What is an Entity and What is Entity SEO and Why Do I Need To Know This?

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Entity SEO FAQ



Those are all great questions. So I'll keep this as concise as possible. Entities have been around for a lot longer than AI search so it isn't a result of AI powered search although it does affect how AI views your brand, your name and more.

What is an Entity?


An “entity” is a distinct, well-defined concept or thing. It can be a person, a place, an organization, a product, a service or even an idea or slogan. Anything Google can call a “thing”. A single data point. Entities are interconnected on a giant digital map known as a Knowledge Graph. From the Entity SEO Journal

 What is Entity SEO?

Traditional SEO focuses on key phrases, “strings” of words and authority is gained through backlinks.

Entity SEO focuses on “things” instead of “strings”. People generally and logically think Google and AI search tools want to give users the “right” answer. That’s true, but they are more concerned about “not being wrong”.

Why Do I Need To Know About Entities and Entity SEO?

The AI that powers search today needs to trust the source of the information before it recommends the answer to its users. Entity SEO builds that layer of trust.

Entity SEO (Things), does not replace solid, traditional SEO (Strings) practices. Traditional SEO gets you the visibility. Entity SEO does the verification.

Think of it like giving references when you want to be hired for a job. The employer wants to verify you are who you say you are and you can do what you say you can do.

How Do I Start Doing Entity SEO?

1. Start by defining your entities.

  • Your Name, The Founder's Name, A Customer Facing Employee's Name.
  • Your Company Name
  • Each Brand Name Your Company Owns.
  • Each Product Name.
  • Even a Concept, a Slogan or a Catchphrase can be considered entities.
2. Define the relationships between them. Charts are helpful. Everyone who does any marketing, PR or publishing for you needs to have that graph in their head and understand it completely. Because everything you publish online is going to reinforce those relationships.

3. Define exactly what you want each of your entities to be known for. (It's best if you define outcomes rather than just descriptions in most cases.)

For instance, my own agency is known for Search Everywhere Optimization, but that is a service we provide while Be Found Everywhere is an outcome for my clients.

Since we focus on leads and sales rather than just getting you ranked in Google, a catchphrase we use a lot is. "Ranking is Vanity. Sales is Sanity."

Those 3 things require some thought because you are going to put a lot of work to associate your entities with what you want them to be known for. Changing later is hard to do.

There is a lot more to Entity SEO than written here. To learn more, here are some resources...

Entity SEO Journal exists on multiple platforms for your convenience.









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