Local SEO Schema: Complete LocalBusiness Implementation

Local search represents 46% of all Google searches. For businesses with physical locations, local visibility is often the highest-converting organic traffic channel. Google's local search patent (US Patent 9,311,399) describes how location entities are matched, ranked, and displayed.

The LocalBusiness Schema Foundation

Core Properties

• @type — Use the most specific subtype: Restaurant, DentalClinic, AutoRepair, LegalService, etc. Generic "LocalBusiness" should only be used when no specific subtype exists.
• name — Exact legal business name (must match Google Business Profile)
• address — PostalAddress with streetAddress, addressLocality, addressRegion, postalCode, addressCountry
• geo — GeoCoordinates with latitude and longitude
• telephone — Primary phone number in E.164 format
• openingHoursSpecification — Structured hours for each day of the week
• url — Your website URL
• image — Business photos (storefront, interior, team)

Properties That Boost Local Visibility

• priceRange — $ to $$$$ indicator
• servesCuisine — For restaurants and food businesses
• areaServed — Geographic area you serve (critical for service-area businesses)
• hasMap — Link to your Google Maps listing
• review / aggregateRating — Local review data
• sameAs — Links to all official profiles (Google Business, Yelp, Facebook, etc.)
• department — Sub-entities for businesses with distinct departments

Multi-Location Implementation

For businesses with multiple locations, each location must have:

1. 1Its own dedicated landing page
2. 2Its own LocalBusiness schema with unique @id
3. 3A parentOrganization reference to your main Organization entity
4. 4Location-specific content (not duplicated across locations)
5. 5Unique NAP data matching each location's Google Business Profile

The Location Page Template

Each location page should include:

• H1 with city/neighborhood name and business type
• Full NAP displayed visibly on the page
• Embedded map
• Location-specific reviews or testimonials
• Location-specific service descriptions
• Unique photos of that specific location

Service Area Business Schema

If you serve customers at their location (plumbers, movers, cleaners), use ServiceAreaBusiness:

• Do not include a visitor-facing address
• Define areaServed with GeoCircle, GeoShape, or administrative area references
• Each service area should have its own landing page with relevant local content

The Local Pack Ranking Factors We Analyze

Our Competitive Position dimension includes local pack analysis:

1. 1Relevance — How well your business entity matches the query. Complete schema coverage directly improves this.
2. 2Distance — Geographic proximity to the searcher. Your schema's geo coordinates must be accurate to within 10 meters.
3. 3Prominence — Review count, review quality, website authority, citation consistency.

How We Implement

For a dental practice with 6 locations, we deployed complete LocalBusiness schema across all location pages, aligned NAP data with Google Business Profiles, and fixed 23 citation inconsistencies. Within 90 days:

• Local pack appearances increased by 56%
• Direction requests from local search grew 41%
• Phone calls from search listings increased 33%

Local SEO is fundamentally about entity completeness and consistency. We implement the structured data foundation and align it across every platform where your business entity appears.