# Structured Data for Local Businesses > Use LocalBusiness and Organization markup to describe your name, address, phone, and hours accurately, and skip markup that no longer does anything. Canonical: https://vassalmarketing.com/information/structured-data-for-local-businesses/ **Maintained by Vassal Marketing** ยท Last updated on September 26, 2026 Reviewed at least quarterly and whenever a platform or rule it cites changes. General information, not legal or professional advice. Check rules that affect your business with a qualified professional. Structured data restates your key business facts in code search engines read reliably. It must match what visitors see on the page. ## Why this matters Structured data is code, usually a JSON-LD block, that labels facts like your business name, address, phone, and hours. It helps Google read those facts from your site without guessing. It's a small, low-risk job that is often oversold. Valid markup makes a page eligible for some search features, not entitled to them. Several once-popular types no longer show anything. ## Recommended practices ### Pick the most specific type Google recommends the most specific type that fits, such as Plumber, HVACBusiness, or HairSalon, all LocalBusiness types on schema.org. Put general Organization details on your homepage or About page. ### Mark up the core facts Google requires name and address for LocalBusiness and recommends phone, website URL, opening hours, and map coordinates. Schema.org's areaServed can list service areas, though Google's local business documentation doesn't list it. ### Match the visible page Google's guidelines say not to mark up content visitors can't see. If the markup lists Saturday hours, the page should show them. If customers don't visit your address and it isn't shown, use Organization markup without it. ### Skip markup that won't pay off Review stars don't appear for reviews a business collects about itself; Google calls these self-serving. FAQ rich results stopped showing in May 2026, and HowTo results were removed in 2023. ### Test before and after publishing Run key pages through Google's Rich Results Test and fix any errors. Recheck after redesigns or plugin changes, which often break or duplicate markup. ## What to do next 1. List the facts to mark up: name, address, phone, hours, website, and logo. 2. Confirm each fact appears in the visible text of the page. 3. Add the most specific LocalBusiness type to each real location page. 4. Test each page in the Rich Results Test and fix errors. 5. Update the markup whenever hours, phone numbers, or addresses change. ## Avoid these shortcuts - Adding review or rating markup for your own testimonials - Marking up hours, prices, or areas that aren't shown on the page - Adding FAQ or HowTo markup expecting enhanced results - Letting several plugins output conflicting business markup ## Questions business owners ask ### Will structured data improve my rankings? Google doesn't describe it as a ranking boost. It helps Google understand your facts and can make pages eligible for certain features, but valid markup doesn't mean a feature will appear. ### Should I remove old FAQ markup? There's no need to add more, since Google no longer shows FAQ rich results. Existing FAQ markup that matches the page can be removed during your next routine cleanup. ### Do I need a developer to add it? Often not. Many website platforms and SEO plugins generate it. Check the output in the Rich Results Test, because plugin defaults can be wrong or duplicated. ## Primary guidance - [Google: Local business structured data](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/local-business) - [Google: General structured data guidelines](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/sd-policies) - [Google: Review snippet guidelines (self-serving reviews)](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/review-snippet) Search visibility, rankings, calls, leads, and revenue are not guaranteed. ## Related SEO guides - [Technical SEO and Website Health](https://vassalmarketing.com/information/technical-seo.md): Make sure search engines can crawl and index your important pages, and that those pages load quickly and work well on phones. - [Local SEO Beyond Your Google Profile](https://vassalmarketing.com/information/local-seo.md): Strengthen the local signals outside your Google Business Profile: your website, directory listings, Bing Places, Apple Maps, Yelp, and local links. - [AI Overviews, AI Mode, and AI Search Assistants](https://vassalmarketing.com/information/ai-search-and-ai-overviews.md): What AI Overviews and AI Mode are, how they affect clicks, how they appear in Search Console, and what a small business can realistically do. [Explore all SEO guides](https://vassalmarketing.com/information/seo.md).