Organization schema is a short block of code on your home or About page that tells Google who your business is. It lists your name, website, logo, social profiles (the sameAs list) and contact details. Google's Organization doc, updated September 8, 2026, says Google uses it to tell your business apart from others and to pick your logo in results.
Below you'll find a complete example to copy. You'll also find a table of what Google reads and the mistakes that break it.
Key facts
- It goes on the home page or one About page, not every page.
- Unlike local business schema, Organization schema has no required fields. Google recommends every field that applies.
- Google uses it to identify you and to choose your logo.
- The logo must be at least 112x112 pixels.
- Few sites have it. The 2024 Web Almanac found it on 7.16% of mobile pages.
What is organization schema?
Organization schema is the schema.org Organization type written in JSON-LD. JSON-LD stands for JSON for Linked Data (LD): a script block that machines read and visitors never see. The schema.org definition is broad: schools, non-profits, corporations and clubs all count.
Organization markup describes the business itself, not a page or an article. Every other block on your site, such as a blog post's author or a service's provider, can point back to it. Our complete guide to JSON-LD structured data covers the wider set of types. This post covers the business block alone.
Organization schema JSON-LD example (copy and paste)
The example below covers logo, url, sameAs, contactPoint, address and a founder, and every value in it is fake. Swap in your own, delete any line you can't fill truthfully, and paste it inside the <head> of your home or About page.
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Organization",
"@id": "https://www.example.com/#organization",
"name": "Example Co.",
"alternateName": "Example Company",
"legalName": "Example Company Inc.",
"url": "https://www.example.com/",
"logo": {
"@type": "ImageObject",
"url": "https://www.example.com/images/example-co-logo.png",
"width": 512,
"height": 512
},
"description": "Example Co. designs and builds websites for small businesses in Toronto.",
"email": "[email protected]",
"telephone": "+1-416-555-0100",
"foundingDate": "2015-04-01",
"founder": {
"@type": "Person",
"name": "Jane Example",
"url": "https://www.example.com/about/jane-example"
},
"address": {
"@type": "PostalAddress",
"streetAddress": "100 Example Street, Suite 200",
"addressLocality": "Toronto",
"addressRegion": "ON",
"postalCode": "M5V 0A0",
"addressCountry": "CA"
},
"contactPoint": {
"@type": "ContactPoint",
"contactType": "customer support",
"email": "[email protected]",
"telephone": "+1-416-555-0101"
},
"sameAs": [
"https://www.linkedin.com/company/example-co",
"https://www.instagram.com/exampleco",
"https://www.facebook.com/exampleco",
"https://www.youtube.com/@exampleco"
]
}
</script>Three lines do most of the work. The name and url lines identify you, and logo gives search engines the image to show. The @id line is optional. It gives other blocks on your site an address to point at, so they don't repeat your details.
Schema.org lists founder as the current property and retires the older founders, so use founder even when there are two people (it accepts a list).
Which Organization properties does Google actually use?
Google publishes a list of recommended properties. Anything else is valid schema.org vocabulary that Google's doc doesn't mention. Don't expect a visible result from it.
| Property | In Google's Organization doc? | What Google says it does | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
name | Yes | Identifies the organization | Use the same name as your site name |
url | Yes | Helps Google uniquely identify the organization | Your home page URL |
logo | Yes | Can influence the logo in Search results and knowledge panels | Minimum 112x112 px |
sameAs | Yes | Points to other pages about you, such as social or review profiles | Multiple URLs allowed |
address | Yes | Physical or mailing address | Two-letter country code |
contactPoint | Yes | Best way for users to reach you | Google documents email and telephone inside it |
telephone, email | Yes | Primary contact details | Include country and area code |
description, alternateName, legalName | Yes | Administrative details | legalName only if it differs from name |
foundingDate, numberOfEmployees | Yes | Administrative details | ISO 8601 date |
vatID, taxID, iso6523Code, duns, leiCode, naics | Yes | Business identifiers | Google prefers iso6523Code over duns and leiCode |
founder | No | Not listed by Google | Valid schema.org; useful for linking a Person |
contactType | No | Not listed by Google | Valid schema.org, inside ContactPoint |
slogan, award, knowsAbout, areaServed | No | Not listed by Google | Valid schema.org vocabulary |
Google also states that it "does not guarantee that features that consume structured data will show up in search results." Valid markup makes you eligible. It does not promise a knowledge panel.
How do you do sameAs right?
List the profiles you own that describe the same business. Each one should use the exact name in your name property. Google's own examples are "social media or review profiles" that describe your business.
A good sameAs list for a small business usually includes:
- Your company page on LinkedIn.
- The social accounts you actually post from.
- A Wikidata entry, if one exists and is about you.
- Directory or review profiles that carry your name and website.
Skip personal profiles (they belong on a Person), dead accounts, and any listing you don't control.
Consistency matters more than length. The site names doc asks for a name in your markup that is "consistent with how you refer to your site" elsewhere on your home page. Say your logo reads "Example Co." and your social bio reads "Example Company". Now one business has two names.
Few sites go this far. Andrea Volpini wrote the structured data chapter of the 2024 Web Almanac. "A powerful tool for entity disambiguation" is how the chapter describes a well-built sameAs list. Its data found Facebook links on 4.53% of pages and Wikidata links on 0.17%.
Organization vs LocalBusiness: which should you use?
Use Organization if customers never visit you at an address. Use LocalBusiness if they do. Schema.org lists LocalBusiness as a subtype of Organization, so it inherits every property above.
| Your business | Type to use | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Online-only brand, SaaS, remote agency | Organization (or OnlineBusiness) | No public location to describe |
| Clinic, restaurant, shop, office with walk-ins | The most specific LocalBusiness subtype | Google says to follow its Local business fields too |
| Company with a head office plus branches | Organization on the home page, LocalBusiness on each location page | Each location gets its own address and hours |
Google's advice is to pick the most specific subtype that fits. A local business should also follow the fields in Google's Local business doc. Put the main email and phone on the LocalBusiness itself, and use contactPoint only for extra contact methods. Our LocalBusiness schema JSON-LD example covers the local side in full.
Why does a clear entity identity matter for AI answers?
An answer engine can only name your business if it can tell you apart from similar names. Organization schema states who you are once, in a format machines parse.
Separate what Google documents from what is inference.
Documented: the markup helps Google identify your business and choose your logo. For AI Overviews and AI Mode, the AI features doc says "there's also no special schema.org structured data that you need to add" at all. A page only has to be indexed and eligible for a snippet. Your markup should also match the visible text.
Inference: ChatGPT's maker, OpenAI, doesn't publish whether its systems read JSON-LD. Our view is simple. When your name, address, logo and profiles agree everywhere, any system has fewer conflicts to sort out. Organization schema is one part of that consistency, and no single block turns AI citations on.
We make the same case in why your website is invisible to AI. Our post on structuring a site for the semantic web goes further: engines cite businesses they understand.
How do you test organization schema?
Paste the page into the Rich Results Test and fix any critical errors. Next, open the URL Inspection tool in Search Console. Confirm the live page can be crawled. Then "allow time for re-crawling and re-indexing," as the doc puts it.
For properties outside Google's list, such as founder, use the Schema Markup Validator. It checks the block against schema.org vocabulary. A clean test is not a clean bill of health: the Rich Results Test can't spot spammy markup.
Common organization schema mistakes
Each of these breaks the identity the block is meant to state:
- Mismatched names. The markup says one name and the header says another.
- An unusable logo. It's too small, blocked by robots.txt, or white art that vanishes on a white background.
- A different block on every page. One home or About page is enough. Templates that print slightly different details on each page create conflicts.
- Dead sameAs links. Profiles that redirect, were deleted, or belong to another company.
- Hidden facts. A founding date or address in the markup that no visitor can see.
- The wrong type. A clinic marked up as a plain Organization skips the local fields.
Organization schema won't create a knowledge panel on its own. Most of these properties never show up as a visible result. The structured data types Google still rewards in 2026 post covers which types do produce visible results.
To see what your own site currently says about your business, the free site check is at /audit.