WTF Is Schema? And Why Does It Matter to My Local NOLA Business, Anyway?

Schema markup is a type of structured data that defines types and properties of things, also called entities, on a web page. It’s how you tell search engines what something is using a language (schema) they understand. For example, schema might identify a page type, a product, a review, a related question and answer, and more.

Often, the terms “schema” and “structured data” are used interchangeably. You can think of it like this: all schema is structured data, but not all structured data is schema. Structured data can refer to anything that, well, structures data; columns in an Excel sheet help structure data, for example.

For local businesses, schema is a goldmine: you can tell Google so much about your business within the code of your website. It’s a way of mapping out all the finer details about your company, such as the address, contact details, reviews, opening hours, and so much more. This structured information makes it easy for Google to understand who you are, what you do, and for who, which could affect your position in Google and AI Overviews (AIO), as well as the accuracy of how search engines or AI tools present information about your brand.

Schema is so impactful for local businesses that I once ranked my website locally with a service page containing zero content. I wanted to experiment with schema to see if Google actually pays attention. It turns out it does. I loaded the schema onto a blank service page, and within days my page ranked number one; it’s still there today.

This isn’t best practice, and I don’t recommend it, but it does show that schema is powerful.

In this article, I cover how schema can benefit local businesses, what it is, and some schema subtypes that almost every local business can use.

How Schema Can Benefit Your Local Business Website

Schema markup is a must for New Orleans-based local and small businesses. There’s a lot to gain and nothing to lose by adding it.

For example, schema helps local small businesses to:

Appear in search results

From my experiment shared in the introduction, it’s undeniable that schema helps pages rank. If my page can rank with schema but no copy on it, then it’s clear that schema influences rankings.

My experiment was purely for that—experimentation. Use schema correctly.

Achieve rich results (also called rich snippets) in search engine results pages (SERPs)

Websites that use schema may earn rich results in SERPs. Rich results are visual additions to traditional search lists and include things like:

• Star ratings, stock or prices for products
• Cook time or calories for recipes
• Pros and cons, or reviewed by attribution for blogs

Here’s an example for a plumber in New Orleans. As shown in the following screenshot, Google displays ratings with the total rating, number of ratings, and stars.

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Rich results for a New Orleans plumber

A quick look at the schema using Google’s Rich Results Test shows us that the schema is on the page and it’s valid:

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Rich Results Test — 7 valid items detected

From the previous screenshot, we can also see that Roto Rooter also uses LocalBusiness schema and Organization schema; two schema types that I’d highly recommend to all small and local businesses, but more on that later.

Gain or add to knowledge panels

A knowledge panel is the information box that appears on the right side of a Google search on desktop and near the top of the results on mobile. Appearing in this area of the search results matters to your small business because it gives browsers quick access to your website, social media, and more without having to trawl through the results.

After I added Person schema to my about page, my knowledge panel appeared days later for searches for my name.

×

Zoe’s Google knowledge panel

The code below is exactly what I added to get the knowledge panel—try it for yourself. Copy and paste this code, edit the data, then paste it into the HTML section of your own site. I recommend putting it on your About page.

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Person",
  "image": "https://zoe.forank.com/assets/images/zoe.webp",
  "email": "zoe@forank.com",
  "jobTitle": "Senior SEO Strategist",
  "name": "Zoe Ashbridge",
  "description": "Zoe Ashbridge is the co-founder of forank. She is a senior SEO specialist and published author in notable SEO publications.",
  "birthDate": "1990-08-23",
  "url": "https://www.forank.com",
  "knowsAbout": "SEO, writing, content strategy",
  "sameAs": [
    "https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoeashbridge/",
    "https://www.tiktok.com/@zoefreelanceseo",
    "https://www.youtube.com/@zoefreelanceseo",
    "https://blog.hubspot.com/service/author/zoe-ashbridge",
    "https://searchengineland.com/author/zoe-ashbridge",
    "https://moz.com/community/q/user/zoe_ashbridge"
  ],
  "contactPoint": [
    {
      "@type": "ContactPoint",
      "email": "zoe@forank.com"
    }
  ]
}
</script>

I’ve used this exact approach for multiple people working in small, local businesses, and for those with a solid digital footprint, it’s worked.

Appear in AI answers

The role of schema and its impact on AI answers has been overblown, but in my opinion, it shouldn’t be discounted. Here’s why…

Schema doesn’t organize data for AI crawlers in the same way that it does for search engines. Google ‘understands’ schema as structured data, whereas AI crawlers understand schema as words.

Simply put: schema provides AI crawlers with more content. AI crawlers crawl HTML, and schema lives within the HTML of a website. Anything within HTML can be read and paraphrased in an AI answer.

Mark Williams-Cook’s “Duck Yea T-Shirts” Schema Experiment

Mark Williams-Cook demonstrated this with an experiment that he shared on LinkedIn.

He built a page for a fictional company, “Duck Yea T-Shirts,” with no address in the visible content and no real schema, just invented JSON-LD using made-up properties (not actual schema.org vocabulary that search engines understand). The schema included a fake address.

When asked to identify the company’s address, both ChatGPT and Perplexity returned it correctly.

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Mark Williams-Cook’s Duck Yea T-Shirts experiment

Williams-Cook concluded that LLMs weren’t parsing valid, structured schema, they were just pulling any text-like content from the HTML, valid schema or not, if it seemed relevant to the prompt.

With his experiment, Williams-Cook put to bed the argument that schema is the silver bullet for AI crawlers—and he’s right. But, like me, Williams-Cook still recommends using schema because it helps reduce ambiguity and Google’s Knowledge Graph does use it.

I would add the important caveat that there’s nothing wrong with AI crawlers taking plain text from schema. Sometimes, reinforced context in a website’s HTML is a way to communicate with bots (like ChatGPT’s bots) without cluttering the on-page experience for human readers.

Molly Nogami and Ben Tannenbaum Test Schema’s Impact on AI Overviews

There are more studies showing that AI systems, like AI Overviews, appear to prioritize pages with schema.

A controlled test by Molly Nogami and Ben Tannenbaum explored whether schema impacted visibility in AIO.

They compared three nearly identical pages:

AI Overviews only mentioned the page with well-implemented schema. This page also achieved the best organic ranking, reaching Position 3 for the exact query that triggered the AI Overview.

The page with poor schema ranked for more keywords overall but never appeared in an AI Overview, while Google didn’t index the page without schema at all.

It’s clear to see: Schema is a must-add for local businesses in New Orleans.

WTF Is Local Business Schema, Specifically?

LocalBusiness schema is a type of schema referring to a physical business. LocalBusiness refers to branches rather than brands: Think of an Apple store in your city, as opposed to the brand Apple.

You can find more information about LocalBusiness in Google’s Developer documentation. Give it a read if you have time, because LocalBusiness schema really is a great place for all local businesses to start.

With it, you can define properties like:

• openingHours
• paymentAccepted
• address
• aggregateRating
• areaServed
• And so much more

Once the basics of LocalBusiness schema are in place, you can build out your schema even more using specific types. (I mention these in more detail later!)

Local Business Schema in Action

WTF SEO’s use of schema contributes to how well the website ranks for local searches like “SEO and AI agency in New Orleans”:

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WTF SEO in the AI Overview

Below is the exact schema code that WTF SEO uses for LocalBusiness, FAQs, ImageObjects, and more. Note the address and the areasServed, reinforcing the locality of this business.

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@graph": [
    {
      "@type": "LocalBusiness",
      "@id": "https://wtfseo.io/#organization",
      "name": "WTF SEO",
      "legalName": "Steven",
      "url": "https://wtfseo.io/",
      "description": "We make SEO less WTF with no-nonsense strategies that deliver real results. Serving Greater New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Lafayette with locally-tailored digital solutions.",
      "email": "contact@wtfseo.io",
      "telephone": "+1-504-233-2660",
      "priceRange": "$$",
      "sameAs": [
        "https://www.linkedin.com/company/wtf-seo/",
        "https://www.youtube.com/@WTFSEO-c3r"
      ],
      "logo": {
        "@id": "https://wtfseo.io/#logo"
      },
      "image": {
        "@id": "https://wtfseo.io/#logo"
      },
      "address": {
        "@type": "PostalAddress",
        "addressLocality": "New Orleans",
        "addressRegion": "LA",
        "postalCode": "70118",
        "addressCountry": "US"
      },
      "areaServed": [
        {
          "@type": "Place",
          "name": "New Orleans, LA"
        },
        {
          "@type": "Place",
          "name": "Metairie, LA"
        },
        {
          "@type": "Place",
          "name": "Kenner, LA"
        },
        {
          "@type": "Place",
          "name": "Baton Rouge, LA"
        },
        {
          "@type": "Place",
          "name": "Lafayette, LA"
        }
      ],
      "contactPoint": [
        {
          "@type": "ContactPoint",
          "telephone": "+1-504-233-2660",
          "contactType": "customer support"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "@type": "ImageObject",
      "@id": "https://wtfseo.io/#logo",
      "url": "https://wtfseo.io/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/logo.png",
      "contentUrl": "https://wtfseo.io/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/logo.png",
      "caption": "WTF SEO logo",
      "inLanguage": "en-US",
      "width": "1184",
      "height": "379"
    },
    {
      "@type": "WebSite",
      "@id": "https://wtfseo.io/#website",
      "url": "https://wtfseo.io/",
      "name": "WTF SEO",
      "publisher": {
        "@id": "https://wtfseo.io/#organization"
      },
      "inLanguage": "en-US"
    },
    {
      "@type": "WebPage",
      "@id": "https://wtfseo.io/#webpage",
      "url": "https://wtfseo.io/",
      "name": "WTF SEO - New Orleans SEO and AI Search Marketing",
      "datePublished": "2024-08-26T14:22:10+00:00",
      "dateModified": "2026-05-17T18:27:10+00:00",
      "about": {
        "@id": "https://wtfseo.io/#organization"
      },
      "isPartOf": {
        "@id": "https://wtfseo.io/#website"
      },
      "primaryImageOfPage": {
        "@id": "https://wtfseo.io/#logo"
      },
      "inLanguage": "en-US"
    },
    {
      "@type": "FAQPage",
      "@id": "https://wtfseo.io/#faq",
      "isPartOf": {
        "@id": "https://wtfseo.io/#webpage"
      },
      "mainEntity": [
        {
          "@type": "Question",
          "name": "WTF is SEO?",
          "acceptedAnswer": {
            "@type": "Answer",
            "text": "SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is all about getting your website noticed by Google and other search engines. It's like making your website more attractive and relevant so it shows up higher in search results when people look for things related to your business."
          }
        },
        {
          "@type": "Question",
          "name": "Why does my website need SEO if I already have a killer design?",
          "acceptedAnswer": {
            "@type": "Answer",
            "text": "Your killer design is like a beautiful storefront, but SEO is the giant neon sign pointing people to your door. Without SEO, your site might be hidden on page 10 of Google, where no one will ever find it, no matter how pretty it is."
          }
        },
        {
          "@type": "Question",
          "name": "How long does it take to see results from SEO? Be honest, I'm impatient.",
          "acceptedAnswer": {
            "@type": "Answer",
            "text": "It can take some time for search engines to crawl and index your site, especially if it is new. It is possible to see improvements to your site at any time (as little as 1 month) depending on the current state of your site and quick win improvements, but it can take longer depending on your industry and competition."
          }
        },
        {
          "@type": "Question",
          "name": "Can I do SEO myself or do I need to hire pros like you guys?",
          "acceptedAnswer": {
            "@type": "Answer",
            "text": "Anyone with the time and drive to learn SEO can do it. However, working with an agency provides you with decades of overall experience, proof of concept A/B testing, and tools to make sure your SEO strategy is watertight and moves at a faster pace."
          }
        },
        {
          "@type": "Question",
          "name": "What's the difference between 'on-page' and 'off-page' SEO?",
          "acceptedAnswer": {
            "@type": "Answer",
            "text": "On-page SEO is all about optimizing the stuff on your website itself - things like content, keywords, and technical structure. Off-page SEO is about building your site's reputation and authority through links from other websites, social media mentions, and online reviews."
          }
        },
        {
          "@type": "Question",
          "name": "Is SEO really dead?",
          "acceptedAnswer": {
            "@type": "Answer",
            "text": "No, SEO is not dead. When you work with SEO professionals today, you're already optimizing for traditional search, AI overviews, and generative engines because all of the fundamental principles of quality content, technical updates, and user value drive success across all these platforms."
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}
</script>

5 Local Business Schema Subtypes

LocalBusiness is a must-use schema type for businesses with a physical location or a service area, but there’s more you can use.

Below, I’ve shared five schema types that I recommend to nearly all of my clients. I’ve included valid schema with properties and content for dummy companies. However, there are 823 schema Types and 1529 Properties, and I’ve barely scraped the surface. The best thing you can do is explore schema.org, search for the schema type you want to use, review the properties to see which ones are suitable for you, and then create your own in-depth schema that represents your page and business.

1. Organization

Organization schema defines your business, helping search engines complete company context in a Knowledge Graph.

For my clients, I often include:

• name
• alternateName
• url
• sameAs
• telephone
• numberOfEmployees
• email
• foundingDate
• foundingLocation
• location
• logo
• legalName
• contactPoint

Typically, I add organization schema to every page, but it should be on the homepage at a minimum.

Here’s an example of organization schema:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "Bayou Bolt Electrical",
  "alternateName": "Bayou Bolt Electric",
  "url": "https://www.bayoubolt.com",
  "sameAs": [
    "https://www.facebook.com/bayoubolt",
    "https://www.instagram.com/bayoubolt",
    "https://www.linkedin.com/company/bayou-bolt-electrical"
  ],
  "telephone": "+1-504-555-0187",
  "numberOfEmployees": {
    "@type": "QuantitativeValue",
    "value": 12
  },
  "email": "info@bayoubolt.com",
  "foundingDate": "2014-03-10",
  "foundingLocation": {
    "@type": "Place",
    "name": "New Orleans, LA"
  },
  "location": {
    "@type": "Place",
    "address": {
      "@type": "PostalAddress",
      "streetAddress": "1428 Magazine Street",
      "addressLocality": "New Orleans",
      "addressRegion": "LA",
      "postalCode": "70130",
      "addressCountry": "US"
    }
  },
  "logo": "https://www.bayoubolt.com/assets/logo.png",
  "legalName": "Bayou Bolt Electrical LLC",
  "contactPoint": {
    "@type": "ContactPoint",
    "contactType": "customer service",
    "telephone": "+1-504-555-0187",
    "email": "info@bayoubolt.com",
    "url": "https://www.bayoubolt.com/contact"
  }
}
</script>

2. Product

Product schema defines an item you sell, earning rich results that show price, availability, and star ratings directly in search.

For my clients, I often include:

• name
• image
• description
• sku
• brand
• offers
• aggregateRating
• review

Typically, I add product schema to every individual product page.

Here’s an example of Product schema:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Product",
  "name": "Crescent City Original Hot Sauce",
  "image": "https://www.crescentcityhotsauce.com/assets/original-hot-sauce.jpg",
  "description": "A small-batch Louisiana hot sauce made with aged cayenne peppers, vinegar, and a touch of garlic.",
  "sku": "CCHS-ORIG-05",
  "brand": {
    "@type": "Brand",
    "name": "Crescent City Hot Sauce Co."
  },
  "offers": {
    "@type": "Offer",
    "url": "https://www.crescentcityhotsauce.com/products/original-hot-sauce",
    "priceCurrency": "USD",
    "price": "8.99",
    "availability": "https://schema.org/InStock"
  },
  "aggregateRating": {
    "@type": "AggregateRating",
    "ratingValue": "4.7",
    "reviewCount": "142"
  },
  "review": {
    "@type": "Review",
    "reviewRating": {
      "@type": "Rating",
      "ratingValue": "5"
    },
    "author": {
      "@type": "Person",
      "name": "Danielle T."
    },
    "reviewBody": "Perfect heat level, great on gumbo."
  }
}
</script>

3. Service

Service schema defines something you offer that isn’t a physical product—for example, plumbing, SEO consultancy, cleaning services, and more. Service schema helps search engines connect “who does this near me” queries to the right business.

For my clients, I often include:

• name
• description
• provider
• areaServed
• serviceType
• offers

Typically, I add schema for services to individual service pages.

Here’s an example of Service schema:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Service",
  "name": "Emergency Electrical Repair",
  "description": "24-hour emergency electrical repair for residential and commercial properties across the greater New Orleans area.",
  "provider": {
    "@type": "Organization",
    "name": "Bayou Bolt Electrical LLC"
  },
  "areaServed": {
    "@type": "City",
    "name": "New Orleans, LA"
  },
  "serviceType": "Emergency Electrical Repair",
  "offers": {
    "@type": "Offer",
    "url": "https://www.bayoubolt.com/services/emergency-repair",
    "priceCurrency": "USD",
    "price": "125.00"
  }
}
</script>

4. Article

Article schema marks up written content, such as blog posts, guides, or news pieces. Article schema gives search engines a reliable, structured version of key information within the page, such as who wrote an article and when it went live.

For my clients, I often include:

• headline
• image
• author
• publisher
• datePublished
• dateModified
• description

Typically, I add article schema to every blog post or long-form article. If you’re using a content management system (CMS) like WordPress, plugins like Yoast automate Article schema.

Here’s an example of Article schema for an invented New Orleans business to get you started:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Article",
  "headline": "5 Signs Your New Orleans Home Needs an Electrical Inspection",
  "image": "https://www.bayoubolt.com/blog/assets/electrical-inspection-signs.jpg",
  "author": {
    "@type": "Person",
    "name": "Marcus Guidry"
  },
  "publisher": {
    "@type": "Organization",
    "name": "Bayou Bolt Electrical LLC",
    "logo": {
      "@type": "ImageObject",
      "url": "https://www.bayoubolt.com/assets/logo.png"
    }
  },
  "datePublished": "2026-06-12",
  "dateModified": "2026-06-12",
  "description": "Flickering lights to warm outlets, here's how to spot early warning signs of electrical problems in older New Orleans homes."
}
</script>

5. Specific Business Types

Schema.org has more specific schema subtypes built for particular trades and industries. Using the exact type that matches your business, rather than defaulting to the generic LocalBusiness, gives search engines an even clearer signal about what you actually do.

Some examples relevant to trades and service businesses:

• Electrician
• GeneralContractor
• HVACBusiness
• Plumber
• RoofingContractor
• HomeAndConstructionBusiness
• AutomotiveBusiness

These are all specific to LocalBusiness, so they inherit its properties (name, address, telephone, openingHours, and so on) while telling search engines exactly which category of business you fall into.

Here’s an example using HomeAndConstructionBusiness:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "HomeAndConstructionBusiness",
  "name": "Crescent Renovations & Construction",
  "image": "https://www.crescentrenovations.com/assets/storefront.jpg",
  "telephone": "+1-504-555-0143",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "streetAddress": "3210 Tchoupitoulas Street",
    "addressLocality": "New Orleans",
    "addressRegion": "LA",
    "postalCode": "70115",
    "addressCountry": "US"
  },
  "openingHoursSpecification": {
    "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification",
    "dayOfWeek": ["Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday"],
    "opens": "08:00",
    "closes": "17:00"
  },
  "priceRange": "$$"
}
</script>

Schema Mistakes to Avoid

When writing schema, it’s easy to make mistakes that hinder the schema’s performance. Below, I’ve outlined five common mistakes to help you avoid them.

• Writing schema with AI and not getting an expert to check it. AI can generate decent schema. I had Claude write the examples in this article, but critically, my husband, a developer and technical SEO, reviewed every output. He had to edit one of the outputs because it wasn’t validating in Rich Test Results. Sometimes AI tools generate schema that looks valid but doesn’t function. Commonly, it puts properties under types where they don’t belong. Refer to schema.org to check which properties belong to which type. All suitable properties are listed under “type.”
• Creating validated but incorrect schema. Schema validator does what it says on the tin—validates schema. But, valid schema isn’t always correct. The validator checks that schema is formatted correctly, using the right syntax, but it doesn’t check the information within it. A competent human eye is a must.
• Getting too complicated too early. There are 823 Types and 1529 Properties within schema. You can tie yourself up in knots with it if you’re not careful. Start small, try the foundations laid out in this article, then scale later. Even foundational schema can move the needle for businesses by earning rich results, getting knowledge panels, and influencing page rankings.
• Using multiple methods to add schema. A lot of schema can be injected into a website automatically using tools like Yoast. Check to see if you’re already using schema types and properties before you add them. You don’t want multiple schema types covering the same entities; it’s confusing and messy for search engines.
• Failing to automate schema. You can add schema manually to test it, but a lot of schema can be (and should be) automated. Automation stops schema from becoming outdated. For example, if you change an author on an article, you want it to update the schema automatically; otherwise the schema will be forgotten. Equally, product information, like stock status or ratings, are best automated. No one can keep up with changing data, and even if you think you can, you shouldn’t. Relatively speaking, developer resources to automate schema are a good investment, and it doesn’t have to cost the earth, especially if you’re using a good CMS like WordPress.

What Other Schema Markups Matter to My Local NOLA Business Website?

There are many types of schema, and I’ve only scratched the surface with those I’ve mentioned in this article so far. Here are a few more common schema types that many local NOLA businesses could use:

FAQs On Schema for Local Business Websites

Set Your NOLA Business Website up for Long-Term Success

Schema is a must for local businesses. It’s a huge topic, and you can stop at the foundations, or create schema that’s super-robust and in-depth. It’s fairly technical and usually a good case for local businesses to get help from an SEO expert, but the differences even a simple implementation can make are undeniable.

Schema helps deliver rich results (sometimes within days), improves rankings, and helps secure SERP features that could be the difference between your website getting the click or not.

If you’re exploring schema for the first time, try copying and pasting the templates in this article, but make sure you work out how to automate schema.

Zoe Ashbridge

SEO Practitioner & Content Strategist

About the Author Latest Posts

Zoe Ashbridge is co-founder of Forank (www.forank.com), a boutique SEO and PPC agency. Zoe is an SEO practitioner and content strategist with over a decade of experience in search marketing, now including AI. She's written for brands like HubSpot, Moz, Search Engine Land, Screaming Frog, Wix, and more. When she's not writing Zoe is helping clients adapt their content and technical foundations for traditional search, and AI-search.

Areas of Expertise: SEO, Content Strategy, Technical SEO

• WTF Is Schema? And Why Does It Matter to My Local NOLA Business, Anyway? August 31, 2026

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