LocalBusiness Schema Template and Entity Checklist

The short answer

LocalBusiness schema should describe a real customer-facing location with the most specific valid type and facts that match the visible location page, including name, URL, address, phone, and hours when applicable.

Business outcome

Local facts become easier to reconcile and maintain, reducing the chance that search and AI answers repeat an old address, wrong hours, or ambiguous location.

The process

Build it in five passes

Model locations correctly

Decide whether the business has one location, multiple distinct locations, a service area, or no public premises. Give each real location a durable URL and do not invent storefront details for a remote or service-area business.

Reconcile public facts

Compare the location page, footer, contact flow, Google Business Profile, Bing Places, Apple Business Connect, major industry directories, map listings, and licensing sources where relevant. Fix contradictions in the authoritative systems first.

Choose the most specific true type

Use the most specific Schema.org LocalBusiness subtype that accurately describes the location. Add name, url, image, address, telephone, openingHoursSpecification, geo, priceRange, and parentOrganization only when current and visible.

Handle departments and practitioners carefully

Do not flatten every practitioner, department, and location into one entity. Give independent entities stable identifiers and connect them with appropriate relationships. Avoid duplicate address objects with conflicting names or phones.

Validate and create a change process

Test syntax and visible-content alignment, then define who updates holidays, moves, phone changes, temporary closures, and new locations. Structured data cannot repair stale business profiles by itself.

Before it ships

Quality checklist

Each real location has one canonical page and stable identifier.
Name, address, phone, URL, and hours match customer-facing sources.
The business subtype is specific and factually correct.
Service-area or remote status is represented without a fake storefront.
Departments, practitioners, and parent organization are not conflated.
Holiday, closure, move, and phone-change ownership is documented.

Copyable artifact

Single-location JSON-LD starter

Replace the type and values with facts visible on the same location page. Remove any field that is not true or maintained.

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "LocalBusiness",
  "@id": "https://www.example.com/locations/boston/#location",
  "name": "Example Company - Boston",
  "url": "https://www.example.com/locations/boston/",
  "image": "https://www.example.com/images/boston-location.jpg",
  "telephone": "+1-617-555-0100",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "streetAddress": "100 Example Street",
    "addressLocality": "Boston",
    "addressRegion": "MA",
    "postalCode": "02110",
    "addressCountry": "US"
  },
  "openingHoursSpecification": [{
    "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification",
    "dayOfWeek": ["Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday"],
    "opens": "09:00",
    "closes": "17:00"
  }],
  "parentOrganization": {
    "@id": "https://www.example.com/#organization"
  }
}
</script>

Validation

How you know it is ready

01A customer can find the same key facts on the visible location page.
02Map and major profile records agree with the canonical location facts.
03The production markup validates and references the correct organization entity.

Do not overclaim

LocalBusiness markup can clarify a location but does not override contradictory profiles, guarantee local rankings, or guarantee inclusion in an AI answer. Local visibility also depends on relevance, distance, prominence, and platform-specific data.

Questions

What teams usually ask

Should every city served get a LocalBusiness page?

No. Create pages for real locations or genuinely distinct service information, not doorway pages made by swapping city names.

What if customers cannot visit the address?

Do not present it as a storefront. Model and publish the business according to its true service-area or remote operation and the rules of each business-profile platform.

Does schema fix incorrect map listings?

No. Correct the authoritative profile or directory directly. Schema is one aligned source, not a universal override.

Sources reviewed

LocalBusiness schema template