How to check your business details before adding structured data

Structured data is a machine-readable description of facts your website already presents. For a local business, that can include its name, website, phone, business type, public address, opening hours, and service area. It should help describe the business accurately, not invent a more attractive version of it.

Begin with a small fact sheet approved by the person who maintains the business information. If the website, printed card, and business listing disagree about hours, generating another version adds confusion. Resolve the disagreement first and record which source was checked.

Inspect a deliberately limited example

Use Cedar Repair in Business name, General local business in Business type, and example.com in Website. Enter +1 202 555 0142 in Phone, Example City in City, and TX in State. These are fictional demonstration details.

Leave Street address and ZIP empty for this practice run. Put “Example City, Sample Town” in Towns you serve, comma separated, select the middle Price range, and enter Mo-Fr 09:00-17:00 in Hours.

The checked run creates a script block containing JSON-LD. It uses LocalBusiness as the type, normalizes the website to https://example.com, turns the two towns into separate City entries, and omits the blank street and postal-code values. It still creates an address object and sets addressCountry to US.

That output demonstrates the generator's behavior. It is not a complete, validated business record. In particular, the example has no actual public street address, and the tool assumes a US address. Do not publish this fictional markup or assume a generated block meets every search feature requirement.

Match the markup to facts visitors can see

For your real business, compare each value with the relevant public page. The name should identify the business. The phone should reach its intended contact route. The hours should mean what the page says they mean: office hours, customer access, or another clearly described schedule.

Select a business type that actually fits. Do not pick a licensed profession or specialist category merely because it sounds more authoritative. List service areas you genuinely cover, and make sure a visitor can understand any limits, such as appointments required or travel charges quoted separately.

A field being available is not a reason to expose a private address. If you are a service-area business without a public customer location, do not invent a storefront or publish a home address to satisfy a validator. Review which markup is appropriate for the public facts you can accurately provide.

Google's LocalBusiness documentation explains supported properties and requirements. Its structured-data guidance also makes clear that eligibility and correct markup do not guarantee a particular search appearance. Consult the current requirements for the feature you want to support. Google LocalBusiness documentation

Validate the installed page

First review the generated text for accuracy. Then have the site's maintainer place it in the appropriate code area without creating a second, conflicting business description. A website theme, plugin, or existing application may already provide structured data. Check before adding another block.

Use a structured-data validator and Google's Rich Results Test for their respective checks. Read both errors and warnings. A successful syntax check means the text can be interpreted; it does not confirm that the business facts are true or that every search feature is available.

After installation, inspect the actual public page and its rendered markup. Confirm the code is present, the visible information agrees, and the page is accessible as intended. Saving a snippet in a website editor is not proof that the published page contains it.

Copy this business-fact checklist

• Business name and approving owner:
• Type and reason it fits:
• Public website and phone:
• Public address decision:
• Customer-facing hours and exceptions:
• Actual service area:
• Price-range meaning:
• Source checked and date:
• Existing structured data reviewed:
• Validation result and unresolved issues:
• Live page checked:

Keep that sheet for changes in phone numbers, locations, or hours. Updating the visible contact page should trigger a check of the machine-readable version too. Treat both as descriptions of the same business.

The free LocalBusiness Schema Generator prepares one starting block. If you need coordinated service-page blocks and an installation guide, the Local SEO Schema Kit continues that job. No purchase is required to complete the fact sheet and validate an appropriate snippet. Start with the facts you can stand behind.