Schema markup is code that helps search engines and AI systems understand your website. Without it, machines have to guess what your content means. With it, you tell them directly.
You don't need to be technical to understand why this matters. You just need to know that AI systems prefer explicit information over inference, and schema markup is how you provide it.
The problem schema solves
Your website has information about your business: name, address, hours, services, reviews. To a human reading the page, this makes sense. To a machine, it's just text.
Consider your business address. On your site, it might appear as "123 Main Street, Austin, TX 78701" in your footer. A human knows that's where you're located. A machine sees a string of text that could mean anything.
Pro Tip
Schema markup wraps that text in code that says "this is a postal address, and here's the street, city, state, and zip broken out." Now the machine understands exactly what the text means.
Why AI cares about schema
AI systems making recommendations need to understand businesses clearly. They're pulling information from millions of websites and trying to organize it into coherent knowledge about local businesses.
Schema markup makes that job easier. When your site has proper schema, AI can extract your business information with confidence. When it doesn't, the AI has to guess, and guesses can be wrong.
"All else being equal, AI systems will prefer businesses they understand clearly over ones they're uncertain about. Schema markup creates clarity."
Schema types that matter for local businesses
LocalBusiness is the foundation. It defines your business name, address, phone, hours, and general category. Every local business website should have this.
More specific types are better when they exist. If you're a plumber, use the Plumber schema type. If you're a salon, use BeautySalon. These give AI more context about exactly what kind of business you are.
AggregateRating displays your overall review statistics. If you have 4.8 stars from 350 reviews, schema makes that machine-readable.
Review marks up individual reviews on your site. If you display testimonials, structuring them helps AI understand they're customer feedback.
Service describes what you offer. Each service you provide can be defined separately with its own description.
OpeningHoursSpecification tells AI when you're open. This is important for time-sensitive recommendations.
How schema appears on your site
Schema markup lives in your website's code, not in the visible content. It's typically added as a JSON-LD script in your page's head section.
You won't see it when you look at your website, but AI systems see it when they crawl your pages. It's metadata—information about your information.
How to implement it
If you're using WordPress, there are plugins like Yoast SEO and Schema Pro that add schema markup without requiring you to touch code. Most modern website builders have similar options.
If you have a custom website, your developer will need to add the JSON-LD manually. It's not difficult—any competent developer can implement basic LocalBusiness schema in an hour or two.
Pro Tip
After implementation, test with Google's Rich Results Test. Paste your URL and it will show what schema it detects and flag any errors.
What happens without schema
Your website still works. Humans can still find and read it. But you're making AI systems do extra work to understand you, and some of them won't bother.
Important
In a competitive market where AI recommendations matter, that extra friction can be the difference between getting recommended and being overlooked. Schema markup removes that friction.
Further Reading
- Schema.org LocalBusiness Documentation — Complete specification with all available properties
- Google's Structured Data Guidelines — How Google interprets LocalBusiness schema
- Google Rich Results Test — Free tool to validate your implementation
- Local SEO Schema Guide — Search Engine Journal's comprehensive implementation guide
Amadeus Peterson is the CTO of Cheers, the GEO platform for local service businesses.