Have you created a website for your local business? Rightly so, these days a website is a must. However, with so much competition, you may struggle to get your site visible online, and this will make it harder for potential customers to find your business. One thing you can do to help improve your visibility in search results is to implement the LocalBusiness schema. It sounds mysterious, but I promise that once you read this article, everything will become clear!
What is schema.org and what is it used for?
Structural data schema.org is, according to Google's definition a standard format for sharing information about the site and classifying its content. This is a joint initiative between Google, Yahoo!, Bing and Yandex - a unified metadata dictionary that aims to improve search engines' understanding of information on pages and increase the relevance of search results. In a nutshell, therefore, implementing structured data involves translating content from a website into the schema.org language and placing this translation in the appropriate places on the page. Such correctly implemented structured data is a big help for robots when selecting results.
How to implement them? The recommended method is JavaScript code JSON-LDwhich is embedded in the header <head> or page content <body>. Those familiar with the schema.org language specification can write the code by hand. However, such code can also be generated using tools such as schema generator (e.g. Schema Markup Generator or Markup Helper from Google). Using these tools involves selecting the relevant tag (e.g. FAQ, reviews, event) and filling in the form or marking the relevant sections on the page preview with structured data.
The most popular tag categories
By reading the paragraph above, you have already become familiar with some categories of structured data markup. However, the schema.org dictionary itself describes many more tags that you can apply to your site.
Among the most popular, it is worth mentioning:
person - present a person
product - present the product
recipe - present the recipe
video - present video
article - present the article
local business - represent information about a company that operates locally. It is this tag that we are interested in in the article, and we will return to it later.
However, before we focus on LocalBusiness schema, it is still worth noting that, in the beginning, micro-marker schemas only described static objects, e.g. events, dates, products. However, this changed in April 2014, when schema.org was introduced to schema. a new type of tag, namely Action tags. These are tags for dynamic objects such as watching a video or placing an order. Action tags allow the search engine to understand the actions described on the site.
Importantly, if your site is based on WordPress, you can take advantage of special plug-ins for simple data implementation for example:
Schema - All In One Schema Rich Snippets - is a free plugin with the following categories: reviews, events, people, products, recipes, apps, videos, articles
WP SEO Structured Data Schema - the free version supports the following categories: organisations, local businesses, news, blog posts, events, products, videos, services, reviews, ratings, restaurants, but more options are available in the paid version
LocalBusiness structured data - what can it be used to describe?
The LocalBusiness tag applies to businesses that operate locally. These include, for example, coffee shops, beauty salons, hairdressers, restaurants or car repair shops. More business categories can be found here. With the help of this structured data, you can describe your company information and thus increase your chances of appearing in the extended search results.
How does this work in practice? When web users search for a particular business in or on Google Maps, a highly visible location may appear to them in search results with augmented elements a knowledge panel about a particular company or a carousel with business cards of relevant companies matching the enquiry. If internet users search for "best hairdresser in Warsaw", for example, and you have entered the relevant LocalBusiness structured data, your business may be displayed to them. Thanks to the structured data of businesses operating locally, you can provide, for example, information about opening hours and customer reviews.
How to apply the LocalBusiness schema?
Although you can add structured LocalBusiness data to any sub-page on your website, it is best to place it on the company information page. Above all, remember to use the most detailed LocalBusiness subtype possible, e.g. FinancialService, Restaurant, DaySpa, HealthClub, HomeAndConstructionBusiness, etc.
So that the content can display in the results with extended elements, you must apply the required properties. You can add recommended properties in addition to the required ones. In this way, you will enrich the information on your content and enhance the user experience.
Read also: Local SEO - tips to get you started
The required properties are:
- company name
- physical location of the company (address)
Recommended properties include:
- average rating of a company operating locally calculated on the basis of multiple ratings or opinions (aggregateRating)
- department
- geographical coordinates of the company's location (geo)
- the latitude of the company's location (geo.latitude)
- geographical longitude of the company's location (geo.longitude)
- full address URL menu
- openingHoursSpecification)
- telephone number used as the main method of contacting customers from companies (telephone)
- the full URL of the company site in question
- the company's relative price range (priceRange)
You know what a LocalBusiness schema is and the required and recommended properties for this type of structured data. Now it's time to find out how to implement them your website. If your site is based on WordPress, you know that you can use plugins to make your work easier. If you opt for the traditional path, you want to add data using the JSON-LD format and embed them in the tag, in the section of the page, then of course you must first write or (more safely) generate the appropriate script. To see how to implement structured data without using plug-ins, see this step-by-step guide.
Summary - why use the LocalBusiness schema?
There are many different pieces of information we can include with the help of structured data: product information, posts, user ratings and business location data, the ones we have given most attention to in the article. Remember that by including the LocalBusiness schema in your site's code, you are making search engines able to better understand your business and can position your company higher in search results.
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