01The types a local business should use
Google's local business documentation asks you to define each location as a LocalBusiness and to use the most specific subtype possible, such as Restaurant, DaySpa or HealthClub. If you do more than one thing, you can list several types. The only required properties are the address and the name, and Google says the more address detail you give, the better the result. On top of that it recommends telephone, opening hours, geo coordinates and URL, and because LocalBusiness is a kind of Organization, it also recommends the Organization fields. Get those right and a search engine can tell what you are, where you are and when you are open without guessing.
- Use LocalBusiness with the most specific subtype, like Restaurant or DaySpa
- Required: name and address, as complete as possible
- Recommended: phone, opening hours, geo coordinates, URL and the Organization fields
02What to skip, and what schema does for AI search
Some markup that vendors still sell does little for a local business. Since 2023, Google shows FAQ rich results only for well-known, authoritative government and health websites, so FAQPage markup will not win a salon or a restaurant extra space in results. Google also recommends aggregateRating in local business markup only for sites that collect reviews about other businesses, so marking up your own star rating is not the way to get stars. On AI search, Google's guidance on AI features is plain: there is no special schema.org markup you need to add to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and the usual SEO basics still apply. Accurate local markup is part of those basics.
- FAQ rich results now show only for well-known government and health sites
- Self-marked star ratings are not how a local business gets review stars
- Google: no special schema is needed for AI Overviews or AI Mode
A hotel that search engines read as a hotel
For Santorini Hotel, a seafront hotel in Eforie Nord, PROOF48 added structured data so search engines read the property as a hotel rather than a generic page, and published the reception, restaurant and complaints phone lines both on the site and in that structured data. That is what matched markup looks like in practice: the type the business really is, and the contact details a guest actually needs. We do not publish the hotel's occupancy or booking figures.
See the build: Santorini HotelQuestions, answered
Should a local business add FAQPage schema?
It will not earn FAQ rich results, because Google now shows those only for well-known government and health websites. The questions and answers are still worth having on the page as plain text for visitors.
Does PROOF48 sell a special AI-schema package?
No. Google says there is no special schema.org markup needed for AI Overviews or AI Mode, so there is nothing separate to sell. Every build gets structured data matched to the business instead.
Where PROOF48 fits
A local business needs LocalBusiness markup with the most specific type, a complete address and name, plus phone and opening hours. Skip FAQPage hopes and self-marked stars, and do not buy an AI-schema package: Google says none is needed. PROOF48 ships structured data matched to each build.
Cosmin Tiu · Founder, PROOF48
Cosmin has worked in online marketing and software development since 2018, and has built with AI every day since January 2023. He still writes code from scratch daily, in Python, React, Rust and C#. PROOF48 ships business websites in 48 hours and invoices afterwards, so every opinion on this blog was paid for in real builds, not in theory.