Structured data for professional firms: Schema.org markup that search engines and AI understand

What structured data does and does not do

A search engine reads “Mon–Thu 8 am–5 pm, Fri 8 am–12 pm” on your contact page and has to guess that these are opening hours. Structured data takes the guesswork away: a short block in the source code states, in a fixed vocabulary, that this is a tax advisory firm with this address, these opening hours and these profiles on the web. The vocabulary comes from Schema.org, a joint project of the major search engines. Google supports three formats and recommends JSON-LD, because it sits in the code separately from the visible text and is easy to maintain.

It is important to set expectations correctly. Structured data helps Google identify your firm unambiguously and makes you eligible for certain displays in the search results. But Google explicitly does not guarantee that such displays will appear. Markup alone does not bring better rankings, and according to Google no special markup is needed for the AI features in Search. Structured data is a clean foundation, not a trick.

The right type for each profession

Google advises using the most specific subtype of LocalBusiness. Schema.org offers some suitable types for firms, but none of its own for certain professions.

Describing the firm: the key properties

For local businesses, Google only requires name and address. For a firm, it is worth providing considerably more, as long as every detail is also visible on the website. Google recommends placing the organisation details on the home page or an “About us” page; they do not need to be on every subpage.

sameAs is particularly useful. The property points to pages that unambiguously identify your firm, such as the entry in the German Federal Official Lawyers' Directory, the ÖRAK lawyer search, the tax adviser directory, the KSW member directory or the notary search. This way, search engines link your website to sources that confirm your admission. Which registers exist is shown in the guide local SEO for firms.

Describing professionals as a Person

Clients often choose a person, not a firm. On the team page or a lawyer's profile page, you can describe the person with the Person type and link them to the firm via worksFor. So that firm and person connect in the markup, each object gets a unique identifier (@id) that the others refer to.

• name, honorificPrefix: name and academic degrees such as “Mag.” or “Dr.”, in the same form as on the website.
• jobTitle: the statutory professional title, such as “Rechtsanwältin” (lawyer), “Steuerberater” (tax adviser), “Wirtschaftsprüferin” (auditor), “Notar” (notary), or “eingetragene Mediatorin” (registered mediator) in Austria.
• knowsAbout: practice areas. Schema.org describes the property as suggesting possible expertise, not claiming it, so it is no substitute for a title.
• knowsLanguage: languages in which the person advises.
• hasCredential: awarded qualifications, in Germany for example a Fachanwalt title or the Fachberater title for tax advisers, only if actually awarded.
• memberOf, sameAs: chamber or association and profiles such as LinkedIn or the entry in the official register.

For expert articles and blog posts, Google recommends Article or BlogPosting markup with the author and the date of last modification. Link the author there to the same person as on the team page. More on the team page in the article the firm's team page, more on expert articles in expert articles for firms.

What Google actually displays

Many guides online date from a time when Google turned more markup into visible extras. For professional firms, the situation today looks like this:

The fact that FAQ markup no longer brings rich results does not mean the FAQ is superfluous. Real questions with short, correct answers help visitors and are read as text by search engines and AI assistants. How AI systems find firms is described in the guide found in AI search. Bing also reads Schema.org markup, so correct markup is useful beyond Google.

Markup is advertising too: Google rules and professional law

Google requires structured data to be a true representation of the page content and not to mark up anything visitors cannot see. Violations can lead to a manual action: the page then loses eligibility for rich results. For firms, professional law comes on top. What is in the markup is a public statement about your firm that search engines and AI assistants pass on. The same rules apply as for the visible text.

The details for your profession and country are in the guides to advertising law, for example for lawyers in Germany, lawyers in Austria, tax advisers in Austria or notaries in Germany.

Testing and monitoring the markup