Search engines are increasingly focused on understanding the content of web pages by connecting them to real-world entities. An entity refers to a person, place, organization, product, or named thing that exists in the world. By recognizing and properly marking up entities that appear on your web pages, you can significantly improve relevance and visibility for your site. However, entities can sometimes be complex and tricky to leverage properly. In this post, we’ll break down exactly what entities are and why they are critical for entity SEO success.
Entities serve as powerful signals to search engines about what a page or site is about. For example, if your page mentions “Toronto” and “CN Tower”, search engines know these map to the real-world city and famous landmark. This allows them to categorize the page as likely being about travel in Toronto. Properly identifying entities assists search engines in understanding a page’s focus and content much more accurately.
In addition, entities allow search engines to connect pages across the web about the same topics or focus areas. Identifying common real-world entities builds connections between different sites and pages around the entity names. This cross-linking effect bolsters the authority and performance of pages for entity-based terms and keywords.
Finally, entities also feed into rich results and knowledge panels in SERPs. Marking entities up properly enables pages to qualify and display in these eye-catching results. Knowledge panels will also showcase key information and data about entities, enhancing click potential.
In summary, dialing in on entities is hugely impactful for SEO visibility and traffic potential. Read on to learn more about what exactly entities are, why they are integral for high rankings, and how to successfully optimize entities on your site.
What Are Entities in SEO?
In order to leverage entity SEO, we first need to understand what they are. Entities essentially refer to real-world things – people, places, organizations, products, etc. Entities have factual data associated with them depending on type:
- Locations – Address, contact info, opening hours
- Businesses/Organizations – Industry, leadership names, revenue
- Products – SKUs, specs, brand name
- Persons – Birthdate, titles, affiliation
And so much more. Search engines compile all this entity data from across the web to better understand and map mentions of entities to these unique real-world things. One of the most common examples of this we see in search results is in the Google knowledge graph, which is Google gathering structured data to display information that is contextual to the entity.
When a search engine can understand more contextual information about a particular entity, it is more likely to display pages from this entity in relevant search results. This is why deploying an entity based seo strategy can help improve your visibility, and give an edge over your competition.
Common Types of Entities
Some common types of entities include:
Places: Geographic/physical locations like countries, cities, landmarks. Businesses/Organizations: Companies, agencies, institutions, music groups.
Products: Consumer products, vehicles, creative works like books/movies. Persons: Individual people referenced uniquely by name. Events: Organized events like conferences, awards ceremonies, races. Creative Works: Books, movies, songs, artworks.
So in essence – entities represent unique, individual references of real people, places, events and creative works. They are defined through factual data accumulated from sites across the web.
When we mention one of these entity types by proper name on our web page (i.e Toronto, CN Tower), search engines can associate all factual knowledge they have on that entity with our page. This allows them to deeply understand the context and content of the page.
Why Do Entities Matter for SEO?
Now that we understand what entities are, why are they so integral for SEO strategy and unlocking higher rankings? There are a few key reasons:
Improve Relevance Scoring
By properly marking up entity mentions on a page, you enable search engines to deeply understand the page content. The factual data they have on entities informs what the page is about. This leads to higher relevancy scoring for entity-based keywords and search queries.
For example, a page optimized around the Toronto Raptors basketball team that calls out player and staff entities will be scored very relevant for a google search around the Raptors.
Connect Pages Around Shared Entities
Entities also allow search engines to draw connections between pages across the web that share the same entity mentions. These connections based on real-world entities can lead to your page ranking for a wider range of related terms.
For example, a page about the city of Toronto that also mentions the Raptors may lead to your Raptors page appearing for some Toronto-related searches. The shared entity (Toronto) connects them.
Rank for Entity Knowledge Panels
Entity optimization also enables your content to appear in the highly visible knowledge panels in SERPs. These panels showcase unique data and information on entities.
By properly marking up entities on page and linking out to authoritative data sources, you can strengthen odds of ranking in knowledge panels for those entities.
How To Optimize Entities for SEO
When looking to leverage entities effectively for pages and sites, keep these key optimization steps in mind:
Identify Target Entities
- Conduct an entity audit on your site pages and content to make a list of core entity targets. Prioritize based on importance for understanding topics and keywords you want to rank for.
- Consider all entity types: locations, organizations, people, events, products etc.
- Also consider entity variations like acronyms or alternate names.
Follow Markup Best Practices
- Use schema markup for associating metadata with entities according to Google guidelines.
- For example, use Organization schema for company names, Place schema for locations.
- Also identify entities directly in page content surrounding mentions.
Enrich Entities Through Authoritative Links and Data
- Link out directly to key authoritative sites that define the entity like Wikipedia.
- Incorporate factual statistics, contact details, descriptive info from trusted sources.
- Boosts entity understanding and page reliability.
Monitor Google Knowledge Graph Opportunities
- Review Google’s panels and determine what entities have panel potential.
- Ensure page content hits requirements like uniqueness, depth on entities.
- Claim and optimize organization knowledge panels directly if applicable.
The key focus should be accurately marking up entities, linking to authority sources on them, and layering in unique, in-depth data. This provides the rich entity understanding that can elevate pages in SEO rankings and visibility.
Common Entity SEO Issues
While entities can significantly assist SEO performance when optimized properly, there are also a number of common challenges that can arise, especially if your site or web page is new or less established. Below are some common challenges that can arise with entities, and how to fix them.
Duplicate and Inconsistent Entities
Search engines can sometimes interpret multiple similar references to entities across or within sites as different entities. For example, “New York” and “NYC” may be seen as two different locations. This dilutes the core entity strength and can be a negative ranking factor.
Best practice is to be consistent around formal entity names and cleanup duplicate markers. Clean up directories and citations to ensure a consistent name, address, and phone number (NAP). Also, use markup schema and content to clarify variations referring to the same entity.
Erroneous Connections
Issues can also occur when search engines incorrectly associate an entity mention with the wrong real-world entity. There may be unclear context, or the engine makes false assumptions.
For example mentioning “Washington” on a site could lead search engines to associate with the U.S. capital when you mean the state.
Use unique descriptions and details around entities to provide clearer context and avoid false connections.
Inaccurate Knowledge Panels
Even with entities marked up, knowledge panels may show outdated, incomplete or false information around an entity. This can undermine SEO efforts by reducing perceived reliability.
Actively check accuracy of data presented in knowledge panels related to your high-value entities. Follow procedures to claim management of organization knowledge panels where possible to control.
Don’t Underestimate the Role of Entities in SEO Success
Entities play a profound role in achieving strong SEO performance. By taking the time to properly identify, mark up, and optimize real-world entities on site pages, you enable search engines to deeply comprehend content, topical focus, and most importantly, your brand.
This entity understanding feeds into improved relevance ranking, connections between entity-focused pages across the web, and powerfully visible rich results. All of these benefits can lead to higher visibility in search, increased organic traffic, and more conversions.
Focus on accurately tagging all prominent entities mentioned in site content with structural markup. Enrich them with authoritative links and factual data from reliable sources. Review opportunities around ranking for entity knowledge panels as well.
Keep entities top of mind as you optimize pages and sites for search performance. The payoff in visibility and traffic can be immense thanks to the powerful boost entities provide when aligned with SEO best practices.
