Schema markup for small businesses: where to start

Schema.org markup is a shared vocabulary that lets you tell machines exactly what is on a page: this is a business, this is a service, this is an article by this author. Search engines use it for rich results, and AI systems use it to reduce ambiguity.

The types to add first

• Organization (or LocalBusiness): your name, logo, URL, contact details and social profiles.
• WebSite: the site name and, if you have one, a search action.
• Service or Product: what you sell, who provides it and where.
• Article / BlogPosting: for blog content, with author and dates.
• FAQPage: only where real questions and answers appear on the page.
• BreadcrumbList: helps explain site structure.

Use JSON-LD

JSON-LD is a script block in the page that holds the data. Google recommends it because it is separate from your HTML and easier to maintain.

Rules that keep you safe

• Only mark up what users can see on the page.
• Keep names, phone numbers and addresses consistent with your other profiles.
• Validate with a structured-data testing tool before shipping.
• Do not mark up reviews you cannot show or invent ratings. That risks penalties.

A note on FAQ rich results

Google has limited FAQ rich results to a narrow set of sites in search. FAQ markup is still useful because it clearly structures questions and answers for other systems, but do not expect expandable results in Google for most sites.

For how this fits into a wider plan, read our Next.js SEO checklist.