DefinedRegion

DefinedRegion is a pending type for geographic regions defined by postal codes rather than political boundaries. It is especially useful for shipping zones, merchant return policies, service areas, and tax applicability.

It has dual inheritance from Place and from StructuredValue (Intangible). Adds 5 direct properties:

addressCountry (Country or Text, ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 preferred)
addressRegion (AdministrativeArea or Text, first-level subdivision like a state or province)
postalCode (Text, a specific postal code)
postalCodePrefix (Text, common prefix spanning many codes, e.g. "185" for northeast PA)
postalCodeRange (PostalCodeRangeSpecification)

Use DefinedRegion inside OfferShippingDetails.shippingDestination, MerchantReturnPolicy.returnPolicyCountry, or Service.areaServed to encode exactly which ZIPs or postcodes the policy covers.

Full example of schema.org/DefinedRegion json-ld markup

The markup is verified as valid with Rich Results Test from Google.

Highlight legend:Required by GoogleRecommendedOptional

schema.org/DefinedRegion

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedRegion",
  "name": "Northeast PA same-day shipping zone",
  "description": "Postal-code-defined region where Xoo Code Shop offers same-day ground shipping.",
  "addressCountry": "US",
  "addressRegion": "PA",
  "postalCodePrefix": ["185", "186"]
}
</script>

Minimal valid version

The smallest markup that still produces a valid DefinedRegion entity. Use it as the floor. Reach for the advanced example above when you want search engines and AI agents to understand more about your content.

schema.org/DefinedRegion (minimal)

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedRegion",
  "addressCountry": "US",
  "postalCodePrefix": "185"
}
</script>

Google rich results this unlocks

Markup matching this example makes your page eligible for the following Google Search rich results. The primary target drives the required / recommended property classification in the advanced code block above.

No standalone rich result (used inside OfferShippingDetails and MerchantReturnPolicy)
Google docs

Common DefinedRegion mistakes

Mistakes that pass validation but silently fail to earn rich results or mislead consumers walking the graph. Avoid these and your markup will be ahead of most sites in the wild.

01
addressCountry as a full country name
Wrong
```
"addressCountry": "United States"
```
Right
```
"addressCountry": "US" (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2)
```
Schema.org recommends ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes. Full country names vary by locale ('USA', 'United States', 'Estados Unidos') and are harder to normalise.
02
Using Place instead of DefinedRegion for shipping zones
Wrong
```
Place inside OfferShippingDetails.shippingDestination
```
Right
```
DefinedRegion with postalCodePrefix/postalCode/postalCodeRange so ZIP-level shipping rules are machine-enforceable
```
Plain Place cannot encode postal-code ranges. DefinedRegion is the specific shape shipping and return rules expect.

Schema properties in this example

DefinedRegion Place StructuredValue name description addressCountry addressRegion postalCode postalCodePrefix postalCodeRange PostalCodeRangeSpecification OfferShippingDetails shippingDestination MerchantReturnPolicy areaServed Service

About the example data

The northeast Pennsylvania shipping zone for Xoo Code Shop, covering all postal codes beginning with 185 and 186.

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