At some point, someone may tell you your website needs “schema”. It sounds technical, and the sales pitch often comes with promises of star ratings and extra boxes in Google’s results. Some of that is true. Some of it is out of date. Some of it was never guaranteed in the first place. Here’s what structured data actually does for a small business website.
Structured data is genuinely useful for many small business websites. It’s just worth understanding what it does, what it doesn’t, and which rules apply before you pay anyone to add it.
Here’s a plain-English guide.
What structured data is
Structured data is extra code on a page that describes its content in a standard format search engines can read easily. Most sites use the vocabulary from schema.org, usually written in a format called JSON-LD, which sits in the page code and isn’t visible to visitors.
Think of it as a labelled form alongside your page. Your web page might say “Open Monday to Friday, 9 till 5” in a nice design. The structured data says the same thing in a way a machine can’t misread: opening hours, these days, these times.
It can help Google understand your business, and in some cases makes a page eligible for enhanced search results, known as rich results. The key word is eligible.
What it doesn’t do
- It’s not a direct ranking boost. Google has said structured data isn’t a general ranking factor. It helps understanding and presentation, not position.
- It doesn’t guarantee rich results. Even with perfect markup, Google decides whether to show enhanced results, and it changes which types it supports over time.
- It can’t make up for a weak page. If the content isn’t useful, labelling it neatly won’t help much.
Structured data helps search engines understand what’s already on your page. It’s a label, not a lever.
The types worth knowing about
LocalBusiness and Organization
For most small businesses, this is the most useful place to start. LocalBusiness markup, or a more specific subtype such as Plumber, Dentist or Restaurant where one fits, describes your business name, address, phone number, opening hours, website, logo and the area you serve. Organization markup is the general equivalent for businesses without a public location.
It usually belongs on your homepage or contact page, and for multi-location businesses, on each location page with that branch’s details. The information must match what’s on the page and on your Google Business Profile.
Breadcrumbs
Breadcrumb markup describes where a page sits in your site’s structure, such as Home, then Services, then Roof Repairs. It can help Google display that path in results. Many SEO plugins add it automatically.
Products and articles
If you sell online, Product markup can describe price, availability and other details, and e-commerce platforms often include it. Article markup can help with blog posts and news content. Check what your platform already outputs before adding more, as duplicated or conflicting markup causes problems.
FAQ markup: a caveat
FAQ markup was once widely recommended because it could produce expandable questions under your listing. Google has since significantly limited when it shows FAQ rich results, and at the time of writing most business sites shouldn’t expect to see them. There’s no harm in having clear FAQs on a page, which are useful to visitors anyway, but don’t pay for FAQ markup on the promise of extra space in search results.
The rules on reviews and ratings
This is where businesses most often get it wrong. Star ratings in search results are appealing, so plenty of sites add review markup to their own homepage or service pages. Google’s guidelines don’t allow star rich results for reviews a business collects and displays about itself on its own site for LocalBusiness or Organization markup. So adding it is unlikely to produce stars, and can put you on the wrong side of the guidelines.
More generally:
- Only mark up reviews and ratings that are genuinely visible on the page.
- Never mark up invented, copied or selectively edited reviews.
- Don’t use markup to describe anything that isn’t true or isn’t shown to visitors.
Misleading structured data can lead Google to ignore it or, in serious cases, take manual action against a site. Your Google reviews already appear on your Business Profile, which is where most local customers see them.
How to add it and check it
- See what you already have. Paste a page into Google’s Rich Results Test or the Schema Markup Validator. Many themes and plugins add markup without you knowing.
- Use your platform’s tools first. Popular SEO plugins can generate LocalBusiness, breadcrumb and article markup through settings rather than code.
- Keep it accurate and consistent with your visible content, especially name, address, phone and opening hours.
- Test after changes. Run the test again whenever you update the site or change plugins.
- Watch Search Console. It reports structured data it has found and any errors, under its enhancements reports where applicable.
Is it worth paying for?
For a typical small business, basic LocalBusiness and breadcrumb markup is a sensible, fairly quick job, often part of a wider technical review rather than a standalone project. Be wary of anyone charging a lot for markup on the promise of stars or rankings. If you’d like it set up properly and checked against Google’s current guidelines, our technical SEO service covers it, alongside the local SEO work it supports.
