The schema setup guide: get your website read and recommended by AI

Jun 29

5 min read

Schema is the code that tells Google and AI tools exactly what your page is, who you are, and what you do. Without it, machines have to guess. With it, you become a business they can read clearly and put forward when a customer asks for the best option near them.

This guide shows you what schema to use for your type of business, how to make it with Claude, and how to install it on WordPress or Wix. No coding background needed.

First, the plain-English version

When a person reads your homepage, they understand you sell bathroom installs in Toronto. A machine reading the same page sees words, but it is not sure which is your business name, which is your phone number, or what service you actually offer.

Schema removes the guessing. It is a small block of code, written in a format called JSON-LD, that sits on your page and labels everything clearly. Name here. Service here. Reviews here. Location here.

AI tools lean on this heavily. When someone asks ChatGPT or Google's AI for the best electrician nearby, the tools pull from pages they can read with confidence. Clear schema makes you one of those pages.

The schema types you need, by business

You do not need every type. You need the few that match your business. Here is how to choose.

If you run a local service or lead-gen site (most trades, clinics, salons)

This is the setup for a plumber, electrician, dentist, chiropractor, salon, or any business that wants the phone to ring.

LocalBusiness, or a more specific version if one fits, like Plumber, Electrician, Dentist, or HairSalon. This carries your name, address, phone, hours, and service area. It is the most important one for you.
Service, one for each main thing you offer. Bathroom installs, emergency callouts, teeth whitening. This tells AI what you actually do.
FAQPage, built from the questions customers really ask. This is the type AI loves to quote.
AggregateRating or Review, if you have genuine reviews to show. This signals trust.
BreadcrumbList, the trail that shows how your pages connect. Small but helpful.

If you run an ecommerce store

This is the setup for anyone selling products online.

Product, one per product page, with name, description, image, and brand.
Offer, nested inside Product, carrying price, currency, and whether it is in stock. AI uses this for shopping answers.
AggregateRating and Review, your star ratings and customer reviews.
BreadcrumbList, your category trail, like Home, then Boots, then Winter Boots.
Organization, your store-level identity, with your logo and social links in a sameAs list.

If you publish articles or a blog

Article, with a named author and a publish date. Named authors matter. AI cites content with a real author far more often than anonymous pages.
Organization, to tie the article back to your business.

Whatever your business, Organization sitting at the top is worth having. It builds the core identity AI attaches everything else to.

Step 1: Generate your schema with Claude

You do not write this by hand. Paste your page into Claude and let it write the code.

For a local service site, use this:

Write LocalBusiness, Service, and FAQPage schema for my business as JSON-LD. Use a specific business type if one fits. Here is my homepage text, my services, my name, address, and phone, and five questions my customers ask. [paste it all]

For an ecommerce product page:

Write Product and Offer schema as JSON-LD for this product page, including price, availability, brand, and any review ratings. Here is the product page content. [paste it]

Claude hands back a clean block of code. Keep each page's schema with that page.

Step 2: Match everything to your Google Business Profile

This step is quiet but it makes or breaks the result. Your business name, address, and phone number in your schema must match your Google Business Profile exactly. Same spelling, same format, same suite number.

When these do not match, AI systems lose confidence and stop trusting your data. When they match, the signals stack up and your business looks solid. Check it before you install anything.

Step 3: Install it on your site

How you add the code depends on your platform.

WordPress

You have two clean routes.

The easy route is an SEO plugin. If you use Yoast or RankMath, they already output basic schema for you. RankMath in particular lets you add and customise schema types per page from inside the editor, no code touched. Schema Pro is another plugin built just for this.

The direct route is pasting the JSON-LD yourself. Install a simple plugin like WPCode or Insert Headers and Footers, then paste Claude's code into the header section, either site-wide or on the specific page. This gives you full control over exactly what each page says.

For most owners, RankMath plus a few custom blocks from Claude is the sweet spot.

Wix

Wix builds some structured data automatically for standard page types, so check what you already have before adding more.

To add your own, go to your site's dashboard, then Settings, then Custom Code. Add a new code snippet, paste Claude's JSON-LD wrapped in a script tag, set it to load in the head, and choose which pages it runs on. Wix also has built-in structured data fields in its SEO settings for each page, which is the simplest place to start.

For Wix stores, the product structured data is largely handled for you, so focus your custom code on LocalBusiness and FAQ.

Shopify and other ecommerce platforms

Most Shopify themes already include Product schema. Check yours first with the test in the next step. If it is thin or missing fields, a free app like JSON-LD for SEO fills the gaps without you editing theme code. Only touch theme.liquid if you are comfortable in there.

Step 4: Test it before you trust it

Never assume the code worked. Two free checks:

Google Rich Results Test. Paste your page URL or the code. It tells you what Google can read and flags errors.
Schema Markup Validator at schema.org. A broader check that catches anything Google's tool skips.

Fix any errors it shows, then re-test until it comes back clean.

The FAQ rules that keep you on the right side of Google

FAQ schema is powerful but easy to misuse. Follow these:

Use real questions customers actually ask, not invented ones.
Keep answers to two or three sentences, complete but tight.
Show the FAQ on the visible page too, not only in the code.
Limit it to five to ten questions per page.

One honest note. Google reduced FAQ rich results in normal search back in 2023, so you may not see the dropdown in Google itself anymore. FAQ schema still earns its place because AI tools read it to understand and quote your answers. That is the win you are after.

Keep it current

Schema is not set and forget. When your phone number changes, your hours change, or your prices move, update the schema too. Stale data that contradicts your live pages does more harm than no schema at all.

A good rhythm: review it whenever you change anything important, and do a full check once a quarter.

What this gets you

Clear schema, matched to your Google Business Profile and tested clean, makes your website one of the pages AI can read with confidence. That is how you move from invisible to recommended when your next customer asks a machine for the best option near them.

Set it up once, keep it honest, and it works in the background for you.

Fifteen years doing this for owners like you. Follow along and I will keep the fixes coming.