Schema markup is code that tells search engines exactly what your content represents: a business, a service, an article, a product, a person. It doesn’t directly boost rankings, but it helps search engines and AI tools understand your site, and some types can make your listings more eye-catching.

The problem is that a lot of schema advice is outdated. Here’s what actually matters for small businesses today.

What Schema Does and Doesn’t Do

  • It helps search engines understand your content and connect it to the right entities.
  • It can make you eligible for rich results, such as product prices, ratings or event details.
  • It supports AI search, because clear structured data makes your business easier to understand and cite.
  • It does not guarantee rich results. Google decides when to show them.
  • It isn’t a ranking shortcut on its own.

Schema Types Worth Adding

Organization or LocalBusiness

This is the foundation for almost every business site. Include your name, logo, URL, contact details and sameAs links to your official social and directory profiles. Local businesses should use LocalBusiness or a more specific subtype, such as Plumber, Dentist or LegalService, with address, opening hours and service area.

Service

Describes the services you offer. It won’t usually create a rich result, but it helps clarify what each service page is about.

Article or BlogPosting

For blog posts and guides. Include the headline, author, publication date and modified date.

Person

Useful for an author or professional’s profile. It helps connect your content to a real, credible person.

BreadcrumbList

Shows your site structure and can display breadcrumbs in search results instead of a raw URL.

Product and Review

For e-commerce sites, Product schema with price, availability and genuine reviews can produce rich results.

Event

For businesses that run workshops, classes or events.

What Has Changed

Some once-popular rich results are no longer widely available:

  • FAQ rich results are now shown mainly for well-known government and health websites. FAQ schema is still valid, but most business sites won’t see the expanded FAQs in results anymore.
  • HowTo rich results have been deprecated.
  • Self-serving review stars for LocalBusiness and Organization, meaning reviews of your own business marked up on your own site, aren’t eligible for review rich results.

If you added these expecting extra space in search results, that’s likely why you’re not seeing them.

How to Add Schema on WordPress

  • SEO plugins such as All in One SEO, Yoast or Rank Math add Organization, Article and Breadcrumb schema automatically, and let you configure more.
  • Custom JSON-LD can be added for more specific needs, such as Service schema on individual service pages.
  • Avoid duplicates. Running several plugins that each output schema can create conflicting markup.

JSON-LD, added as a script in the page, is Google’s recommended format.

How to Test Your Schema

  • Rich Results Test from Google shows which rich results your page is eligible for.
  • Schema Markup Validator checks your markup against the full Schema.org vocabulary.
  • Search Console enhancements reports show errors across your whole site.

Common Mistakes

  • Marking up content that isn’t visible on the page
  • Using the wrong business type
  • Fake or self-written reviews
  • Outdated addresses, phone numbers or opening hours
  • Leaving errors unfixed in Search Console

For a broader site health check, see my technical SEO audit checklist. If you’d like schema planned and implemented properly, it’s part of my technical SEO service.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does schema markup improve rankings?

Not directly. It helps search engines understand your content and can make your listings more attractive, which may improve clicks.

Do I still need FAQ schema?

It can still help search engines and AI tools understand your content, but most business sites won’t get FAQ rich results anymore.

Which schema type should I add first?

Start with Organization or LocalBusiness, then add Article, Breadcrumb and Service schema where relevant.