Does your local business markup fit the business?

By Matt Kerr·Published 11 November 2026

It checks local identity markup and important fields while respecting business type and ownership.

What Check Engine measures

After local applicability, the check reads owned and listed local nodes, preferring the business's own nodes. It reviews address, telephone or phone, hours, coordinates or map, URL, image or logo, and price range. Empty values count as missing. The most complete candidate supplies the gap list. Script-built types, organisation-with-address cases and specialised identity types can suppress or change a missing-LocalBusiness claim.

The check compares business markup and declared types. A directory entry may describe someone else's premises. Keep that entry attached to the business it names.

How to read the result

Missing or incorrectly broad identity can be high severity. Incomplete owned nodes are medium, while incomplete listed-business nodes are low. Presence of a field key alone does not establish a useful value.

Why it matters

A business type is a claim about what the site represents. Accurate values matter more than adding empty keys, and a different legitimate identity type can be the correct choice for a physical organisation.

How to fix it

Choose the identity type that matches the organisation. Fill applicable fields with real details and keep them aligned with visible contact information. Do not add invented opening hours or prices to complete a list. Review whether each node describes your business or someone listed on the site before changing shared markup.

When a field is there and still missing

What we found in field audits

Problems in Local business SEO were found on 12 of the 14 sites we audited. These are area totals. Read the field-audit method.

Method note

backend/seo_engine/checks/local_seo.py, local_schema, revision 0bb8e8d3.