy way to get noticed in local search results.With the right info in the right format (and keeping everything consistent), you will boost your chances of attracting more local customers and staying ahead of the competition.
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