What is structured data and does it help a small business?
Structured data is a block of machine-readable detail added to a page: what the business is, where it is, its opening hours, its reviews. Google uses it to understand the page and, sometimes, to show richer listings. For a local business the LocalBusiness type is the one that matters, because it reinforces your Google Business Profile and helps with map results.
Why it matters
Google can read your page, but it has to guess whether "Smith & Sons" is a business, a page title or a family. Structured data removes the guesswork: it states in a standard format that this is a plumber, at this address, with this phone number, open these hours, serving these towns. That consistency between your site and your Business Profile is one of the signals Google uses for the map pack, which is where most local enquiries come from.
What to include
For most local businesses, one LocalBusiness block on the home page with: the business type (Plumber, Dentist, Restaurant and so on), name, address, phone, opening hours, the area served, a logo and a link to the Business Profile. Product, Event, Article and FAQ types exist for other content, and some earn richer listings in results, though Google has reduced these over time.
How to check
Our check looks for JSON-LD structured data in your home page and reports the types it found. Google's Rich Results Test and the Schema Markup Validator show whether the data is valid and what Google can use.
How to fix it
On WordPress, SEO plugins add Organization or LocalBusiness data from a settings screen where you enter the details once. Rank Math and Yoast both do this. On other platforms, many have a business details section that outputs it. Otherwise it is a small JSON-LD script in the page head that a developer can write in half an hour. Keep the details identical to your Business Profile: the same name, the same address format, the same phone number.
Not sure how your own site does on this? Run the free check: it takes about twenty seconds and reports on this and thirty other things.