Schema Markup: The Free SEO Win Most Cardiff Sites Skip

Schema markup is structured data sitting in the source code of a website that tells Google exactly what it is looking at — a local business, a product, a recipe, a review, an FAQ. It is free to add. It usually takes a few hours. It produces measurable lifts in click-through rate from search.

Most Cardiff small business sites do not have it.

What schema actually does

Without schema, Google reads your homepage and infers what it is from the words on the page. That works, but inference is slower and less reliable than being told.

With schema, the same page tells Google directly:

• This is a LocalBusiness called "The Grooming Boutique"
• It is in Cardiff CF15
• It opens at these times
• It has these reviews
• It offers these services

The result is two things: faster indexing, and richer search results — star ratings, opening hours, prices, FAQ accordions, and image carousels appearing directly in the Google results page.

The lift you should expect

Across roughly 30 Cardiff small business sites Studio 72 has added schema to in the last year:

The compounding effect: a 20% CTR increase on the same Google ranking position is the same as ranking one position higher, for free.

The schema types that matter for Cardiff SMEs

Most local businesses need three:

1. **LocalBusiness** — name, address, phone, opening hours, geo coordinates, payment methods accepted
2. **Review / AggregateRating** — average rating and review count, pulled from your real reviews
3. **FAQPage** — question/answer pairs that appear in search

E-commerce adds:

• **Product** — name, price, availability, brand, SKU
• **Offer** — pricing and discount detail

Service businesses can add:

• **Service** — service offered, area served, price range
• **BreadcrumbList** — navigation context

Restaurants benefit from:

• **Restaurant** (a sub-type of LocalBusiness)
• **Menu** — actual menu structure
• **Reservation** — booking link

What schema looks like in practice

A LocalBusiness schema for a Cardiff salon, simplified:

{
  "@type": "HairSalon",
  "name": "Salon Name",
  "address": {
    "streetAddress": "123 High Street",
    "addressLocality": "Cardiff",
    "postalCode": "CF10 1AA"
  },
  "telephone": "+44 29 1234 5678",
  "openingHours": "Mo-Sa 09:00-18:00",
  "priceRange": "££",
  "aggregateRating": {
    "ratingValue": "4.8",
    "reviewCount": "127"
  }
}

That block, embedded in the page source, is the difference between "Salon Name | Cardiff" and "Salon Name ★★★★★ (127) · Open until 18:00 · ££" in the search results.

Why most Cardiff sites do not have it

Three reasons:

• **The site builder hides it.** Wix, Squarespace and most WordPress themes do not include schema by default. Adding it requires either a paid plugin or custom code.
• **The previous designer did not know about it.** Schema was not standard practice before 2022. Sites built before that often have no structured data at all.
• **It is invisible to the owner.** You cannot see schema unless you View Source or run a validator. It is the most measurable invisible thing in SEO.

How to check what you have

Two free tools:

1. **Google's Rich Results Test** — search for "rich results test", paste your URL, see what schema Google detects.
2. **schema.org validator** — at validator.schema.org, more technical but more thorough.

If either tool returns "no items detected," you have the problem. If they return some types but you are missing the obvious ones (LocalBusiness for a Cardiff business, Product for an e-commerce store), you have the partial version of the problem.

What a schema project actually costs

Three options:

The DIY plugin route is fine for the start. The custom implementation is worth it when the business has unusual requirements (multi-location, multiple service types, structured product catalogues).

What good implementation includes

A proper schema implementation:

• Validates against the Google Rich Results Test with no errors
• Covers every page type the site has, not just the homepage
• Pulls dynamic data (review counts, prices, opening hours) from the source so it stays current
• Includes BreadcrumbList on internal pages
• Uses the most specific sub-type available (HairSalon, not just LocalBusiness)

Studio 72 packages with schema

Schema is included from Pro upward:

Next steps

Run /audit on your current site — the free audit includes a schema check among the SEO basics. Or get a quote at /get-started for a build with schema baked in.

*Garth Adams runs Studio 72 in Cardiff and adds structured data to every small business build by default.*