How worthwhile is schema markup for a local business?

[ClearPivot]

One of our clients was told that they need to implement schema on their website, and now they're very concerned that the lack of schema might be holding them back. We could certainly implement it for them, but I'm doubtful how much of a difference it will make. The client is a plastic surgery practice, so their content is fairly straightforward (services, locations, photo galleries, etc.). We're planning to add schema markup to their name, address and phone info in their website footer, but we're not sure if it's worthwhile doing anything beyond that. (I'm assuming schema markup for customer ratings would best be handled by a dedicated review management system like RealPatientRatings.com). What would you recommend for schema implementation?

[RyanPurkey]

As a ranking factor it's not a huge boost, but it could help with click through rates depending on the presentation of the search results. Richard Baxter did a nice study on this a couple of years back here: http://builtvisible.com/review-snippet-over-saturation-in-google-search-results/, and concluded it was a little over-played in some searches; however, beneficial in others.  To better tackle this perhaps do what Richard did and look at results for some of the clients top performing words, then address the page as a whole, so instead of saying, "Hey you're number 2 for this keyword," present the page with a break down of where they appear and what happens if someone clicks on a result that's not them, but a review about them, whether or not review stars look to be a differentiating quality, if they could get into image results that would have an impact, and so on. Cheers!

[DennisSeymour]

It's not really holding them back. I would start with the usual, NAP markups on each page of the site since its a local business. Plus the maps markup.

Then dedicate the time to checking what the competitors are doing vs what your client has right now (more citations? etc)

That should stop them from worrying about schema at this point so you can focus on making them improve in rankings.

[ClearPivot]

Thanks, guys. I'll check what their competitors are doing (I doubt they're doing much, if anything at all). Then we'll implement the NAP markup and maybe call it good there, so we can focus on more productive activities going forward.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Christopher!

David Deering over at Whitespark just wrote a really super blog post on this topic. I highly recommend:

http://www.whitespark.ca/blog/post/50-how-to-make-your-local-business-schema-better

Is it absolutely necessary for every local business to use Schema? No ... honestly not. But in a competitive market where your client wants to be the best, then yes, clearly structured data may be a competitive difference maker. I think Deering's article will help you assess whether the effort will be worth it for your client, if you weigh it against their level of competition and their need to be on top.

*Also, be sure to check out this Moz thread on the subject of recent changes in Google's stated attitude toward schema and testimonials:

http://moz.com/community/q/how-to-add-customer-testimonials-from-customers-from-each-city-encoded-in-schema-review-markup

[ClearPivot]

Thanks, Miriam! I'll take a look at those two links.