Is it better to stick with a generic LocalBusiness Schema Itemtype for a particular type of business or should you get more specific?

[barkingtuna]

Full disclosure... I don't know much about proper Schema Markup. I'm curious about how specific everyone gets when generating the markup for different types of businesses that service a local area and rely heavily on Local Maps listings.

For instance, I have a bunch of self-storage facility clients. Is it better to just keep it generic like any other Local Business? Here's 2 examples... which one is better:

<div id="search-area" itemid="facility" itemtype="http://schema.org/SelfStorage" itemscope=""> <a style="color: #ffffff" href="http://goo.gl/maps/SjmZ"> <span itemid="facility" itemtype="http://schema.org/SelfStorage" itemscope=""> <span itemprop="name">Elliot Kyrene Storage Solutionsspan>span><br>a>
<div itemtype="http://schema.org/PostalAddress" itemscope="" itemprop="address"> <a style="color: #ffffff" href="http://goo.gl/maps/SjmZ"> <span class="street-address" itemprop="streetAddress">543 W. Elliot Rdspan>
<br><span class="locality" itemprop="addressLocality">Tempespan>, <span class="region" title="Arizona" itemprop="addressRegion">AZspan>
<span class="postal-code" itemprop="postalCode">85284span><br> <span itemprop="telephone">480.940.0111span>
a>div>h3>div>

Or is this better:

<div itemtype="http://schema.org/PostalAddress" itemscope="" itemprop="address"><h2><span itemprop="streetAddress">2636 W. Thunderbird Roadspan><span itemprop="addressLocality">Phoenixspan>, <span title="Arizona" itemprop="addressRegion">AZspan>
<span class="postalCode">85023span>|<span itemprop="telephone">602-863-0111span>
h2>
<span itemtype="http://schema.org/GeoCoordinates" itemscope="" itemprop="geo"> <meta content="33.611544" itemprop="latitude">
<meta content="-112.114374" itemprop="longitude">span>
div>

[Travis_Bailey]

It's a good idea to be as specific as possible. A lot of people tend to over-think the whole deal. Every major search engine, of consequence in the Western hemisphere, has endorsed this form of structured data. If Schema provides a particular type, by all means use it.

The first snippet definitely checks. Your competitors aren't likely using it. The search engines have admitted they're a little slow on the uptake, and you put in the time. You have some pretty good contact info/NAP boiler plate right there.

All the thumbs. First snippet.

[barkingtuna]

Thanks for validating that I'm on the right track. Local search is integral to self storage facilities because 90% of occupants live or work within a 5 mile radius and it's location/convenience based service. Everyone else continues to battle it out for the generic top level keywords in organic rankings that account for only 20% of conversions and mistakenly neglect local, sub-market specific keywords and indicators that drive the most relevant traffic likely to convert.

[Travis_Bailey]

Not a problem. Though one thing did kind of strike me as odd, and that's the white #fff maps link. Then again, I don't really know what color the background(s) will be. If the backgrounds are white, I would err toward the side of caution and use a contrasting style. Just sayin'.

Besides, there's markup for map links which you can incorporate. More on that here. You can play around with the markup until you have something that satisfies your needs and validates, via the structured data testing tool.

A note on the testing tool:

It's so user friendly, it's not readily apparent that you can just click on the first window and paste your src.

Once you get comfortable with that, there are a lot of other ways you can use the markup.

[barkingtuna]

Yeah... Thanks. You caught me being lazy with the CSS. Rather than create a separate class for that H2 and text, I opted for some in line CSS and never went in and updated the overall  CSS. It's an older site done in Concrete5, which I build everything in, and it makes it too easy to cut those corners and that website has not had a design refresh in couple years. Regardless, it dominates its local sub-market online. Thanks for the continued info!