LocalBusiness Schema: A Practical Guide with Examples

LocalBusiness schema is a block of structured data on your website that tells Google, unambiguously, what your business is called, where it is, when it is open and what it does. It does not rank you on its own. It does give Google an authoritative source to reconcile your Business Profile and citations against, it can produce rich results, and it is increasingly what AI answers read when they describe a business. Here is how to add it properly.

Choose the right type

LocalBusiness is the generic type. Schema.org has more specific subtypes and Google prefers the most specific one that applies:

Business	Type
Plumber, electrician, roofer, locksmith	Plumber, Electrician, RoofingContractor, Locksmith (under HomeAndConstructionBusiness)
Dentist, physio, GP, clinic	Dentist, Physiotherapy, MedicalClinic, Physician
Restaurant, café, bar	Restaurant, CafeOrCoffeeShop, BarOrPub
Solicitor, accountant	LegalService (or Attorney), AccountingService
Estate agent	RealEstateAgent
Salon, gym, garage	HairSalon, BeautySalon, HealthClub, AutoRepair
Anything else	LocalBusiness

The properties that matter

• name — exactly as on the Business Profile
• address — a PostalAddress with streetAddress, addressLocality, postalCode, addressCountry: "GB"
• telephone — in international format: +44 20 8000 0000
• url — the page's canonical URL
• image — a real photo of the premises or logo, absolute URL
• geo — GeoCoordinates with latitude and longitude (right-click the pin in Google Maps to get them)
• openingHoursSpecification — matching the profile
• priceRange — "££" style, optional
• areaServed — towns or regions, especially for service-area businesses
• sameAs — links to your Google Maps listing, Facebook, Checkatrade and other profiles, so Google can connect the entities
• hasMap — the Google Maps URL of your listing

Do not add aggregateRating from Google reviews. Google's guidelines say self-serving reviews markup — ratings you did not collect on your own site — should not be used, and it can trigger a manual action. Only mark up reviews genuinely collected and displayed on the page.

Example

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Dentist",
  "@id": "https://example.co.uk/#business",
  "name": "Bright Smiles Dental",
  "url": "https://example.co.uk/",
  "image": "https://example.co.uk/img/practice-exterior.jpg",
  "telephone": "+44 161 000 0000",
  "priceRange": "££",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "streetAddress": "22 Market Street",
    "addressLocality": "Didsbury, Manchester",
    "postalCode": "M20 1AA",
    "addressCountry": "GB"
  },
  "geo": { "@type": "GeoCoordinates", "latitude": 53.4185, "longitude": -2.2310 },
  "openingHoursSpecification": [
    { "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": ["Monday","Tuesday","Wednesday","Thursday"], "opens": "08:30", "closes": "18:00" },
    { "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "Friday", "opens": "08:30", "closes": "16:00" }
  ],
  "hasMap": "https://maps.google.com/?cid=1234567890",
  "sameAs": [
    "https://www.facebook.com/brightsmilesdidsbury",
    "https://www.doctify.com/uk/practice/bright-smiles"
  ]
}
</script>

Where to put it

On the page that represents the business: the homepage for a single-location business, and each location page for multi-location businesses (with that branch's data and a distinct @id). Once per page, in the <head> or at the end of the body. Do not paste the same block on every page of the site — Google reads it as the page's subject, and a blog post is not your business.

WordPress

Yoast, RankMath and SEOPress all output LocalBusiness schema from their settings; use one, fill in every field, and check the output rather than assuming it. If you add a manual block as well you will have two conflicting entities. Elementor and page-builder "schema" widgets frequently produce invalid or duplicate markup — validate.

Validate

Paste the page URL into Google's Rich Results Test and the Schema Markup Validator. Fix every error; warnings about optional properties can be ignored. Then check Search Console's "Enhancements" reports over the following weeks for detected items.

Keep it in sync

The whole point is consistency. When the phone number, hours or address change, the schema changes the same day as the profile. Add it to the same checklist as the citations.

Schema is included in the website work on the Standard and Premium plans, and checked in every audit.

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