Organization structured data: logo, contacts and identifiers

This guide is built from Google Search Central's Organization structured data documentation, its merchant return policy and shipping policy docs, the general structured data guidelines, the 2021 post Highlight your customer support methods in Google Search, and Google's help pages About knowledge panels and About brand profile on Google Search. Quotes are Google's.

What structured data is and which types a business site needs are in our structured data basics guide. Shops, offices and service-area businesses also need the fields in our LocalBusiness structured data guide. This page covers the Organization block itself: which properties Google reads, the rules for the logo, and how contact details, identifiers and store policies fit in.

What Organization markup does

Google says Organization markup on your home page "can help Google better understand your organization's administrative details and disambiguate your organization in search results." Some properties work only behind the scenes, to tell your business apart from others with a similar name. Others "can influence visual elements in Search results (such as which logo is shown in Search results and your knowledge panel)."

Merchants get a little more. Google says a merchant "can influence more details in your merchant knowledge panel and brand profile, such as return policy, address, and contact information."

Two points set expectations. First, "There are no required properties; instead, we recommend adding as many properties that are relevant to your organization." Second, there is no visible rich result you switch on. Google "does not guarantee that features that consume structured data will show up in search results." The markup is a clear statement of facts that Google can use. It is not a ranking switch.

Where it goes and which type to use

One page is enough. Google recommends "placing this information on your home page, or a single page that describes your organization, for example the about us page. You don't need to include it on every page of your site."

Use the most specific type that fits. Google's example: for an ecommerce site, use OnlineStore rather than OnlineBusiness. If you run a local business, such as a restaurant or a physical store, Google recommends the most specific LocalBusiness subtype, with the Local business fields "in addition to the fields recommended in this guide." LocalBusiness is itself a kind of Organization, so the properties below still apply. A service company with no public premises usually stays with Organization or a fitting subtype.

The properties Google recognises

Google lists all of them as recommended and asks you to focus on the useful ones: your name, "an indication of real-world presence (for example, address or telephone) and online presence (for example, url or logo)." Grouped by purpose:

Group	Properties	Notes from Google
Names	name, alternateName, legalName	legalName is the "registered, legal name", if different from name.
Online presence	url, logo, sameAs	url "helps Google uniquely identify your organization."
Contact	telephone, email, contactPoint, address	You can list several addresses "if you have a location in multiple cities, states, or countries."
Identifiers	vatID, taxID, iso6523Code, duns, leiCode, globalLocationNumber, naics	Used to tell your organisation apart from others.
Background	description, foundingDate, numberOfEmployees	foundingDate uses ISO 8601. Employees can be one number or a range.
Store policies	hasMerchantReturnPolicy, hasShippingService, hasMemberProgram	Each has its own documentation page.

Name and alternateName

Google's instruction for name is short: "Use the same name and alternateName that you're using for your site name." The site name is set with WebSite markup on the home page, and Google's site name guidance asks for a concise, commonly recognised name, used consistently across the home page. alternateName is "Another common name that your organization goes by", such as an acronym. How Google picks the site name and how to set WebSite markup are in our guide to your favicon and site name in Google. Here, the point is to keep the two blocks in step: the same name in WebSite and Organization, and the registered company name, if it differs, in legalName.

Logo rules

The logo property "can help Google better understand which logo you want to show, for example in Search results and knowledge panels." Google's image rules:

• "The image must be 112x112px, at minimum."
• "The image URL must be crawlable and indexable." A logo in a folder blocked by robots.txt fails this.
• The file format "must be supported by Google Images".
• Check it on white: if the logo "is mostly white or gray, it may not look how you want it to look when displayed on a white background".
• If you use ImageObject instead of a plain URL, it needs a valid contentUrl or url that follows the same rules.

This logo is not the favicon. The small icon next to each search result comes from the favicon link tag on your home page, which has its own rules (see the favicon section). Which logo version to use where is covered in our guide to brand assets for websites.

sameAs and the knowledge panel

sameAs is "The URL of a page on another website with additional information about your organization", for example "your organization's profile page on a social media or review site." You can list several. Only list profiles that belong to you, and update the list when you close or rename an account.

Markup does not create a knowledge panel. Google's help page says knowledge panels "are automatically generated, and information that appears in a knowledge panel comes from various sources across the web." If a panel about your organisation already exists, an official representative can claim it and suggest changes. Google's knowledge panel feedback page says its policy "doesn't manually create or delete Knowledge Panels." The panel for a business at a set location or service area is usually the Business Profile, which you manage separately (see our Google Business Profile guide).

Contact details

telephone is "A business phone number meant to be the primary contact method for customers". Google asks you to "include the country code and area code". email works the same way. contactPoint holds further routes, for example a customer service line with its own phone and email. If you use a LocalBusiness type, Google wants the primary phone and email at the top level first, "before using contactPoint to specify multiple ways to reach your organization."

For contactPoint, Google points to its customer support best practices. That post asks for a contact or support page "that can be easily located by both visitors and Googlebot", listing "all the ways that you provide support, such as email, chat, social media, telephone". If you don't offer phone support, it suggests "having a phone number that provides recorded information about the other support options". That gives Google an official number to show, so third-party numbers are less likely to appear instead. If outside companies provide support for you, list them. If none do, say so.

Business identifiers

Identifiers help Google match your site to your registered company. Add only the ones you actually have:

• iso6523Code: an identifier in two parts, a scheme code and the number, separated by a colon. Google lists common scheme codes: 0060 for Dun & Bradstreet DUNS, 0088 for a GS1 Global Location Number and 0199 for a Legal Entity Identifier (LEI).
• duns and leiCode: still recognised, but Google encourages iso6523Code with the 0060: or 0199: prefix instead.
• vatID: Google calls it "an important trust signal for users", since people can look your business up in public VAT registries.
• taxID: make sure it "matches the country that you provided in the address field."
• naics and globalLocationNumber: an industry code and a GS1 location number, if they apply to you.

Return, shipping and loyalty policies

A store can describe its standard policies once, on the Organization block, instead of on every product. Google says a return policy nested this way can show "alongside your products and in knowledge panels". Shipping works the same way through hasShippingService, and a loyalty program through hasMemberProgram. To override them for one product, add policy markup to that product's Offer. Our product structured data guide covers that side.

Two points matter if you also use Merchant Center:

• Order of precedence. For returns and shipping, Google uses, from strongest to weakest: the Content API for Shopping, settings in Merchant Center or Search Console, product-level markup, then Organization-level markup. If you set a return policy in Search Console and in markup, "Google will only use the information provided in Search Console."
• Loyalty programs. "If you provide both markup and Merchant Center loyalty programs, Google will use the Merchant Center settings."

Google's brand profile help page says the profile draws on "your website, Google Merchant Center account, third-party licensed data, and publicly available sources", and that return policies, shipping details and social media links can be updated in Merchant Center. Setting up Merchant Center is covered in our Merchant Center basics guide.

An example

A service company with one office, adapted from Google's example. Names and numbers are placeholders:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "@id": "https://www.example.com/#org",
  "name": "Example Studio",
  "alternateName": "ES",
  "legalName": "Example Studio LLC",
  "url": "https://www.example.com/",
  "logo": "https://www.example.com/img/logo-512.png",
  "description": "Web design and development studio.",
  "telephone": "+1-555-555-0100",
  "email": "[email protected]",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "streetAddress": "100 Example Street, Suite 2",
    "addressLocality": "San Diego",
    "addressRegion": "CA",
    "postalCode": "92101",
    "addressCountry": "US"
  },
  "contactPoint": {
    "@type": "ContactPoint",
    "contactType": "Customer Service",
    "email": "[email protected]",
    "telephone": "+1-555-555-0199"
  },
  "sameAs": [
    "https://www.linkedin.com/company/example-studio",
    "https://www.instagram.com/examplestudio"
  ]
}
</script>

The @id line is optional. It gives the block a fixed name so other markup on the site can point to it, for example as the publisher of an article (see our Article structured data guide).

Testing

Google's steps: validate the code with the Rich Results Test, then check the live page with the URL Inspection tool. Make sure the page is not blocked "by a robots.txt file, the noindex tag, or login requirements", and allow time, since "it may take several days after publishing a page for Google to find and crawl it."

The general guidelines apply too. Don't "mark up content that is not visible to readers of the page": the phone number, address and policies in the markup should also be on the page or the site. If a page gets a structured data manual action, "the structured data on the page will be ignored", although the page can still appear in results. Our guide to Search Console manual actions explains how to fix one.

How we set it up

This part is our own practice, not Google guidance. On the business sites we build:

• One Organization block on the home page with an @id, and WebSite markup next to it with the same name.
• Other pages point to that @id (for example as author or publisher) instead of repeating the full block.
• The logo URL points to a square PNG of at least 112 px that we have checked on a white background.
• sameAs lists only profiles the client controls. Identifiers go in only when the client gives us the registered numbers.
• When a phone number, address or social account changes, the markup changes in the same update as the footer and contact page.

Frequently asked questions

Does Organization markup have required properties?

No. Google lists no required properties and recommends adding as many relevant ones as apply, with name, address or telephone, and url or logo as the most useful.

Should Organization markup go on every page?

No. Google recommends the home page or a single page that describes your organisation, such as the about page. You don't need it on every page.

What size should the logo be?

At least 112x112 pixels, at a URL Google can crawl and index, in a format Google Images supports. It should also look right on a white background.

Will Organization markup give my business a knowledge panel?

Not on its own. Knowledge panels are generated automatically from sources across the web. The markup can influence details such as the logo shown, and an official representative can claim an existing panel and suggest edits.

Should I use Organization or LocalBusiness?

Use the most specific type that fits. A business with premises or a service area should use a LocalBusiness subtype, which is a kind of Organization, so the Organization properties still apply on top of the local ones.

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