Your website already says what you do. A person reads your service page and understands it in seconds. A machine has to guess. Is that number a phone number or a price? Is the town in your footer where you work, or just where you are based?
Schema markup removes that guessing. You do not need to know how to code to understand it. This guide explains what it is, the five types that matter most for a small business, and how to check your own site in about ten minutes.
Start with Local Business (or Organization), Service, FAQ Page, BlogPosting and BreadcrumbList. Only mark up facts that visitors can also see on the page.
What is schema markup?
Schema markup is structured data: facts written in a fixed format that machines read directly. The format comes from schema.org, a shared vocabulary that Google, Microsoft and Yahoo started together in 2011.
Most websites add it as JSON-LD. JSON-LD is a short script placed in the page code. Visitors never see it. Here is a shortened example for a plumbing business:
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Plumber",
"name": "Harbour Plumbing",
"telephone": "+64 9 000 0000",
"areaServed": "North Shore, Auckland",
"openingHours": "Mo-Fr 07:00-17:00"
}
</script>Each line pairs a label with a fact. The page already says these things in words. The markup says them again in a form that cannot be misread.
Does schema markup help with Google and AI tools?
Yes, but not in the way people are often promised. Schema markup helps machines understand a page. It does not make a weak page rank, and it does not guarantee any special display in search results.
Google says this plainly in its structured data guidelines: correct markup makes a page eligible for rich results, but does not guarantee them. Rich results are the extras in search, such as breadcrumbs or star ratings.
AI tools are less clear. No AI company publishes exactly how much its assistant relies on schema markup. What we can say is practical: markup gives every system the same facts, in one place, without guessing. That helps whatever each tool does next.
Markup also works best on top of clear writing. If a service page is vague, fix the words first. Our guide to service pages for AI covers that step.
1. Local Business or Organization: who are you?
This is the most important type. It tells machines your business name, phone number, address or service area, opening hours and website.
Use Local Business if customers visit you or you serve a local area. Schema.org also has more specific types, such as Plumber, Dentist or AccountingService. Pick the closest one. Use Organization if you only work online or across many countries.
Put it on your homepage. Make sure the name, phone and address match your Google Business Profile and directory listings exactly. Small differences, like "Ltd" on one and not the other, make machines less sure they are the same business.
2. Service: what do you sell?
Service markup describes one thing you offer. It gives the service a name, a short description, the area you serve and, where you can, a price or starting price.
Add it to each service page, not only the homepage. A cleaning company might have one Service block for end-of-tenancy cleaning and another for office cleaning, each on its own page.
If your prices vary, you can still give a starting price inside an Offer. Our own website service page does this for its yearly price. Only include a price that the page also shows in words.
3. FAQ Page: which questions do you answer?
FAQ Page markup pairs each question on the page with its answer. It tells machines exactly which text answers which question.
Since 2023, Google has shown FAQ rich results mainly for well-known government and health websites, so most businesses will not see the dropdown in search. The markup is still useful. Short question-and-answer pairs are the shape AI assistants quote.
Write good answers first. Our guide on writing an FAQ page AI assistants will quote explains how.
4. Blog Posting: who wrote this, and when?
Blog Posting markup gives each article a headline, a publish date, an update date and an author. It is a more specific version of the Article type.
Dates matter more than they seem. A clear date helps search engines and readers tell a 2026 guide from a 2019 one. It also shows that someone looks after the page.
Point the author and publisher at your business, so every article links back to the same organisation. This article does exactly that.
5. Breadcrumb List: where does this page sit?
BreadcrumbList markup describes the path to a page, such as Home › Services › Blocked drains. Google may show this path in search results in place of the full web address.
It also shows how your pages relate. That helps machines see that a service page belongs to your business and sits next to your other services.
Which schema markup should you avoid?
Avoid markup that says more than the page does. Google treats misleading markup as spam. It can ignore the markup or remove rich results from your whole site.
- Star ratings you add about yourself. Since 2019, Google does not show review stars that a business marks up about itself in Local Business or Organization markup.
- Hidden facts. If a price, question or address is only in the markup, show it on the page or remove it.
- The same FAQ block on every page. Keep questions on the page they belong to.
- Types that do not fit. Product markup is for things you sell, not services. Event markup is for real events, not a weekly special.
- Old facts. Out-of-date opening hours in the markup are worse than none at all.
How do you add schema markup to your website?
Most small businesses add it in one of three ways. Check what your site already has first, so you do not end up with two blocks that disagree.
- Website builder settings. Many builders add basic Organization and BlogPosting markup for you. You usually just fill in your business details.
- A plugin or add-on. These handle the common types well, but they often leave Service and FAQ Page for you to set up by hand.
- JSON-LD written by hand. This gives the most control. It suits a small site where each service page needs its own details.
You do not need all five types on day one. Start with your homepage and your most important service page. If you are planning a new site, a Green Kauri website includes this markup from the start.
How do you check that your schema markup works?
Test one page at a time with two free tools. It takes about ten minutes a page.
- Open Google's Rich Results Test and enter a page address. It shows which markup Google found and any errors that block rich results.
- Enter the same address in the Schema Markup Validator, run by schema.org. It checks every type, including ones Google does not use for rich results, such as Service.
- Compare the facts in the result with the visible page. The name, phone, address, prices and questions should match.
- Fix errors first, then warnings. A warning usually means an optional field is missing, not that something is broken.
After a fix, you can ask Google to look at the page again through Search Console. Changes in how the page appears can take a few weeks.
Schema markup FAQs
Is schema markup the same as structured data?
Almost. Structured data is the general idea: facts written in a fixed format that machines read directly. Schema markup is structured data that uses the schema.org vocabulary. For websites, the two terms usually mean the same thing, and JSON-LD is the most common way to add it to a page.
Does schema markup improve Google rankings?
Not directly. Google has said structured data is not a general ranking factor. It helps Google understand a page and can make the page eligible for rich results, such as breadcrumbs. Clear markup can lead to more relevant clicks, but useful, specific page content still matters far more for rankings.
Do AI tools like ChatGPT read schema markup?
No AI company publishes exactly how its assistant uses schema markup. Some tools read web pages directly, and some draw on search indexes that do use structured data. Markup is quick to add and removes guesswork about your facts, so it is worth doing alongside clear writing on the visible page.
How long does it take to add schema markup to a small website?
For a site of five to ten pages, a first pass usually takes a few hours: business details on the homepage, Service on each service page and FAQ Page where questions already exist. Testing adds about ten minutes a page. Updating it later takes minutes whenever your details change.
Can wrong schema markup hurt my website?
It can. Markup that describes hidden content, self-written reviews or facts the page does not show breaks Google's guidelines. Google may then ignore the markup or remove rich results from the site. Simple mistakes are usually just ignored, so test each page and fix any errors you find.
Green Kauri adds and tests schema markup as part of every xEO optimisation, alongside the clearer writing that makes the markup worth having.