In brief: Schema markup is code that tells search engines what the facts on a page mean, such as a business’s name, address and opening hours. Google says structured data enables a rich result to be present but does not guarantee it will be. Four types cover most small business sites: Organization or LocalBusiness, Product, Article and BreadcrumbList, used only where they match the pages. Google stopped showing FAQ rich results in Search on 7 May 2026, after limiting them to government and health sites in August 2023. Kosmonk IT Pvt Ltd, a digital marketing agency in Ahmedabad, suggests testing your home page in Google’s Rich Results Test before paying for new markup.
Your developer sends a WhatsApp message saying the site needs schema, and the quote has a new line item. You nod, because it sounds technical and important. Schema markup is a small block of code that describes your page to search engines. It can make a page eligible for a richer listing on Google. It cannot guarantee one, and it is not a ranking trick.
Key Takeaways
- Schema markup labels the facts on a page so Google can read them reliably.
- Google says correct markup makes a rich result possible, never certain.
- Four types cover most small business sites: Organization or LocalBusiness, Product, Article and BreadcrumbList. Use only the ones that match your pages.
- FAQ rich results stopped appearing in Google Search on 7 May 2026.
What Is Schema Markup?
Schema markup is code that tells search engines what the facts on your page mean. Your page might say “Open 10 am to 7 pm”. A person understands that at a glance. Schema states it again in a fixed format, so a machine knows it is your opening hours and nothing else.
The vocabulary comes from schema.org, a shared dictionary of terms such as LocalBusiness, Product and Article. Google calls the result structured data. It describes it as a way of “providing explicit clues about the meaning of a page” (Google Search Central).
Most sites add it as JSON-LD, a short block of code that sits inside the page. Visitors never see it. Google supports three formats, JSON-LD, Microdata and RDFa, and says all three are equally fine. It recommends JSON-LD because it is usually the easiest to add and maintain.
What Can Schema Markup Do for Your Website?
It can make a page eligible for a rich result. That is a search listing with extras, such as star ratings, a price, or your logo in the information box Google shows about a business. Eligible is the key word. Google says markup “enables a feature to be present, it does not guarantee that it will be present.”
That line comes from Google’s own structured data guidelines. The same page says Google tailors results to the search, the location and the device. So two people can see your page listed in two different ways on the same day.
Schema also helps Google understand who you are. Google’s Organization markup guide says this markup on your home page can help it “disambiguate your organization in search results”. That matters if another business in your city shares your name, or one close to it.
What schema does not do is push a page up the rankings by itself. A clear, useful page still has to earn its place. Is your page ranking but getting few clicks? Our guide to why page one rankings get no clicks starts with the title and snippet.
Which Schema Types Does a Small Business Website Need?
For most Indian small business sites, four types cover the basics. Organization or LocalBusiness describes the business itself, and Product describes what you sell. Article covers blog posts, while BreadcrumbList shows where a page sits in the site. Anything beyond these depends on your business, so ask before you pay for extra types.
- Organization or LocalBusiness. This goes on the home page and the contact page. LocalBusiness suits a shop, clinic or office that customers visit. Google’s LocalBusiness guide says it can tell search engines about “business hours, different departments within a business” and more.
- Product. This is for pages that show an item and its price. Google splits it in two. Product snippets suit pages where people cannot buy directly. Merchant listings suit pages where a customer can buy from you.
- Article. This goes on blog posts. Google’s Article markup guide says it can help show “better title text, images, and date information” for the article in results.
- BreadcrumbList. This shows the path to a page, such as Home, then Blog, then the post. Google’s page says breadcrumbs in results are available on desktop.
LocalBusiness markup and your Google Business Profile do different jobs. Schema sits on your website. Your Business Profile is the listing Google shows on Maps, and it is managed separately. Our guide to Google Business Profile optimization covers that side.
What Happened to FAQ and How-To Rich Results?
Both are gone from Google Search. On 8 August 2023, Google limited FAQ rich results to well-known, authoritative government and health websites, and limited How-to rich results to desktop. How-to results then stopped showing on desktop too from 13 September 2023, and Google called the type deprecated, meaning retired. FAQ rich results then stopped appearing altogether on 7 May 2026.
Many sites still carry FAQ markup from the years when it produced those expandable questions under a listing. Google’s August 2023 announcement said there was no need to remove it in a hurry. It said unused structured data “does not cause problems for Search, but also has no visible effects in Google Search”.
The 2026 change was logged in Google’s documentation updates. The entry for 8 May 2026 says the feature “will no longer appear in Google Search starting May 7, 2026.” Google then removed the FAQ documentation in June 2026.
So if a quote still lists FAQ schema as a way to win extra space on Google, ask what it is for. A clear FAQ section on the page can still help readers. It just will not earn those dropdowns in Google any more.
Checking Your Schema Markup Yourself
You can test any page in two free tools. Google’s Rich Results Test shows which rich results the markup on a page can produce, and flags errors. The Schema Markup Validator checks the code against the schema.org vocabulary. Run a page through both, and you will know what your site carries.
Start with the Rich Results Test. Paste in your home page address and wait a few seconds. It lists each type it finds, such as LocalBusiness or BreadcrumbList, and marks problems in red. Google also suggests using it while a site is being built, then watching the Search Console reports after launch. Search Console is Google’s free dashboard for your site.
Then try the Schema Markup Validator, which is run by schema.org. Schema.org has many more types than Google uses. Google says those extra types “may be useful for other search engines, services, tools, and platforms”. The validator is also handy for spotting markup a plugin added without anyone asking.
Here is an illustration of what you might find. Say a skin clinic in Satellite tests its home page. The test finds BreadcrumbList and a LocalBusiness block, but the opening hours are missing and the phone number is an old one. That is a short fix for a developer, and it keeps search engines from reading out of date details.
What Should You Ask Your Developer?
Ask what each type is for, which pages it goes on, and how it will be kept up to date. Good markup describes facts that are already visible on the page. If the answers are vague, or the quote promises higher rankings, treat that as a reason to slow down before you pay.
- Which types are you adding, and on which pages? You want a short list drawn from the four types above, covering only the pages you actually have.
- Does the markup match what visitors can see? Google’s guidelines say “Don’t mark up content that is not visible to readers of the page.”
- Who updates it when our hours, prices or phone number change? Markup goes stale quietly. WordPress sites often add it through a plugin, an add-on installed on the site. Ask which one, and whether it fills in the fields from your own content. Our comparison of WordPress and custom websites explains the trade-off.
- Will you send me the test results? A screenshot from the Rich Results Test after launch is a fair thing to ask for.
Which Schema Mistakes Should You Avoid?
The worst mistakes are the ones Google treats as misleading. Marking up reviews you did not collect, or facts a visitor cannot see, breaks Google’s guidelines. Google can then remove the page’s rich results through a manual action. Stale details cause quieter problems, but they still undo the point of adding it.
Google’s guidelines are direct on the first one. They say not to mark up “fake reviews or content unrelated to the focus of a page”. A manual action means the page loses its eligibility for rich results. Google says this “doesn’t affect how the page ranks in Google web search”, but it still wipes out the reason you added the code.
The quieter mistakes are more common. Hours change and the markup does not. A new branch opens in Prahlad Nagar and only the old address is listed. A theme update breaks the code and nobody checks. A quick test every few months catches most of this. If you are rebuilding the site anyway, ask for the markup to be added and tested before launch. Our web design and development team can help with that.
Where to Start
Schema markup is a label for facts already on your page. It can help Google read them, but it cannot promise a richer listing. Keep it short and accurate, and keep it matched to what your visitors can see on the page.
This week, paste your home page into the Rich Results Test. Check that your name, address, phone number and hours appear, and that they match what your page shows. If something is missing or wrong, send the screenshot to your developer.
If you would like a second opinion on what your site carries, our SEO team can look at it with you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does schema markup improve Google rankings?
Not by itself. Google says structured data can make a page eligible for rich results, such as a price in the listing. It does not guarantee them. The ranking still depends on whether the page is useful and relevant.
Is FAQ schema still worth adding?
Not for Google’s rich results. FAQ rich results stopped appearing in Google Search on 7 May 2026. A well-written FAQ section on the page can still help your readers, and existing FAQ markup does not need to be rushed off the site.
How do I check whether my website has schema markup?
Paste the page address into Google’s Rich Results Test. It lists the types it finds and flags errors. The Schema Markup Validator checks the code against the wider schema.org vocabulary, including types Google does not use.
Which schema type should a local shop or clinic use?
LocalBusiness, or one of its more specific types, on the home page and the contact page. It describes your name, address, phone number and opening hours. Keep it matched to what the page shows, and update it whenever those details change.
Can schema markup get my site penalised?
Misleading markup can lead to a manual action, such as marking up fake reviews or content visitors cannot see. Google says this removes the page’s eligibility for rich results. It also says this kind of action does not affect how the page ranks.
