Entity SEO: Get your brand seen in Google & AI search

A quick note on keywords: Keyword research is still important for understanding what users are searching for online and for matching content to user demand/needs. However, gone are the days when we needed to include our identified keywords numerous times on one page. Search engines are much smarter now, and your organic performance will benefit way more by writing around a keyword, using synonyms and connecting to related topics as opposed to keyword stuffing.

In this blog, I will break down the key concepts of entities and NLP and explain how they relate to SEO and, most importantly, provide practical strategies to adapt your approach for both search engines (most predominantly Google) and AI-powered search tools.

* Knowledge graph   * BERT update    *AI Overviews    * Google AI Mode

An entity is anything that can be distinctly identified, such as a person, location, organisation, or event. One of the main challenges in Natural Language Processing (NLP) is that some terms can refer to multiple entities. For example, “Penguin” could be the animal or the book publishers. Search engines use context to determine which entity is being referred to.

Entities are classified into two main categories:

Named Entities: Real-world objects denoted by proper nouns (e.g., “Varn Ltd”, “France”, “Daniel Radcliffe”). 

Concepts: Abstract objects like scientific theories, emotions, or social constructs (e.g., “excitement”, “peace”).

The move from returning a list of documents to richer results is possible thanks to Knowledge Bases and Knowledge Graphs.

Knowledge Graph: A network that represents entities and the relationships between them. Google’s Knowledge Graph, launched in 2012, is a prime example.

Knowledge Base: A broader structured repository that organises entities, their attributes, and relationships. Wikipedia is a great example of a knowledge base, where each article describes a specific entity. These articles are also assigned to categories and contain links to other articles, indicating relationships between entities.

How Knowledge Bases and Graphs help structure entity data for search engines

• They can recognise unique identifiers for entities. Each entity is tagged with a distinct ID, such as a Wikipedia or Wikidata page ID, enabling consistent recognition across platforms.
• Categorise entities into types. Example: “Bottlenose Dolphin” is categorised as a type of “marine mammal”, while “Italy” is a “country” in the “location” category. This helps refine search intent for queries like “marine mammals near Italy”.
• Identify relationships between entities. Example: Knowing that “dolphins are often found in the Tyrrhenian Sea” and that the “Tyrrhenian Sea borders western Italy” helps the search engine connect wildlife and geography, surfacing relevant content like dolphin-watching tours near Naples.

Entities are fundamental to how search engines understand the content on your website. By defining and communicating entities effectively, you provide information that helps search engines accurately interpret your website and display it to relevant users online. 

Google uses entities in search in a couple of ways:

1. Some entities already exist in Google’s Knowledge Graph. 
2. Google can also recognise what we can call “lower-case entities”. These are names and things it identifies even if they aren’t well-known or formally in the Knowledge Graph yet. This is where Named Entity Recognition (NER) is used. NER enables search engines to identify potential entities from context even when they’re not already established in their databases.

While traditional SEO practices already help with entity optimisation (since Google has been using this approach for years), AI search engines make entity-focused strategies even more important. You need to clearly define your brand, products, and services as entities so that when people use AI search tools, your business shows up for relevant terms and the information is accurate.

Below, we have listed a number of strategies that you can use to identify and communicate your entities to search engines. 

Analyse how search engines see your entities

Start by understanding how search engines currently interpret your content:

• Use Google’s free Natural Language API demo to see which entities it recognises in your content.
• Try searching for your brand in different AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude, Bard) and note how they describe you.
• Look at what entities your competitors are associated with using SEO tools like SEMrush or public Knowledge Bases such as Wikipedia. 

Identify key entities and structure content around them

Make sure you clearly communicate entities related to your brand. To do this, you can create a simple plan for how your entities should connect:

1. List your main entities (your brand, products, services).
2. Identify related entities that are important to your business (benefits, features, topics).
3. Plan content that clearly explains these connections.
4. Organise your website with main topic pages linking to related subtopic pages.
5. You can further expand topic pages by creating more specific blog posts and case studies, linking these back to the main topic pages.

Optimise internal linking

Use internal links to connect related entities and strengthen topical relevance. 

• Use descriptive anchor text that includes important entity terms. 
• Link related topics to each other, not just to your homepage or key pillar pages.
• Create hub/pillar pages that link to all content about a specific topic.
• Make sure important pages link to each other in both directions. 
• Including on-page breadcrumbs along with Breadcrumb schema can be a great way to optimise internal linking and clearly communicate how different pages relate to each other. 
  • Below, you can see an example of how we use breadcrumbs on our AI & Innovation page, and how this then shows up in Google results, providing another benefit:

Provide unique insights 

At the end of the day, search engines and AI chatbots want unique information. Including loads of information that is also available elsewhere on the web will not provide much benefit. Instead, you should:

• Share original insights based on your expertise and experience.
• Conduct surveys or research within your industry.
• Create case studies showing how your products/services solve problems.
• Add your own perspective to topics instead of repeating what’s already online. 

Not everything needs to be 100% groundbreakingly unique, but add in your own analysis, research and case studies to set yourself apart.

Use schema markup 

Schema markup is very important when it comes to defining entities on your site, as it helps search engines understand your content better. Schema should be used throughout your site. Read our blog to learn how to implement schema effectively.

By consistently applying these strategies, your site can define and communicate its entities effectively, which will help to improve search visibility in both Google and AI search engines. If you’re looking for help getting your brand seen in Google and AI search, get in touch with our expert team. We’re happy to help.