On this page 16 sections
Structured data for service businesses should start with Organization on the home page, LocalBusiness (or its most specific subtype) for each real location, BreadcrumbList on inner pages and Article on blog posts. Service markup describes what you sell but has no rich result in Google. FAQPage and HowTo no longer produce rich results at all, so they should not drive your plan.
That answer comes with one rule that sits above all of it. Google says it does not guarantee that structured data will show up in search results, even when the markup is valid. Markup makes a page eligible for a feature. It does not earn the feature by itself. Below is what each type does, what Google documents for it, and where service firms commonly go wrong.
How does structured data for service businesses work?
Structured data is code on a page that labels facts Google can read without guessing, such as your business name, address, logo or the date an article was published.
Google's introduction to structured data lists three supported formats and recommends JSON-LD, a script block that sits apart from the visible text, because it is the easiest to implement and maintain in most cases. The same page makes a point many guides skip: most of the vocabulary comes from schema.org, but Google's own documentation is definitive for how Google Search behaves, not the schema.org site.
Two of Google's general structured data guidelines matter most for service firms:
Don't mark up content that is not visible to readers of the page.
Don't mark up irrelevant or misleading content, such as fake reviews.
If your markup describes a service area, opening hours or a phone number, the same details should appear on the page itself.
Which schema types should a service business use?
Most service businesses need four types, and some will add a fifth for their service pages.
Organization
Where: your home page.
What it does: Google's Organization documentation says it helps Google understand your administrative details and disambiguate your organization in search results.
What Google can show: some properties influence visual elements, such as which logo appears in search results and in your knowledge panel.
Requirements: there are no required properties. Google recommends adding as many relevant ones as apply, such as name, url, logo, contact details and sameAs links to your official profiles.
LocalBusiness and its subtypes
Where: the page for each physical location customers can visit or contact.
What it does: Google's LocalBusiness documentation says you can use it to tell Google about business hours, departments and other details that can appear in a knowledge panel when people search for a business on Search or Maps.
Requirements: a name and a physical address. Google also asks you to use the most specific subtype available and, because LocalBusiness is a subtype of Organization, to follow the Organization fields too.
Multiple types: if you offer several kinds of service, Google says to list the types as an array.
BreadcrumbList
Where: every inner page with a clear place in your site hierarchy, such as Services, then SEO, then Local SEO.
What it does: Google's breadcrumb documentation describes the trail as showing a page's position in the site hierarchy.
What Google can show: the documentation lists the feature as available on desktop in all regions and languages where Google Search is available.
Article
Where: blog posts, guides and news pages.
What it does: Google's Article documentation says the markup can help Google show better title text, images and date information for the article.
Requirements: there are no required properties. Add headline, image, datePublished, dateModified and author where they apply.
Service
Where: individual service pages, if you want to describe the offer formally.
What it does: schema.org defines Service as "a service provided by an organization", with properties such as provider, areaServed and serviceType.
What Google can show: Google's list of structured data features includes no Service feature, so this markup does not produce a rich result in Google Search. Use it for clarity and consistency, not for a visual payoff.
Should you use ProfessionalService?
Use a more specific subtype instead, because schema.org has deprecated the general ProfessionalService type.
The schema.org ProfessionalService page says the general type for local businesses "was deprecated due to confusion with Service". It still lists the narrower types that used to sit under it, including AccountingService, Attorney, Notary, and home-and-construction trades such as Electrician, Plumber and Locksmith.
So a law firm should use Attorney, an accounting practice AccountingService, and a plumbing company Plumber. Where no specific subtype fits, such as a marketing or consulting firm, plain LocalBusiness is the honest choice for a real office, and Organization is the right choice when you have no location customers visit. Don't invent a physical address to qualify for LocalBusiness. Google's guidelines rule out marking up content that misleads.
What happened to FAQ and HowTo rich results?
Both are gone from Google Search, so neither should be a reason to add markup today.
Google's Search Central changelog records the sequence:
September 2023: Google removed the How-to structured data documentation because the rich result was no longer shown on desktop or mobile. In the same update, it restricted FAQ rich results to well-known, authoritative government and health websites.
May 2026: Google added a deprecation notice to the FAQ documentation and stated that the feature would no longer appear in Google Search starting May 7, 2026.
June 2026: Google removed the FAQ rich result documentation because the feature is no longer shown in search results.
This does not make an FAQ section on a service page pointless. Clear questions and answers still help readers decide, and they give your page plain-language passages that answer a buyer's question directly. What changed is the expandable FAQ display under your listing, which a service business can no longer get from Google.
What should a service business avoid marking up?
Avoid markup for reviews of yourself, content that isn't on the page, and features that no longer exist.
Self-serving reviews catch many service firms out. Google's review snippet documentation says review markup for LocalBusiness and Organization is supported only for sites that capture reviews about other businesses or organizations. Testimonials on your own site, marked up as reviews of your own company, do not qualify.
Other mistakes worth checking for:
Opening hours or phone numbers in the markup that differ from the page.
A service area in areaServed that the page never mentions.
Organization markup repeated with different names or logos on different pages.
Breadcrumb markup that does not match the visible breadcrumb trail.
Once the markup is live, test each page type with Google's Rich Results Test before and after every template change. If your site also has page-experience problems, our guide to Core Web Vitals and Google rankings covers the performance side, and the article on getting your business verified on Google covers your Business Profile.
Questions people ask
Does structured data improve rankings?
Google's documentation presents structured data as a way to help Google understand a page and to make it eligible for certain search features, with no guarantee those features appear. Treat it as eligibility, not as a ranking lever.
Should a service business still use FAQPage markup?
It no longer produces a rich result in Google Search, as Google stopped showing the feature from May 7, 2026. Keep the FAQ content if it helps readers, and treat any markup as optional.
Is LocalBusiness or Organization better for a service business?
Use LocalBusiness, or its most specific subtype, for a real location customers can visit or contact, and Organization on the home page for the business as a whole. The two work together, since LocalBusiness is a subtype of Organization.
Do I need Service markup on every service page?
No. Service markup has no rich result in Google, so it is a matter of clarity rather than visibility. If you add it, keep it consistent with the page text.
Getting the markup right
Structured data is one part of technical SEO, alongside crawlability, page speed and content that answers the buyer's question. If you want a team to audit and implement it as part of a wider plan, see how our SEO service works.
