Local SEO is a major factor for businesses looking to leverage local search results to drive more traffic, and subsequent conversions. This can have big time benefits for local businesses like restaurants, contractors, lawyers, doctors, and other businesses serving a local community.
When it comes to local SEO, schema continues to be a viable search optimization strategy. “Schema helps local professionals gain traffic driving rich snippets in Google search results,” SEO expert Kevin Yeaman of Colorado SEO explained. “Local SEOs know the value of schema, and utilizing it can have profit boosting potential.”
This is why schema is the core of markup data, letting search engines like Google better understand location information for local businesses, such as addresses, phone numbers, business type, hours of operation, and more.
Here’s what schema looks like:
You can see that the type of business, address, and phone number are represented when schema is done right at the local SEO level.
Schema data is used in rich snippets, video carousels, and other search engine displays to satisfy search intent and make search results enticing on a user experience level.
Let’s take a closer look at what schema markup is, how it benefits businesses in terms of local SEO, and what schema markup data you can utilize for a local competitive edge on search engines.
What Is Schema Exactly?
Schema was created to deliver groups of tags that search engines can draw from in order to better understand display data. Major search engines like Google and Bing use schema markup to make this happen.
Local SEOs and SEO experts can use schema markup within their overall SEO strategy to help local businesses appear in carousels, answer boxes, etc. in search engine result pages. The schema markup helps search engines understand the local businesses better, thus generating the best results and user experience for the search engine user.
For example, if someone needs a local dentist, they can Google search “dentists near me” and dentist practices that utilize schema will appear in answer boxes, in carousel cards (like the example image above), and on Google local business directories.
All Local Businesses Can Benefit From Schema
Nearly all businesses can benefit from a strong schema SEO strategy. Local businesses that serve a specific community will get the most benefits. Schema helps local businesses gain the local competitive edge they need for more online traffic and thus walk-in business.
One major aspect of local SEO schema is the generated search engine results page display information that is specific to a local business. This also adds credibility to local businesses, since higher page one positions are often seen as reputable among search users.
Local business types that can benefit from schema and the rich snippets they generate are law firms, doctor offices, restaurants, sandwich shops, electronic repair stores, plumbers, construction companies, and even global companies that have brick and mortar locations in a community, like cell phone providers.
What Schema Structured Data You Should Consider
Schema on the surface seems pretty simple when it comes to local SEO. However, there is structured data markup code that needs to be in place in order for search engines to draw from the data. Optimizing your website for local SEO is of course the first step. Then begin thinking about the local business schema needed.
Local SEO schema data includes:
- Type of business (specifically) like “personal injury” law
- Legal name of your business
- Business address (including zip code)
- Business telephone number (including local area code)
- Image of your business
- Company logo used by your local business
- Hours of operation with holiday hours, and days closed
- URL for your website
- Business description (services offered, etc.)
- Geo coordinates of your business (Google maps can draw from this)
Developing Your Local Business Schema Markup Code
Local SEOs know how to implement schema markup to help your local business gain the local traction you need and want to get more customers. Buy you can also develop the schema markup code yourself to enhance your local search engine results.
Here is an example of what schema markup code looks like for a local small business:
<div itemscope
itemtype=”https://schema.org/localbusiness”>
<span itemprop=”name”>local business name</span>
<span itemprop=”address”>local business address</span>
<span itemprop=”telephone”>local business telephone</span>
</div>
In Conclusion . . .
There are a ton of reasons a local business should use schema. The above highlights a few, and if schema markup is not part of your local SEO strategy, you may be losing a lot of business. And you can bet your local competitors are using schema. Maximize your search engine presence with schema and increase your revenue.