Organization schema for a company knowledge panel

Organization schema is structured data, usually written as JSON-LD, that tells Google your company's name, logo, website, official profiles and identifiers. Google calls it Organization structured data. It says the markup can help it understand your organization and tell it apart from others, and that some properties can influence which logo appears in Search results and in your knowledge panel.¹

Google doesn't describe the markup as a way to create a panel. It says panels are created automatically and that its current policy is not to create them by hand.^8,9

This guide covers where the markup goes, every property Google lists, an annotated example, a template and how to test your code. New to the topic? Read what a company knowledge panel is first.

What Organization schema does, and what it doesn't

Google documents two jobs for Organization markup:

• Telling organizations apart. Some properties, such as iso6523Code and naics, are used “behind the scenes” to distinguish your organization from others.¹
• Shaping some visible details. Other properties can influence what people see, such as the logo in Search results and in your knowledge panel, and some store details for merchants.¹

Google's Organization guide describes no other effect on company panels. Panel titles and type labels are generated automatically, and descriptions come from data sources and can't be edited.⁹ Our interpretation: your markup is one source among the many Google reads, and Google decides what to show.

Observed on 2026-11-09: Stripe's home page markup gave its name as “Stripe” and its legalName as “Stripe, LLC”.¹³ A desktop search for “stripe inc” (signed out, English, US settings, network in India) showed a panel titled “Stripe, Inc.”.

Our interpretation: markup records how a company names itself, and Google's systems choose the panel title separately. See the Stripe knowledge panel example.

Where to put Organization schema: home page or About page

Google recommends placing the markup on your home page or on a single page that describes your organization, such as an About page. “You don't need to include it on every page of your site.”¹ Its general rules add three conditions:

• Same page. Put structured data on the page it describes.²
• Visible content. Don't mark up information that readers of the page can't see, and don't create blank pages just to hold markup.^2,3
• Open to Google. Don't block the page with robots.txt, a noindex rule or a login.^1,2

JSON-LD is Google's recommended format. The script can sit in the page's <head> or <body>, and Google can read JSON-LD that JavaScript adds to the page.³ On a CMS such as WordPress, Wix or Shopify, Google suggests looking for a settings page or plugin that adds structured data.³

Practitioner observation (not documented by Google): SEO practitioners often call the page that best describes an organization its “entity home” and advise pointing the company's other profiles back to it. Google doesn't use the term. Our interpretation: the page Google recommends for this markup, your home page or About page, is the natural candidate.

An annotated Organization schema example

Figure 1 is a complete Organization block for a fictional company. Besides properties from Google's list, it uses @id, an identifier that other markup on your site can point to, and contactType, a schema.org property that Google's own online-store example also uses.^1,12 The notes follow the code from top to bottom.

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "@id": "https://www.example.com/#organization",
  "name": "Example Co.",
  "alternateName": "ExCo",
  "legalName": "Example Company, Inc.",
  "url": "https://www.example.com/",
  "logo": "https://www.example.com/images/example-co-logo.png",
  "description": "Example Co. makes scheduling software for small clinics.",
  "foundingDate": "2009-04-01",
  "numberOfEmployees": {
    "@type": "QuantitativeValue",
    "minValue": 100,
    "maxValue": 249
  },
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "streetAddress": "12 Example Street",
    "addressLocality": "Springfield",
    "addressRegion": "IL",
    "postalCode": "62701",
    "addressCountry": "US"
  },
  "telephone": "+1-217-555-0100",
  "email": "hello@example.com",
  "contactPoint": {
    "@type": "ContactPoint",
    "contactType": "customer support",
    "telephone": "+1-217-555-0199",
    "email": "support@example.com"
  },
  "iso6523Code": "0199:EXAMPLE0000000000000",
  "sameAs": [
    "https://www.linkedin.com/company/example-co",
    "https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/example-co",
    "https://x.com/exampleco",
    "https://www.youtube.com/@exampleco"
  ]
}
</script>

Every property Google documents

As of November 2026, Google's Organization guide lists 23 properties, all optional. Google recommends adding every one that applies.¹

sameAs: listing your official profiles

Google describes sameAs as the URL of a page on another website with more information about your organization, such as a social media or review profile.¹ Schema.org defines it as a page that “unambiguously indicates the item's identity”, such as a Wikipedia page, a Wikidata entry or an official website.¹⁰

Google adds that it can make general use of sameAs beyond its documented features.³ Our interpretation, from those sources:

• List profiles your company controls, such as LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, Instagram or GitHub.
• List reference entries about the company, such as Wikidata or Wikipedia, only if they already exist. Wikipedia has a conflict-of-interest guideline and Wikidata a paid-editing disclosure policy,^15,16 both covered in Wikipedia, Wikidata and your company's panel.
• Leave out pages about someone else, such as a founder's personal profile or a reseller's listing.

Observed on 2026-11-09: Stripe's markup listed 12 sameAs URLs, including Wikipedia, Wikidata, Crunchbase and two YouTube channels. HubSpot's listed seven, including Wikidata, Wikipedia and TikTok.^13,14 Each company's panel showed three profiles, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook, all on its list.

Our interpretation: sameAs tells Google which profiles are yours; it doesn't choose which ones appear. A verified representative can suggest profile changes but can't reorder them.⁹ See how to edit a company knowledge panel.

Merchant details for online stores

If you sell online, Google recommends the most specific subtype, such as OnlineStore. It lists three merchant properties: hasMerchantReturnPolicy, hasShippingService and hasMemberProgram. Each has its own required fields in a separate Google guide.¹

Google says merchants can use the markup to influence details such as their return policy, address and contact information in their store panel, which Google calls a merchant knowledge panel, and in their brand profile.¹ A business that serves customers at a physical location should use a LocalBusiness subtype and follow Google's local business guidance too.¹

Observed on 2026-11-09: Patagonia's panel for “patagonia” used the store layout, with rows for delivery, returns and payment options and a description labeled “Summarized from the website”. Its home page didn't load for our crawler that day, so we can't say whether markup supplied those rows. The brand profile is explained in Google's brand profile for companies.

Properties Google doesn't list

Schema.org defines many more Organization properties than Google lists. Google says its own documentation, not schema.org, is definitive for Search, and that it may use other schema.org data for future features.³ The ones companies ask about most:

Our interpretation: accurate extra properties do no documented harm, but don't expect them to add rows to a panel. Founder and executive rows are covered in CEO and founder facts in a company panel.

How to test Organization schema

Test the code in two tools, then check the live page in Search Console.

1. Run the Rich Results Test. Paste your code or a live URL. Organization is one of the types it supports, and Google's guide says to fix any critical errors it reports.^1,6
2. Run the Schema Markup Validator. At validator.schema.org it checks syntax against all of schema.org, including types Google doesn't use. It replaced the general checks of Google's retired Structured Data Testing Tool in 2021.⁷ Use it for WebSite markup too, which the Rich Results Test doesn't support.⁵
3. Remove comments. The Rich Results Test ignores comments in JSON-LD, but the JSON-LD standard doesn't support them, so they can cause errors in real use.⁶
4. Inspect the live page. After publishing, use URL Inspection in Search Console to see how Google sees the page, then request a recrawl.¹ The logo URL must be crawlable and indexable too.²
5. Wait before reporting. Allow several days for recrawling.¹ If your logo or details still look wrong a week after the page was last crawled, use the Feedback link on the panel.⁴

Common markup mistakes

• A tagline or legal name in name. Google asks you to match your site name, and its site-name guide prefers a concise, commonly recognized name.^1,5 Put the legal name in legalName.
• Facts the page doesn't show. Google asks you not to mark up content readers can't see.²
• A logo outside Google's guidelines. Smaller than 112 by 112 pixels or blocked by robots.txt. A mostly white or gray logo may also not look right on a white background.¹
• Two conflicting blocks. Our interpretation: if a theme and a plugin each output Organization markup with different names or logos, Google receives mixed signals. The Rich Results Test lists every item it finds, so duplicates show up there.⁶
• Padding. Google says fewer complete, accurate properties are better than many incomplete or badly formed ones.³
• Misrepresentation. Google's guidelines forbid using structured data to impersonate an organization or misrepresent ownership or affiliation. Violations can lead to a manual action.^1,2

After a rename or rebrand, update name, alternateName, legalName and logo together. See rebrands, mergers and IPOs.

A copy-ready Organization schema template

Replace each capitalized placeholder and delete any line you can't fill accurately, along with the comma before it if it was the last line. Then run the tests above.

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "YOUR COMPANY NAME",
  "legalName": "YOUR REGISTERED LEGAL NAME",
  "url": "https://www.YOUR-DOMAIN.com/",
  "logo": "https://www.YOUR-DOMAIN.com/PATH/TO/LOGO.png",
  "description": "ONE OR TWO SENTENCES FROM YOUR ABOUT PAGE",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "streetAddress": "STREET ADDRESS",
    "addressLocality": "CITY",
    "addressRegion": "STATE OR REGION",
    "postalCode": "POSTAL CODE",
    "addressCountry": "TWO-LETTER COUNTRY CODE"
  },
  "telephone": "+COUNTRY-AREA-NUMBER",
  "sameAs": [
    "https://www.linkedin.com/company/YOUR-PAGE",
    "https://www.youtube.com/@YOUR-CHANNEL"
  ]
}
</script>