Mark up your business details so Google shows them right

LocalBusiness structured data is a standardized format you add to your website that tells Google specific facts about your business. When someone searches for your type of business or your name, Google can pull this information and display it in a knowledge panel, a carousel, or directly in search results. This matters because customers see your hours, phone number, location, and other details right away without clicking through to your site.

Key facts

• You can add LocalBusiness markup to pages throughout your site, though it makes most sense on a page dedicated to describing your business.
• You must include required properties (like business name, address, phone number) to be eligible for rich results. Recommended properties like hours, images, and ratings improve the display.
• Use the most specific business type available: Restaurant, DaySpa, HealthClub, Plumber, and so on, rather than the generic LocalBusiness label.
• If you have multiple locations, define each one separately as its own LocalBusiness entry.
• For restaurants, you can add a menu URL and enable bookings or orders directly from search results using the Maps Booking API.

What details should you mark up

Start with the essentials: your business name, street address, city, state, zip code, phone number (with country and area code), and website URL. These are required. After that, add what makes sense for your business. Hours of operation are critical because customers check them constantly. If you are open different hours on different days, mark each day separately. If you have seasonal hours or close for holidays, you can specify those with start and end dates.

Add images if you can. Google wants multiple high-resolution images in three aspect ratios: 16x9, 4x3, and 1x1. The images must actually show your business and must be hosted on a URL that Google can access. If you capture customer reviews on your site, you can mark up the average rating and individual reviews. For restaurants, link to your menu. For businesses with departments (a salon with separate stylists or services, a medical office with multiple doctors), you can mark up each department with its own hours and phone number.

How to know if you are doing it right

The markup is written in a format called JSON-LD, which looks like code but follows a specific structure. Google provides examples on their developer pages for different business types. You do not have to write this yourself. Many website builders and content management systems include fields where you fill in your information and the markup is generated automatically. If you build your own site or hire a developer, ask them to use JSON-LD format and to follow Google's LocalBusiness guidelines. After you add the markup, use Google's Rich Results Test tool to check that the markup is valid and that Google can read it.

Why this matters for your business

When your information is marked up correctly, Google can display it prominently in search results without making customers click through to your site first. A customer searching for "plumbers near me" or "hair salons open now" sees your hours, address, phone number, and rating right in the results. This reduces friction. People call you or visit because they already know you are open and where you are. You also control what information appears instead of hoping Google scrapes it correctly from your site. If your hours are wrong in a search result, it is usually because the markup is missing or incorrect.

What you can skip

Do not overthink this. You do not need to mark up every detail about your business. Focus on what customers actually search for and what changes. Your business name and address do not change often, so mark them up once and leave them. Your hours, phone number, and website URL should be accurate and current. If you add a new location, add a new LocalBusiness entry for it. If you offer a new service or department, mark it up. Do not add markup for information you do not have or cannot keep current. Stale or wrong information hurts more than no information at all.

Sources

• Local business (LocalBusiness) structured data - Google Search Central

They did the reporting. The writing and the opinions here are ours.