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AI Search · 31 August 2026 · 5 MIN READ

Schema.org for local businesses: what actually counts

A cleaning firm added schema.org - after 3 months cited in 8 of 15 AI queries, previously 0. The 5 types that actually move the needle.

Schema.org is an invisible layer on your website telling machines what stands for what. "This is the address." "These are the opening hours." "This is a question and this is the answer." Google has used it since 2011. Today ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity use it too.

A website without schema.org is like a PDF without a table of contents for AIs. The information is there, but pulling it out structurally takes effort. AIs prefer structured sources.

Which schema types actually matter for local businesses

LocalBusiness — address, hours, phone, logo, star rating. Mandatory for every local business. If missing, the AI doesn't know you're local.

FAQPage — add it on every page with a FAQ section. AIs cite FAQ answers disproportionately because they're trained on "question → answer" pairs.

Service — one per service. With price, description, availability region. Turns your service list into clearly citable data.

Article or BlogPosting — on every blog post. With author, date, image. Upgrades editorial content for AIs.

Review + AggregateRating — embedded from Trustpilot or Google. The most important trust signals.

What happens when you build it in

A cleaning firm in Adelaide added full schema.org in March 2025. Three months later:

  • Google AI Overviews now cite the firm in 8 of 15 tested queries (previously: 0)
  • ChatGPT mentions it in 4 of 10 local industry answers (previously: 0)
  • Organic search clicks +14%

What you can do

Go to the Google Rich Results Test tool and enter your URL. If no structured data is detected, schema.org is missing. How we build this in with AI Search setup, here. What the llms.txt file adds on top, here.


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