What is LocalBusiness schema?

What is structured data and JSON-LD

Structured data is "a standardized format for providing information about a page and classifying the page content," the way a recipe page might label "the ingredients, the cooking time and temperature, the calories" (Google, 2026). LocalBusiness is one specific type within that system. Google recommends writing it as JSON-LD, "a JavaScript notation embedded in a script tag," specifically because this is "less prone to user errors" than marking up visible page content directly (Google, 2026), a format standardized by the W3C as "a JSON-based format to serialize Linked Data" designed to "easily integrate into deployed systems that already use JSON" (W3C, 2020). The actual vocabulary, the list of types and properties like LocalBusiness, Person, and priceRange, comes from Schema.org, "a collaborative, community activity with a mission to create, maintain, and promote schemas for structured data on the Internet" (Schema.org, 2026), a shared project rather than something any single search engine owns.

The LocalBusiness fields that matter

Schema.org documents a long list of possible LocalBusiness properties, though a handful carry most of the practical value: name, address, and telephone for core identity, openingHoursSpecification for real hours, geo for distance-based matching, and priceRange for budget-sensitive queries (Schema.org, 2026). When a customer asks an AI engine whether a dentist is open on Saturdays, the engine needs a clean, unambiguous answer, not a sentence to interpret. A page stating hours only in paragraph text forces the engine to infer the answer, and inference is where errors and missed citations happen.

Picking the right subtype

Schema.org documents dozens of specific subtypes, including Restaurant, Dentist, MedicalBusiness, LodgingBusiness, and Store, and using the closest matching subtype instead of the generic LocalBusiness type gives engines a stronger, more specific signal about what a business actually does (Schema.org, 2026). A dental practice marked up as Dentist is a cleaner match for "dentist near me" than the same practice marked up as generic LocalBusiness, even though both are technically valid.

Name, address, and phone consistency

The facts inside your LocalBusiness schema only help if they match what every other system already believes about your business. Google states that local search results are "mainly based on relevance, distance, and popularity" (Google, 2026), and that relevance depends on how well a Business Profile matches a search, which requires complete, accurate information to assess in the first place. Google is direct that "businesses with complete and accurate info are more likely to show up in local search results" (Google, 2026), and inconsistent details, "Smith Moving Co." on your site versus "Smith Moving Company LLC" on a directory, can make it harder for any system to confirm every listing describes the same business. Keep your name, address, and phone number identical across your website, your Google Business Profile, and every directory you appear on, and make sure your schema matches all of them exactly.

How schema helps AI and Google recognize your business as an entity

Google's Knowledge Graph, introduced in 2012, models "real-world entities and their relationships to one another: things, not strings" (Google, 2012), launching with "more than 500 million objects" and "more than 3.5 billion facts" connecting them (Google, 2012). Today that model surfaces through knowledge panels, "information boxes that appear on Google when you search for entities (people, places, organizations, things) that are in the Knowledge Graph" (Google, 2026). A panel only appears for entities Google has already recognized with enough confidence, and accurate, specific structured data, combined with consistent facts everywhere else you appear, is one of the clearest ways to help a business be recognized as one distinct thing rather than a loose bundle of matching keywords.

A related type to know: FAQPage schema

FAQPage is a separate Schema.org type for marking up visible questions and answers. It used to earn an expandable rich result directly inside Google's search results, but Google's own documentation confirms that feature "is no longer shown in Google Search results" as of May 7, 2026 (Google, 2026), after years of narrowing eligibility first to "well-known, authoritative government and health websites" in 2023 (Google, 2026). The type itself is not deprecated by Schema.org and remains valid, documented vocabulary; what changed is specifically Google's decision to stop rendering it as a visual snippet. Add it if you already have a genuine, visible FAQ section worth structuring, not because it will earn a Google rich result today.

What to do about it

• Build a paste-ready block with the correct subtype using the free LocalBusiness Schema Generator.
• Give every physical location its own accurate block rather than duplicating one block sitewide.
• Never invent an aggregateRating or review; a fabricated number is worse than no schema at all.
• Keep schema and visible page text in exact agreement, especially hours, phone number, and address, and match both to your Google Business Profile.
• Test new markup with Google's free Rich Results Test before publishing, and recheck any time a real-world fact changes.