Using Structured Data for Local SEO

Getting noticed by potential customers online can be difficult. There are so many factors that play into whether or not your website is even going to show up when somebody searches for a business, product, or service related to yours. Lucky for you, there's a way to give Google even more insight as to what kind of content your webpages hold. This tactic is called schema markup.

Understanding Schema Markup

Schema markup, also known as structured data, is a hidden treasure among websites that users cannot see on the front-end, but are affected by when it comes to local search. Google uses schema markup to crawl through sites to further optimize search engine results pages (SERPs) based on a user's search query. Let's dig into schema markup and how you can use it to further optimize your site for local search.

Types of Schema Markup for Local SEO

By adding schema markup to your website pages, you are essentially helping consumers find more descriptive and informative results when they make a search on Google. There are an endless amount of schema markup values, but there are a few more important ones that relate to local SEO. These include your business' location, ratings and reviews, and events.

1. Location

Your business location schema markup is the most important value when it comes to local search. The attributes you want in your schema markup for location and contact would be company name, full address, days/hours open, contact type, and phone number. There are a couple of ways to portray your address, whether it be longitude and latitude, or a standard address format (or even both!). This is what a location value might look like on a Google SERP:

2. Ratings and Reviews

Ratings and reviews can build exposure and online credibility for users who come across a business on Google. Having the proper ratings and reviews schema markup in place can bring that information to SERPs, giving users a quick peek at the number of reviews received on a specific website, along with the star rating of that business.

3. Events

Using schema markup for events is useful for them to be found more easily in search results relating to local events in the area. Attributes for events can include but are not limited to the name of the event, start date and end time, location, price of admission, and much more.

Schema markup for events

Need some help?

Trust us, we know that schema markup is intimidating. But we also know the positive effects it can have on your online presence when it comes to local search, given time and effort. Need some help? There are plenty of great online tools out there that can help you get the most out of your schema markup. Our favorite? This schema markup generator created by J. D. Flynn; it's free, it's accurate, and most of all, it's easy! Rank higher with schema markup.