Between Google trying to become the new home page and stiff competition in search results, you want to make sure that your local business stands out from the crowd when you land on Page 1.

I talked about these structured data opportunities in my recent #Optimisey talk (video below) and how local businesses can take advantage of these.

 

Structured Data Opportunities for Local Business

Here are two of my favourite quick wins with structured data for local businesses.

 

1. Image & priceRange

I write about updating your structured data with Image & priceRange in 2016 and yet it is still hardly utilised or implemented by local businesses within their structured data markup.

A couple of reason for this is that most plugins for structured data do not offer these fields and also that in order for the priceRange to appear in SERPS you also need to be using AggregateRating on that page.

 

 

Please do get a little bit more creative then using the standard ££ – £££ with your priceRange, below I have used “Best Rate Guaranteed” for a hotel and “Get a Quote” for the campervan hire site.

 

<script type="application/ld+json">
   {
  	"@context": "http://schema.org",
  	"@type": "LocalBusiness",
    "image": "https://onlineownership.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/SEO-Graphic.jpg",
    "priceRange" : "Quoted Price",
  	"address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "streetAddress": "6 Regal Close",
    "addressLocality": "Corby",
    "addressRegion": "Northamptonshire",
    "postalCode":"NN17 1EZ"
    },
    "aggregateRating": {
    "@type": "AggregateRating",
    "ratingValue": "4.8",
    "bestRating": "5",
    "ratingCount": "37"
      },
  	"description": "Local SEO Specialists and Google My Business Product Experts",
  	"name": "Online Ownership",
    "openingHours": "Mo-Fr 09:00-18:00",
  	"telephone": "01536 269 657",
  	"email": "info@onlineowership.com",
    "url": "https://onlineownership.com",
    "hasMap": "https://goo.gl/maps/nGeYv6mVXvF2",
    "sameAs" : [
    "https://plus.google.com/+OnlineownershipUK",
    "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwpL0xyVCiYJS_Yozf8Mt_g"
    ]
     }
   }
</script>

 

Remember that the priceRange will only appear on pages with AggregateRating, so ideal for product / service pages that you have reviews displayed on.

 

2. Event Structured Data

Again this started being displayed in 2016 yet local business are not taking advantage of this. There are a whole range of uses for event structured data including a Sale!

 

 

In 2018 Google got tired of waiting for businesses to start using this feature and started scraping sites for events. This means that you can display an event on another business listing or POI listing by specifying the location of the event.

Googles insistence on displaying irrelevant events based on structured allows you the opportunity to “Advertise” on other Business & POI Knowledge Panels.

 

 

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "http://schema.org",
  "@type": "ExhibitionEvent",
  "name": "Stone and Bronze",
  "image": "http://messumswiltshire.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/18-03-2016_10091-225x300.jpg", 
  "url": "http://messumswiltshire.com/bronze-and-stone/",
  "description": "Stone and Bronze exhibition features work of three internationally recognised West Country Artists, Bridget McCrum, Tim Harrisson and Dominic Welch.",
  "startDate": "2016-09-24T10:00",
  "endDate": "2016-11-05T17:00",
  "location": {
    "@type": "Place",
    "name": "Messums Wiltshire",
    "sameAs": "http://messumswiltshire.com/",
    "address": {
      "@type": "PostalAddress",
      "streetAddress": "Place Farm, Court St, ",
      "addressLocality": "Tisbury",
      "addressRegion": "Wiltshire",
      "postalCode": "SP3 6LW"
    }
  },
  "offers": {
    "@type": "Offer",
    "url": "http://messumswiltshire.com/bronze-and-stone/"
  }
}
 </script>

 

**Note:

I am not saying you should display your events on other businesses, that would be a dick move. Rather you can use POI listings that hold regular events near your business and advertise on these. So if there is something going on in a nearby location then by all means markup your event / sale with that POI’s location.

 

Local SEO after Checklists

Check out my talk on opportunities for local businesses including the above on structured data opportunities.