Local Business schema / markup

[BryanPhelps-BigLeapWeb]

What markup should local businesses employ on their website?

I'm aware of the newer schema.org markup but does Google still use rich snippets, geotags, etc.?

[KaneJamison]

I use schema, it will work fine with rich snippets in SERPs. Everything a typical local business should need is covered...  Is there a specific rich snippet you have in mind for a business?

I use this as an easy schema code generator: http://www.microdatagenerator.com/local-business-schema

Once you've got it enabled, check your implementation with the snippets tester: http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets

[MiriamEllis]

Hi MVBryanB,

There are a variety of choices available to you in terms of markup. The main benefit of Schema is that Google, Bing and Yahoo have all agreed on it as a standard. I highly recommend that you read Mike Blumenthal's article on this subject from last autumn, as well as all the comments following it:

http://blumenthals.com/blog/2011/10/07/a-free-tool-to-build-geo-sitemap-and-schema-org-compliant-files/

Take special note of the free Schema tool Mike links to. I think this resource is exactly what you are looking for.

Miriam