TechnicalNovember 7, 20268 min read

Schema markup for AI search: the types that matter

Which schema.org types matter for a small business in AI search, what Google says about structured data and AI features, and a copy-paste JSON-LD example.

GDBy the GrowDesk team

Schema markup is code, usually JSON-LD, that tells search engines exactly what a page describes: your business, products, services and reviews. For a small business, the types that matter are Organization or LocalBusiness, Product with Offer, Service, BreadcrumbList and Article. Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode need no special schema, and no study shows schema alone earns AI citations. It still helps machines identify you correctly.

Key takeaways

Start with one Organization or LocalBusiness block on your homepage. Use the most specific type that fits (HVACBusiness, Plumber, Dentist) and add sameAs links to your real profiles.
Google says structured data "isn't required for generative AI search," but still recommends it for rich results.
FAQ rich results are gone. Google limited them in 2023 and stopped showing them for everyone on May 7, 2026.
Google won't show review stars for a business that hosts reviews about itself, even through embedded review widgets.
Evidence on AI assistants is thin. Microsoft says schema helps its LLMs. A May 2026 Ahrefs study found adding schema didn't raise citations for already-cited pages.
Everything in your markup must also be visible on the page.

What is schema markup?

Schema markup is a shared vocabulary from schema.org for describing a page in a way software can read without guessing. Your page says "Open weekdays 7 to 6." The markup says the same thing as data: opens 07:00, closes 18:00, Monday through Friday.

It comes in three formats: JSON-LD, Microdata and RDFa. Google recommends JSON-LD. It is one block of code, separate from the visible text, so it is the easiest to add and maintain. Most site builders and SEO plugins produce it for you.

Does schema markup help you show up in AI search?

It helps search engines understand you, and AI search leans on them. But there is no proof that markup by itself gets you cited.

What Google says

Google's May 2026 guide, Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search, is direct: "Structured data isn't required for generative AI search, and there's no special schema.org markup you need to add." It still recommends structured data as part of your SEO, because it makes pages eligible for rich results.

Google's AI features page says the only technical requirement for AI Overviews and AI Mode is being indexed and eligible to show with a snippet. One listed best practice is making sure your structured data matches the visible text. More in our guide to Google AI Overviews and AI Mode.

What Microsoft says

In March 2025 at SMX Munich, Bing's Fabrice Canel confirmed that schema markup helps Microsoft's LLMs understand your content. It is the clearest public statement from a company running an AI assistant, and it applies to Bing and Copilot.

What tests show

Ahrefs, May 2026. Ahrefs tracked 1,885 pages that added JSON-LD and compared them with matched pages that didn't. Adding schema "didn't boost citations on any platform": ChatGPT and AI Mode changes were indistinguishable from zero, and AI Overviews showed a small drop Ahrefs couldn't tie to schema. Every page was already heavily cited, so the study can't say whether schema helps a page AI hasn't found yet.
searchVIU, October 2025. A one-page test put a different price in each format. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Mode all missed the price that existed only in JSON-LD. The authors caution that one page proves little.

What nobody knows yet

OpenAI, Anthropic, Perplexity and xAI have not published whether their assistants read JSON-LD when they fetch a page. The likely path is indirect: schema helps Google and Bing build an accurate record of your business, and AI answers draw on those indexes. That is reasonable, not proven.

Put every fact you care about in visible text first. Schema confirms what the page says. It doesn't replace it.

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Which schema types matter for a small business?

Type	Use it for	Where it goes	Google feature today
Organization	Every business	Homepage or About page	Logo and knowledge panel details
LocalBusiness subtype	A location or local service	Homepage or location pages	Business details in Search
Product + Offer	Things you sell, with prices	Product pages	Product snippets, merchant listings
Service	What you do	Service pages	None
BreadcrumbList	Site structure	Inner pages	Breadcrumb trail on desktop
Article	Guides and blog posts	Article pages	Title, image and date display
FAQPage	Q&A content	FAQ pages	None since May 2026

Organization and LocalBusiness

Google suggests Organization markup on your homepage or About page to help it tell you apart from similarly named companies. Useful properties: name, url, logo, telephone, address, description and sameAs.

If customers visit you or you serve a local area, use LocalBusiness. Google requires name and address and recommends telephone, url, geo, openingHoursSpecification and priceRange. Its rule: "Use the most specific LocalBusiness sub-type possible."

Trades: HVACBusiness, Plumber, Electrician, RoofingContractor and GeneralContractor all sit under HomeAndConstructionBusiness.
Dental and medical: Dentist is its own type. Other clinics fit under MedicalBusiness.
Manufacturers: schema.org has no manufacturer type. Use Organization for the company and Product for what you make.
Skip ProfessionalService. schema.org deprecated it because it was confused with Service.

If your street address isn't on your site, keep it out of the markup too.

sameAs: tell machines which profiles are yours

sameAs lists URLs that "unambiguously" identify the same entity: your LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube pages, a BBB listing, a trade association directory, or a Wikidata entry if you have one.

Names repeat. There may be a dozen "Summit Dental" practices across the country. sameAs ties your site to profiles about the same business, which helps search engines, and the AI answers built on them, keep your facts straight. This entity clarity is a core part of AEO and GEO.

Product and Offer

For product snippets, Google requires name plus one of offers, review or aggregateRating. An Offer needs a price. Pages where people can buy directly can also qualify for merchant listings. A manufacturer that quotes on request can still mark up name, description, brand and image. It just won't get product rich results. Don't invent a price to qualify.

Service

Service describes what you do with serviceType, provider, areaServed and optionally offers. Google has no rich result for it, but it is a cheap way to state "furnace repair in Montgomery County" in machine-readable form.

FAQPage

In August 2023, Google limited FAQ rich results to "well-known, authoritative government and health websites." Its FAQ documentation records that the feature stopped appearing in Google Search on May 7, 2026.

Google has said unused structured data "does not cause problems for Search," so existing FAQPage markup can stay. Just don't expect a Google feature from it. Keep the visible questions and answers. Readers and AI tools can see those.

Review and AggregateRating

Google's review snippet rules are strict. A LocalBusiness or Organization that controls the reviews about itself isn't eligible for stars, and that includes embedded Google or Facebook review widgets. Don't aggregate ratings from other websites, and never use fake reviews. Product reviews from real customers can still qualify. For a dental clinic or HVAC company, earn reviews on Google Business Profile and other third-party sites instead.

BreadcrumbList and Article

BreadcrumbList shows where a page sits, such as Home, Services, Heat pumps. Google shows breadcrumbs on desktop and stopped showing them on mobile in January 2025. Article markup has no required properties. Add headline, image, datePublished, dateModified and author.

Copy-paste JSON-LD for a local business

Here is markup for a fictional dental clinic. Replace every value, delete anything your site doesn't show, and place it on your homepage inside a script tag with type="application/ld+json".

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Dentist",
  "@id": "https://www.example.com/#business",
  "name": "Maple Street Dental",
  "url": "https://www.example.com/",
  "logo": "https://www.example.com/images/logo.png",
  "telephone": "+1-555-010-0199",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "streetAddress": "120 Maple Street",
    "addressLocality": "Springfield",
    "addressRegion": "IL",
    "postalCode": "62701",
    "addressCountry": "US"
  },
  "geo": {
    "@type": "GeoCoordinates",
    "latitude": 39.78172,
    "longitude": -89.65015
  },
  "openingHoursSpecification": [{
    "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification",
    "dayOfWeek": ["Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday"],
    "opens": "08:00",
    "closes": "17:00"
  }],
  "priceRange": "$",
  "sameAs": [
    "https://www.facebook.com/example-dental",
    "https://www.linkedin.com/company/example-dental"
  ]
}

For an HVAC company, change @type to HVACBusiness and add areaServed with the cities you cover. If you are both, use an array such as ["HVACBusiness", "Plumber"].

How do I test my schema markup?

Rich Results Test. Google's Rich Results Test shows which Google rich results a page is eligible for and flags errors.
Schema Markup Validator. The Schema Markup Validator checks any schema.org type, including ones Google ignores, like Service.
URL Inspection in Search Console. Confirms Google found the structured data on the live page.
Read the page. Google's guidelines say markup must be "a true representation of the page content."

Valid markup is not a promise: Google doesn't guarantee rich results. GrowDesk's free check at growdesk.io looks for structured data and llms.txt. See also our llms.txt guide, the AI agent-ready website checklist, and how to measure AI visibility before and after.

FAQ

Does ChatGPT use schema markup?

OpenAI hasn't said. A 2025 test found ChatGPT and four other assistants missed a fact that existed only in JSON-LD, and a 2026 Ahrefs study found adding schema didn't raise ChatGPT citations for already-cited pages.

Is FAQ schema still worth adding in 2026?

Not for Google features. Google stopped showing FAQ rich results on May 7, 2026. Existing FAQPage markup does no harm, and visible questions and answers still help readers.

What schema type should a manufacturer use?

Organization for the company and Product for each product line. schema.org has no manufacturer type, so add LocalBusiness only if customers visit a physical location.

Can schema markup hurt my site?

Spammy or misleading markup can earn a manual action, which removes rich result eligibility. Google says it doesn't affect how the page ranks, but mark up only what the page shows.

Do I need both Organization and LocalBusiness?

No. LocalBusiness is a type of Organization, so one LocalBusiness block covers both. Use plain Organization when customers don't visit a location.