Schema for small business: the 5 types that matter
Schema (JSON-LD) is code that spells out, in a language machines read perfectly, what your business is and offers. You don't need all of it — just five types cover most small businesses.
The five that matter
- LocalBusiness (or a specific type like MedicalBusiness/LegalService) — your name, address, hours, area served.
- Service / Product — what you sell, with details and price where you can.
- FAQPage — your real questions and answers (this is gold for AI and snippets).
- Review / AggregateRating — ratings that come from real customers, never ones you assign yourself. Google issues manual penalties for self-serving rating markup, so only add this if you have genuine reviews to point at.
- Article / BreadcrumbList — for your blog posts and site structure.
Tag the specific attributes people filter for — wheelchair access, EV charging, dog-friendly, telehealth — because that's exactly what an AI matches against a request.
Do I need a developer?
For a small site you can start with a plugin or a generator, but getting the types right — and keeping them accurate — is where help pays off. The goal is simple: nothing important about your business should live only in a sentence a machine might miss. It belongs in the code too.
Common questions
What schema does a small business need?
Most need five: LocalBusiness (or a specific subtype), Service/Product, FAQPage, Review/AggregateRating, and Article/BreadcrumbList — plus tagged attributes like accessibility or amenities. Only mark up ratings that come from real customers — Google penalizes businesses that rate themselves.
Is schema necessary for AI visibility?
Yes — schema is how AI engines reliably read what your business is and offers, which strongly affects whether they cite or recommend you.
Is your business readable to machines?
See whether machines can actually read and recommend your business.
Run your free AI Visibility Check →Editorial. DigiVino, June 2026.