Schema Markup, Explained Without the Jargon

Schema markup is a block of structured data hidden in your page's code that states, unambiguously, what your business is: the name, the address, the hours, the services, the area served. Visitors never see it. Search engines read it first.

Without it, Google is inferring. It reads your page like a person would and makes educated guesses about which string of digits is a phone number and whether 'Dewey' is a place or a surname. It's usually right. Usually is doing a lot of work in that sentence.

With it, there's nothing to infer. You've stated the facts in a format built for machines, and the machine can act on them with confidence. For a local business competing on proximity and relevance, removing ambiguity is free ranking insurance.

There are a handful of types worth having. LocalBusiness or ProfessionalService establishes the entity itself. Service describes what you sell. FAQPage marks up your questions and answers, and can win you extra space in the results. Review and AggregateRating surface your star rating. BreadcrumbList gives you the navigation trail under your listing.

The FAQ one is the highest return for the least effort, with one condition: the answers have to be visible on the page. Marking up questions that a visitor can't see violates Google's guidelines and the markup gets ignored at best.

You can check what your site currently has using Google's Rich Results Test. Paste your URL in. If it comes back empty, that's not a crisis — it's an afternoon of work and a meaningful advantage over every competitor who hasn't bothered.