How to Add Organization Schema Markup to Your Website: A JSON-LD Template and Validation Steps

How to Add Organization Schema Markup at a Glance

Each step below is written so it can be followed on its own. If you only want the code, go to Step 4.

What Is Organization Schema Markup?

Organization schema markup is a block of structured data, usually JSON-LD, that describes a company or other organization using the schema.org Organization type: its name, website, logo, contact details, identifiers and official profiles elsewhere on the web.

Schema.org defines Organization as “an organization such as a school, NGO, corporation, club, etc.” and lists more specific types beneath it, including Corporation, LocalBusiness, NewsMediaOrganization, OnlineBusiness and NGO. Google says Organization markup on a home page “can help Google better understand your organization's administrative details and disambiguate your organization in search results”. Some properties, it says, are used behind the scenes to tell organizations apart, while others “can influence visual elements in Search results (such as which logo is shown in Search results and your knowledge panel)” (Google Search Central, Organization structured data, updated 8 September 2026).

“Can influence” is the operative phrase. For what the evidence does and does not show about markup and AI answers, see our research on whether schema markup affects whether a page is cited.

What You Need Before Starting

• Edit access to the HTML <head> of your home page or About page, or a CMS plugin that lets you add custom structured data. Google notes that a CMS plugin may be the easier route.
• The organization's exact public name as it appears on the site, plus any common alternative name.
• A square or near-square logo file of at least 112×112 pixels that you can host at a permanent URL on your own domain.
• The URLs of your official profiles on other sites (for example LinkedIn, YouTube, Crunchbase, a Wikidata item) that you control or that are unambiguously about you.
• Postal address, main phone number and contact email, if you publish them on the page.
• Optional identifiers you can verify: Legal Entity Identifier (LEI), DUNS number, VAT ID or tax ID, NAICS code.
• A verified Search Console property for the site, so you can inspect the URL and request recrawling after publishing.

Step 1: Choose the Page and the Most Specific Organization Type

Choose one page to carry the markup and one schema.org type to describe the organization.

Why: Google recommends placing the information “on your home page, or a single page that describes your organization, for example the about us page” and adds that “you don't need to include it on every page of your site”. It also recommends “the most specific schema.org subtype of Organization that matches your organization”, for example OnlineStore for an ecommerce site rather than the broader OnlineBusiness (Google).

How: Use the home page unless your About page is the one that actually shows the address, contact details and description. Then pick the type from schema.org's list under Organization. A software company with no storefront can use Organization or Corporation; a shop selling online, OnlineStore; a business customers visit in person, a subtype of LocalBusiness, in which case Google says to follow its separate Local Business requirements as well.

Expected result: one URL and one @type value written down.

Verify: the page you chose is indexable (not blocked by robots.txt, not noindex, not behind a login).

Common mistake: pasting the same block into every page template. It is not needed, and it multiplies the number of places that must be kept accurate.

Step 2: Collect the Facts the Markup Will State

Collect each value you plan to mark up and check it against what the page visibly says.

Why: Google's general guidelines say “Don't mark up content that is not visible to readers of the page” and that structured data “must be a true representation of the page content”. They also prohibit using markup to “impersonate any person or organization, or misrepresent your ownership, affiliation, or primary purpose” (General structured data guidelines).

How: work through Google's recommended properties. The table lists the ones most organizations need; Google's page lists more, including merchant return and shipping policies.

About sameAs. Google describes it as “the URL of a page on another website with additional information about your organization”, such as a profile on a social media or review site. Schema.org's definition is stricter: the “URL of a reference Web page that unambiguously indicates the item's identity”, giving a Wikipedia page, a Wikidata entry or an official website as examples (schema.org/sameAs). Use profile URLs, not posts, and only profiles that are clearly yours. How identifiers such as Wikidata items, LEIs and ISNIs are used is covered in our research on identifier registries and search visibility.

Expected result: a filled-in list where every value can be seen on the page or on the linked profile.

Common mistake: using a slightly different company name in the markup, the site header and the profiles. Pick one spelling and use it everywhere.

Step 3: Prepare a Logo File That Meets Google's Rules

Upload a logo image to a permanent URL on your own site and confirm it meets Google's four image rules.

Why: Google says the logo property “can help Google better understand which logo you want to show, for example in Search results and knowledge panels”.

How: Google's image guidelines for logo are that the image must be at least 112×112px; the image URL must be crawlable and indexable; the file format must be supported by Google Images; and the image should look as intended on a purely white background, which matters for logos that are mostly white or grey (Google). A PNG of 512×512 pixels with a solid or transparent background on a stable path such as /images/logo-512x512.png meets all four. If you use an ImageObject instead of a plain URL, it needs a valid contentUrl or url.

Expected result: opening the logo URL in a private browser window shows the image, with no login or redirect chain.

Verify: check that robots.txt does not disallow the image folder.

Common mistake: pointing logo at an SVG sprite, a CDN URL that changes with every deploy, or a white-on-transparent logo that disappears on a white background.

Step 4: Write the JSON-LD Block From the Template

Copy the template below and replace every placeholder value with your own.

Why: Google supports JSON-LD, Microdata and RDFa, and says “in general, Google recommends using JSON-LD for structured data if your site's setup allows it, as it's the easiest solution for website owners to implement and maintain at scale” (Introduction to structured data). A JSON-LD block sits in its own script tag and does not have to be woven into the visible HTML.

How: every value below is a placeholder. The phone numbers use the 555-01xx range reserved for fiction; the Wikidata ID is not real. Delete any property you cannot back up from the page.

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "Example Company",
  "alternateName": "ExCo",
  "legalName": "Example Company Ltd",
  "url": "https://www.example.com/",
  "logo": "https://www.example.com/images/logo-512x512.png",
  "description": "Example Company makes accounting software for independent pharmacies.",
  "foundingDate": "2015-03-01",
  "email": "hello@example.com",
  "telephone": "+1-512-555-0100",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "streetAddress": "100 Example Street, Suite 200",
    "addressLocality": "Austin",
    "addressRegion": "TX",
    "postalCode": "78701",
    "addressCountry": "US"
  },
  "contactPoint": {
    "@type": "ContactPoint",
    "contactType": "Customer Service",
    "telephone": "+1-512-555-0199",
    "email": "support@example.com"
  },
  "numberOfEmployees": {
    "@type": "QuantitativeValue",
    "minValue": 10,
    "maxValue": 49
  },
  "sameAs": [
    "https://www.linkedin.com/company/example-company",
    "https://www.youtube.com/@examplecompany",
    "https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/example-company",
    "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q00000000"
  ]
}
</script>

Notes on the template:

• Change "@type": "Organization" to the subtype you chose in Step 1.
• Keep sameAs as an array even if you have one profile.
• Add iso6523Code (for example "0199:your LEI"), vatID or taxID only if you have the number and are comfortable publishing it.
• Do not leave comments (//) in the block. Google's Rich Results Test help says the tool ignores comments in JSON-LD, but that “behavior is not supported by the JSON-LD standard and so might result in errors in actual usage” (Search Console Help). Google's own OnlineStore example contains comments, so remove them if you copy from it.

Expected result: a block that parses as valid JSON: straight double quotes, commas between properties, no trailing comma after the last one.

Common mistake: curly “smart” quotes introduced by a word processor or CMS editor, which break the JSON.

Step 5: Add the Block to the Page

Paste the complete <script type="application/ld+json"> block into the page you chose in Step 1.

Why: Google describes JSON-LD as “embedded in a <script> tag in the <head> and <body> elements of an HTML page”, and says it can read JSON-LD that is injected dynamically by JavaScript or by CMS widgets (Google).

How: on a hand-coded or static site, place the block inside <head>. On a CMS, use the theme's header-code field or a structured data plugin. If a plugin already outputs Organization markup, edit its settings rather than adding a second block.

Expected result: one Organization block on the page.

Verify: view the page source (or the rendered HTML in your browser's developer tools for JavaScript-injected markup) and search for "@type": "Organization", or your subtype.

Common mistake: two conflicting Organization blocks, one from the theme or SEO plugin and one added by hand, with different names or logos.

Step 6: Validate With the Rich Results Test and the Schema Markup Validator

Test the code in both of Google's recommended tools and fix every critical error.

Why: Google says to “start with the Rich Results Test to see what Google rich results can be generated for your page” and to use the Schema Markup Validator “to test all types of schema.org markup, without Google-specific validation” (Google Search Central). Organization is on the Rich Results Test's list of supported types (Search Console Help).

How:

1. Open the Rich Results Test. Before publishing, choose Code instead of URL, paste the full block and click Run test. After publishing, test the live URL.
2. Read the Detected items section. Expand any item with errors or warnings; clicking a description opens the code at that line.
3. Open the Schema Markup Validator, use Code snippet or Fetch URL, and run the same check for general schema.org errors such as misspelled property names.

Expected result: the Rich Results Test lists an Organization item with no critical errors. Google says fixing non-critical issues can improve quality but “isn't necessary to be eligible”.

Common mistake: treating a clean test as approval. Google's guidelines say a page can be correct “according to the Rich Results Test” and still not show a feature, and that some quality problems cannot be caught by the tool (Google).

Step 7: Publish, Inspect the Live URL and Request a Recrawl

Publish the page, then check it with the URL Inspection tool in Search Console.

Why: Google's process for Organization markup is to deploy, “use the URL Inspection tool to test how Google sees the page”, make sure the page is not blocked “by a robots.txt file, the noindex tag, or login requirements”, and then ask Google to recrawl (Google).

How: paste the page URL into URL Inspection in Search Console, run a live test, and, if the page is accessible, request indexing. Submitting or updating your sitemap keeps Google informed of later changes.

Expected result: URL Inspection reports the page is available to Google.

Verify: re-run the Rich Results Test on the live URL, not the code snippet, to confirm the published version matches what you tested.

Common mistake: expecting an immediate change. Google says it “may take several days after publishing a page for Google to find and crawl it”. For typical indexing timelines, see how long Google takes to index a new page.

Step 8: Keep the Markup in Step With the Visible Page

Update the JSON-LD whenever the name, logo, address, phone number or profiles change.

Why: Google's guidelines ask for up-to-date information and markup that represents the page. Out-of-date markup that contradicts the page is the kind of mismatch the guidelines warn against (Google).

How: add the JSON-LD block to the checklist your team uses for rebrands, office moves and new social accounts. Remove sameAs URLs for profiles you have closed.

Expected result: the markup, the page, and your external profiles state the same facts.

Common mistake: removing a profile from the site footer but leaving it in sameAs.

How to Verify It Worked

You can check that the markup is present, valid and readable by Google. You cannot check whether Google has chosen to use it in a particular feature on demand. Observable evidence:

• Rich Results Test on the live URL shows the page was crawled successfully and lists an Organization item with no critical errors.
• Schema Markup Validator shows an Organization (or subtype) node with the properties you entered and no errors.
• URL Inspection in Search Console reports the page as available to Google after a live test.
• Page source contains exactly one Organization block, with values identical to the visible page.
• The logo URL returns the image (HTTP 200) when opened in a logged-out browser.

Changes in the logo shown in search results or in a knowledge panel, if they happen, depend on Google's systems and can take time. Our guide to the Google Knowledge Panel covers what else feeds that box.

Common Problems and Fixes

How to Choose Where and How to Add the Markup

What Not to Do

• Do not mark up facts the page does not show. Consequence: Google's guidelines say this can make the markup ineligible, and violations can lead to a manual action. Correction: show the address, phone and description on the page, or leave them out of the markup.
• Do not add sameAs links to profiles that are not yours, such as a competitor's page, a similarly named company, or a news article about you. Consequence: you assert an identity link that is false, which works against the disambiguation the markup is for. Correction: link only official profiles and reference entries that are unambiguously about your organization.
• Do not use markup to claim affiliations, awards or ownership you cannot show. Consequence: Google prohibits markup that misrepresents “ownership, affiliation, or primary purpose”. Correction: mark up only what the page states and can support.
• Do not promise stakeholders a knowledge panel, logo in results or AI citations. Consequence: Google says features are not guaranteed, and AI operators do not publish their source-selection criteria. Correction: present the work as making your details clear and consistent, and measure eligibility, not outcomes.
• Do not copy example values into production. Consequence: placeholder phone numbers and IDs published as your own. Correction: search the final block for example and 555 before publishing.

What Organization Markup Does Not Do

Google's structured data guidelines say that using structured data “enables a feature to be present, it does not guarantee that it will be present”, and that a structured data manual action removes eligibility for rich results but “doesn't affect how the page ranks in Google web search” (Google). Organization markup is not a ranking factor that Google documents, and it does not create a knowledge panel on its own. How an organization comes to be represented in Google's Knowledge Graph is covered in how an entity gets into Google's Knowledge Graph.

On AI assistants, we found no published evidence that structured data affects whether an answer engine cites a page, and the operators do not document their selection criteria. Our full review is in Does Schema Markup Affect Whether a Page Is Cited?, and the wider case for markup as one part of describing who you are is in Schema and Structured Data: Telling Search Engines Who You Are.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources and Methodology

This guide was written from the official documentation listed below, all read on 6 October 2026. Property names, image rules, placement advice and tool behaviour are quoted or paraphrased from Google Search Central, Search Console Help and schema.org. The JSON-LD template uses placeholder values; we checked that it parses as valid JSON but did not run it through Google's tools for a live site of our own, and we did not measure any effect of Organization markup on search features or AI answers. The time estimate is ours. Google can change its documentation and the features that use structured data at any time; check the Organization documentation's “last updated” date before relying on details here.

Limitations: Google does not publish how, or how often, it uses Organization properties in knowledge panels or other features, so this guide cannot say what result to expect. Nothing here describes how AI assistants select sources, which their operators do not document.

1. official Google Search Central, Organization (Organization) structured data, last updated 8 September 2026. Placement, recommended properties, logo rules, validation steps, no-guarantee statement. Read 6 October 2026.
2. official Google Search Central, Introduction to structured data markup in Google Search, last updated 10 December 2025. Supported formats; JSON-LD recommended; dynamically injected JSON-LD. Read 6 October 2026.
3. official Google Search Central, General structured data guidelines, last updated 10 July 2026. Visibility, relevance and no-guarantee rules; manual actions. Read 6 October 2026.
4. official Google Search Central, Test your structured data. Rich Results Test versus Schema Markup Validator. Read 6 October 2026.
5. official Search Console Help, Rich Results Test. Code and URL tests, comment handling, supported types including Organization. Read 6 October 2026.
6. standard Schema.org, Organization and sameAs. Type definition, subtypes, sameAs definition. Read 6 October 2026.
7. tool Schema.org, Schema Markup Validator. Read 6 October 2026.
8. official Google Search Central, Article structured data, last updated 8 September 2026. Image size recommendation. Read October 10, 2026.
9. official Google Search Central, Profile page (ProfilePage) structured data, last updated 8 September 2026. Image size recommendation. Read October 10, 2026.