Skip to content
    Moz logo Menu open Menu close
    • Products
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Pro Home
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Home
      • STAT
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Home
      • Compare SEO Products
      • Moz Data
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis
      • Keyword Explorer
      • Link Explorer
      • Competitive Research
      • MozBar
      • More Free SEO Tools
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
      • SEO Learning Center
      • Moz Academy
      • SEO Q&A
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • Case Studies
      • The Moz Story
      • New Releases
    • Log in
    • Log out
    • Products
      • Moz Pro

        Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

      • Moz Local

        Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

      • STAT

        SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

      • Moz API

        Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

      • Compare SEO Products

        See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

      • Moz Data

        Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis

        Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

      • Keyword Explorer

        Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

      • Link Explorer

        Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

      • Competitive Research

        Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

      • MozBar

        See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

      • More Free SEO Tools

        Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

      What is your Brand Authority?
      Moz

      What is your Brand Authority?

      Check yours now
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO

        The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

      • SEO Learning Center

        Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

      • On-Demand Webinars

        Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

      • How-To Guides

        Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

      • Moz Academy

        Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

      • SEO Q&A

        Insights & discussions from an SEO community of 500,000+.

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
      Moz API

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

      Find your plan
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Small Business Solutions

        Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

      • Agency Solutions

        Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

      • Enterprise Solutions

        Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

      • The Moz Story

        Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

      • Case Studies

        Explore how Moz drives ROI with a proven track record of success.

      • New Releases

        Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

      Surface actionable competitive intel
      New Feature

      Surface actionable competitive intel

      Learn More
    • Log in
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Dashboard
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Dashboard
      • Moz Academy
    • Avatar
      • Moz Home
      • Notifications
      • Account & Billing
      • Manage Users
      • Community Profile
      • My Q&A
      • My Videos
      • Log Out

    The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. Home
    2. SEO Tactics
    3. Local SEO
    4. Local Website Optimization
    5. Local Business Schema Image requirement

    Moz Q&A is closed.

    After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

    Local Business Schema Image requirement

    Local Website Optimization
    6
    7
    1535
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • tntdental
      tntdental Subscriber last edited by

      Hello,

      I work exclusively with Dentists and we have been putting our json schema in the footer for a while now. Just recently they made 'image' a requirement for the Dentist category. We already use the logo in our schema and that is an image. Since the schema is in the footer, it is on every page, and the only image on every page is the logo. Does the image we add to our schema need to be on the actual web page or could it be anything related to the business, like an image of the practice or the dentist? Would it hurt to have the logo listed twice in the schema - once as the logo and once as the image? Trying to figure out what the best thing to do is for the required 'image' field for a dentist.

      Thanks! Angela

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • Smileworks_Liverpool
        Smileworks_Liverpool Subscriber @tntdental last edited by

        Hey Tim,

        I would have a page for everything you offer.  That's by far the best strategy.  So on your Invisalign page have a picture of Invisalign and don't mark it as dentist schema mark it as product.  I think the dentist schema is rubbish myself.  You're much better off using an image of All on Four on your All on four product page and marking it up that way.

        Nobody is interested n your brand and logo if your a small local practice.  They search things like 'Braces New York' and want to see the options for all the braces you offer or your orthodontist.

        I use the data highlighter for this because it gets us better results.  On the homepage you can't get review schema to show stars and all you're going to achieve is getting your logo up there when someone types in the name of your dentist so what's the point?

        Go for unbranded products and keywords and mark them up with price, availability and an image with an alt tag with your location in it. that works for us.

        Sometimes having dentist schema in the site wide footer just overrides our product schema for the services pages so I don't use it.  For your dentists mark them up individually as people with their headshots there and what they do and their postnominals and qualifications.

        Also make sure your GMB has orthodontist, endodontist, oral surgeon etc so that you show as an orthodontist in the maps when someone types in braces.  Also having reviews mentioning the products helps.

        Google ignores about 70% of our mark-up anyway and I think it's becoming less important as google figures out what things are and what they mean.  But a granular approach works the best. So one page for everything you do with the dentist as author marked up with the products they offer marked up and then it makes the dentist one kind of obsolete.

        This is just my experience in our practice but we're ranking number one for pretty much everything now. Interestingly we're not doing so well for just the term 'dentist' but on the other hand we're ranking really well for 'emergency dentist' and I think the two might be competing with one another. Emergencies is much higher volume and makes us more money. being number one for dentist didn't actually get us many good patients.

        Being number one for Veneers Cost or Invisalign or Fastbraces or Emergencies does. So perhaps focus more on those.  Dentists make the big mistake of putting everything they do on the homepage and that is a big mistake because you can never compete with my specific page that answers a customers specific dental query.  If I had toothe ache I'd google painful tooth and google returns our emergencies page.  I don't google 'dentist' If I need braces I google braces - not 'dentist'

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • tntdental
          tntdental Subscriber last edited by

          Hi everyone,

          Thanks for the answers so far.

          To clarify, I didn't mean that schema is a requirement on websites. I meant that we do choose to use a schema in our footer and until recently - maybe in the past three weeks - our schema passed the structured data testing tool.

          They are now throwing the following error when we test the schema - https://gyazo.com/e88390bffd1b280e48904958da145fb0

          We use a type of Dentist -  "@type": "Dentist",

          The lions group post is interesting........

          I am just not sure what kind of image google wants to see since we already use the logo field. My first thought is to use an image of the practice if available, but since the practice image is not on every page of the website, but the schema is, would that hurt us? Or does it not matter?

          Thanks! Angela

          e88390bffd1b280e48904958da145fb0

          Smileworks_Liverpool 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • Smileworks_Liverpool
            Smileworks_Liverpool Subscriber last edited by

            I think the OP is not saying Schema is mandatory but that "Just recently they made 'image' a requirement for the Dentist category." having an 'Image' in the dentist schema is now an option.  Again - it's not mandatory.  Test it.  I am a dentist and find that sometimes images get shown for products and most of the time they don't.

            It has nothing to do with the JSON that I create for the dentist category.  I have better success just marking all your products and services up as products with the price etc and making your pages have good structure, H1 etc.  Make all the FAQ's H3 and they'll get blue hyperlinks in the serp when people ask that question or a part of it.

            PM me. Schema hasn't really helped us a huge amount. Sometimes I completely forget to mark up a new page and it ranks and has all the bells and whistles of schema because google has detected them.  I do use wordpress though and they are good at telling Google what's on the page.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • DonnaDuncan
              DonnaDuncan last edited by

              Hi Tim,

              You are (fortunately) not the first to run into this problem.

              https://www.liontreegroup.com/tips-and-tricks/schema-error-localbusiness-a-value-for-the-image-field-is-required/

              The solution places a hidden image in the footer. Not ideal, but a potential work around. Perhaps Miriam can comment on whether she thinks it might be a risky tactic.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • martinxm
                martinxm last edited by

                Hi. First, I had a speech therapy clinic in Madrid (related with dentist). We have our website optimized for Schema.org.

                This technology is not mandatory, but it is recommended to provide data to search engines such as Google or Bing.

                Our website is configured with the option of Local Business, but I did not know anything about the images that can be put.

                I understand that the images can only be put in Blog Articles and in Cooking Recipes.

                If I'm wrong, please correct me. Thank you.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • MiriamEllis
                  MiriamEllis Subject Expert last edited by

                  Hi Angela,

                  Could you offer a bit more background on this as to who made Schema a requirement for dentists? Schema is an optional technology, typically, so I'm trying to understand the circumstances in which you're hearing that it's mandatory. Thanks!

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • 1 / 1
                  • First post
                    Last post

                  Got a burning SEO question?

                  Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                  Start my free trial


                  Browse Questions

                  Explore more categories

                  • Moz Tools

                    Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

                  • SEO Tactics

                    Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

                  • Community

                    Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

                  • Digital Marketing

                    Chat about tactics outside of SEO

                  • Research & Trends

                    Dive into research and trends in the search industry.

                  • Support

                    Connect on product support and feature requests.

                  • See all categories

                  Related Questions

                  • SEOdub

                    Areaserved json-ld schema markup for a local business that targets national tourism

                    If there is a local business that thrives on ranking nationally for people searching for their services in that location, do you target the business's actual service areas or target nationally? For instance, a hotel in Denver, Colorado.  Would the areaserved markup be: "areaServed":[{"@type":"State","name":"Colorado"},{"@type":"City","name":"Denver"}] Or "areaserved":"USA" The "geographic area where a service or offered item is provided" would be denver, colorado. But we would be looking to target all people nationally looking to travel to denver, colorado. Or would it be best to target it all, like: "areaServed":[{"@type":"State","name":"Colorado"},{"@type":"City","name":"Denver"},"USA"]

                    Local Website Optimization | | SEOdub
                    0
                  • stephenfishman

                    Can I block blexhn30.webmeup.com. Or does it have anything to do with my Moz Local

                    I am getting alot of hits from blexhn30.webmeup.com.   My web host says it could be a web service. Is this part of moz local activity?  Otherwise I want to block it. Have you seen this before??

                    Local Website Optimization | | stephenfishman
                    0
                  • donsilvernail

                    Content writing for single entity business (The use of I)

                    Most of my clients consist of single entity law firms in which my clients repeatedly use the pronoun "I" to describe every service they provide. I have always preferred using the business name The Law Office of..." put lawyer name here". Is it ok to repetitively use the pronoun "I" in the content. To me it feels lack luster and childish not very professional, however I have a hard time convincing the lawyers of this. What are your thoughts? Can good content be written with the repetitive use of "I"? If not is the business name sufficient or maybe another pronoun? I will be showing responses to my clients if that is ok.

                    Local Website Optimization | | donsilvernail
                    0
                  • micromano

                    Listing multiple schema Things (e.g. Organization, LocalBusiness, Telephone, Locations, Place, etc)

                    Greetings All, My law office features many pages with what are essentially directory listings (names, addresses, and phone numbers of places, agencies, organizations that clients might find helpful). Am I correct in assuming that using schema for each of these listings might cause confusion for search engines? In other words, are search engines looking for schema on pages or sites to tell them only about the company running that page or site, or do search engines appreciate schema markup to tell them about all the pieces of content on the pages or that site?

                    Local Website Optimization | | micromano
                    0
                  • coolhandluc

                    Google my business - Image sizes

                    I have scoured the web in order to find a guide that would give me the ideal dimensions for images to populate google my business page... in vain. Google itself is very vague about it as indicated below Format: JPG, PNG, TIFF, BMP Size: Between 10 KB and 5 MB Minimum resolution: 250px tall, 250px wide Does anyone know of a guide with optimum recommendation for each photo (profile, Cover photo, business specific photos...)  or alternatively can recommend the exact size needed. Thanks

                    Local Website Optimization | | coolhandluc
                    0
                  • ReunionMarketing

                    Duplicate Schema within webpage

                    I'm implementing schema across a few Wordpress sites. Most (probably all) WP sites use widgets for their footer, which offer their own editable HTML. Is it damaging (or helpful) to implement the exact same markup in the footer and a specific page, like for instance,  a locations page that has the address and contact info (which are also in the footer)?

                    Local Website Optimization | | ReunionMarketing
                    0
                  • otex

                    Should I use pipe in title tags for local seo?

                    Hi, I've created a bunch of landing pages for local areas, reading, windsor, slough etc for the title tag I have  for Windsor Emergency Electrician Windsor - BrandName should I be using a pipe in the tag to further help search engines learn/identify the location? Emergency Electrician | Windsor - BrandName Thank you Kev

                    Local Website Optimization | | otex
                    1
                  • MiriamEllis

                    How Google's Doorway Pages Update Affects Local SEO

                    Hey Awesome Local Folks! I thought I'd take a proactive stance and start a thread on the new doorway pages update from Google, as I feel there will be questions coming up about this here in the forum: Here's the update announcement: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2015/03/an-update-on-doorway-pages.html And here's the part that will make local business owners and Local SEOs take a second glance at this: Here are questions to ask of pages that could be seen as doorway pages: Do the pages duplicate useful aggregations of items (locations, products, etc.) that already exist on the site for the purpose of capturing more search traffic? I think this will naturally lead to questions about the practice of creating local/city landing pages. At this point, my prediction is that this will come down to high quality vs. crummy quality pages of this type. In fact, after chatting briefly with Andrew Shotland, I'm leaning a bit toward seeing the above language as being strongly geared toward directory type sites and large franchises. I recommend reading Andrew's post about his take on this, as I think he's on the right track: http://www.localseoguide.com/googles-about-to-close-your-local-doorway-pages/ So, I'm feeling at this point that if you've made the right efforts to develop unique, high quality local landing pages, you should be good unless you are an accidental casualty of an over-zealous update. We'll see! If anyone has thoughts to contribute on this thread, I hope they will, and if lots of questions start coming up about this here in the community, feel free to link back to this thread in helping your fellow community members 🙂 Thanks, all!

                    Local Website Optimization | | MiriamEllis
                    9

                  Get started with Moz Pro!

                  Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                  Start my free trial
                  Products
                  • Moz Pro
                  • Moz Local
                  • Moz API
                  • Moz Data
                  • STAT
                  • Product Updates
                  Moz Solutions
                  • SMB Solutions
                  • Agency Solutions
                  • Enterprise Solutions
                  Free SEO Tools
                  • Domain Authority Checker
                  • Link Explorer
                  • Keyword Explorer
                  • Competitive Research
                  • Brand Authority Checker
                  • MozBar Extension
                  • MozCast
                  Resources
                  • Blog
                  • SEO Learning Center
                  • Help Hub
                  • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                  • How-to Guides
                  • Moz Academy
                  • API Docs
                  About Moz
                  • About
                  • Team
                  • Careers
                  • Contact
                  Why Moz
                  • Case Studies
                  • Testimonials
                  Get Involved
                  • Become an Affiliate
                  • MozCon
                  • Webinars
                  • Practical Marketer Series
                  • MozPod
                  Connect with us

                  Contact the Help team

                  Join our newsletter
                  Moz logo
                  © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                  • Accessibility
                  • Terms of Use
                  • Privacy

                  Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.