Schema markup is a small block of code, invisible to visitors, that labels the facts on your page in a format search engines and AI systems can read without guessing. Your address is marked as an address, your hours as hours, your service area as a service area. It does not make a bad site rank, but it removes ambiguity about what a good site is.
Why it matters more now
Classic search could infer a lot from text. AI-generated answers and assistants lean harder on explicit, consistent facts: is this a plumber or a plumbing supplier, is it in Preston or Prestons, is it open now. Structured data is the clearest way to state those facts once, in a form every system understands.
The types a local business needs
- LocalBusiness (or a specific subtype such as Plumber, Dentist, Restaurant): name, address, phone, opening hours, service area, price range.
- Service: each main service with a description and area served.
- FAQPage: your real questions and answers, which AI answers draw on.
- Article or BlogPosting: for articles like this one.
- Review or AggregateRating: only for genuine reviews displayed on the page, within Google's rules.
What it does not do
It does not guarantee rich results, stars in listings, or a mention in an AI answer. It does not fix thin content. Marking up facts that are wrong or inconsistent with your Google profile can make things worse, because now you have stated the contradiction formally.
How it is added
Most modern sites generate it automatically from the content, or a developer adds a JSON-LD block to the page template. It is an hour or two of work on a small site and should be part of any build that claims "basic SEO setup". Test it with Google's Rich Results Test after any change to hours, address or services.
Keep it true
The rule is simple: only mark up what is visible on the page and true in the real world. If your hours change, change them on the page, in the schema and on Google the same day.
Structured data review is part of YINO's search visibility work, and included in the basic setup on new website packages.
