Key takeaways
- An entity is a distinct, identifiable thing, such as a business, person, place, product or concept.
- Search engines and AI tools use entities and their relationships to understand meaning, not just matching words.
- Entity SEO makes your business, people and services clear and consistent across your site and the wider web.
- Structured data, consistent profiles, an about page with real detail and mentions on trusted sites all strengthen your entity.
Entity SEO is the practice of helping search engines and AI tools clearly understand the real-world things your website is about, starting with your business itself, its people, its services and its location, and how they relate to each other and to the topics in your industry. Instead of focusing only on matching keywords, it makes sure search engines can identify who you are with confidence and connect you to the right topics and searches.
It sounds technical, but most of the work is about clarity and consistency. This guide explains entities in plain English, why they matter more now that AI answers are part of search, and the practical steps any business can take.
What is an entity?
An entity is a single, distinct, identifiable thing. A business is an entity. So is a person, a city, a product, a brand, a book, a sports team or an idea such as “inflation”. What makes something an entity is that it can be uniquely identified and described.
Each entity has attributes, the facts that describe it. A business has a name, address, phone number, founding date, founder, services and logo. Entities also have relationships with other entities. Eigme Digital is located in Cardiff; Cardiff is in Wales; Eigme Digital offers SEO services; SEO is a type of digital marketing.
Words are ambiguous. “Jaguar” could be an animal, a car brand or a sports team. “Mercury” could be a planet, an element or a singer. Entities remove the ambiguity, because each one is a distinct thing with its own attributes and connections.
How search engines use entities
When Google launched its Knowledge Graph in 2012, it described the shift as moving from “strings” to “things”: from matching words to understanding the things those words refer to. The Knowledge Graph is a huge database of entities and the relationships between them, built from sources across the web.
Entities help search engines to:
- Understand searches. Working out which Jaguar someone means from the rest of the query and their context.
- Understand pages. Recognising which entities a page discusses and how they relate, not just which words it contains.
- Show knowledge panels. The information boxes that appear for well-known businesses, people and places.
- Judge relevance and trust. Connecting authors, organisations and topics helps search engines judge who is an authority on what.
Our guide to semantic SEO explains the wider shift towards meaning-based search.
Why entities matter even more for AI search
AI assistants and Google’s AI features summarise information and recommend businesses in their answers. To do that accurately, they need to know exactly which business they are talking about and what is true about it. If your details are inconsistent, if your business is easily confused with another of a similar name, or if little information about you exists beyond your own site, AI tools may describe you wrongly, mix you up with someone else or leave you out.
Clear entity signals reduce that risk. They give search engines and AI tools consistent facts they can rely on, from several sources that agree with each other. Our guide on getting mentioned by ChatGPT covers the AI side in more detail.
Entity SEO vs keyword SEO
| Keyword SEO | Entity SEO | |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | The words people type | The things behind the words and how they relate |
| Main question | Does this page use the right terms? | Does Google know exactly who and what this is? |
| Typical work | Keyword research, titles, headings, copy | Consistent business data, structured data, profiles, about pages, mentions |
| Helps with | Rankings for specific searches | Knowledge panels, trust, AI answers, brand searches and topical relevance |
They are not alternatives. Keyword research still tells you what people search for. Entity work makes sure search engines understand and trust the business answering those searches.
Step 1: Define your core entity
Start by writing down the facts about your business exactly as you want them to appear everywhere:
- Official business name, and any trading names.
- Address and phone number, in one consistent format.
- A one-sentence description of what you do and who for.
- Founders and key people.
- Main services or products.
- Areas you serve.
- Website, logo and official social and directory profiles.
This becomes your reference. Every profile, listing and schema block should match it.
Step 2: Make your website the clearest source
Your website should be the most complete and authoritative source of information about your business. That means:
- A detailed about page explaining who you are, what you do, your history, your team and what makes you different, in specific, factual language.
- Team or author pages for key people, with their roles, experience and links to their professional profiles.
- A dedicated page for each service, so each one is clearly defined.
- Consistent contact details on your contact page and footer.
- Clear, plain statements rather than vague marketing language. “We are a Cardiff SEO agency serving businesses across Wales” is easier for machines to understand than “We help brands unlock their potential”.
Step 3: Add structured data that connects the dots
Structured data, also called schema markup, describes your entities in a format search engines read directly. For entity SEO the most important types are:
- Organization or LocalBusiness, with your name, logo, address, contact details and a
sameAslist linking to your official profiles elsewhere. - Person, for founders, authors and key staff, linked to your organisation.
- Service or Product, describing what you offer.
- Article, connecting each piece of content to its author and publisher.
Give each entity a consistent identifier, usually an @id URL, and reference it wherever it appears, so search engines know the author on one page is the same person as on another. Our schema markup guide explains how to set this up.
Step 4: Build consistent profiles across the web
Search engines cross-check what your website says against other sources. The more trusted sources agree, the more confident they become. Make sure your details match on:
- Google Business Profile and Bing Places.
- LinkedIn company and personal profiles.
- Companies House, if you are a registered company.
- Industry directories and professional bodies.
- Social media profiles.
- Review platforms.
Link to these profiles from your website and include them in your sameAs schema. Our guide to local citations in the UK covers the main directories.
Step 5: Earn mentions on trusted sites
Search engines learn about entities partly from what other sites say about them. Mentions in local news, industry publications, partner websites, event pages and interviews all reinforce who you are and what you are known for, even without a link. Digital PR is one of the most effective ways to strengthen an entity. See our guide to digital PR for small businesses.
For larger or notable organisations, Wikidata and Wikipedia can play a role, but both have strict rules on notability and conflicts of interest. Most small businesses do not need them, and creating promotional entries usually backfires.
Step 6: Cover the entities in your topic
Entity SEO also applies to your content. Every topic involves related entities and concepts. A guide to boiler servicing, for example, naturally involves boiler types, brands, safety regulations, registered engineers and common faults. Covering these relationships clearly and accurately signals depth and expertise. Linking related pages together, in topic clusters, helps search engines see how your content connects. Our guide to building topic clusters explains the method.
Entity SEO for local businesses
For a local business, the Google Business Profile is the most important entity record outside your own website. Google uses it to connect your business with a place, a category and the services you offer. Make sure the name, address, phone number, categories and website on your profile exactly match your website and your LocalBusiness schema, and that the profile links to the right page.
Location is itself an entity relationship. Mentioning the areas you serve naturally on service pages, adding areaServed to your schema and earning mentions from local organisations all reinforce the connection between your business and your town or city. Reviews that mention specific services and places add further context.
If you have several locations, each should be its own entity with its own profile, page and schema, linked to the parent organisation, so search engines understand both the brand and each branch.
People are entities too
Founders, experts and authors are entities with their own attributes: roles, qualifications, experience and the topics they are known for. Connecting them to your business and to the content they write helps search engines understand who is behind your expertise. Give key people detailed profile pages, link those pages to their LinkedIn and other professional profiles, add Person schema with sameAs links and show named authors on your articles. Over time, a person who is consistently associated with a topic, through articles, talks, interviews and mentions, becomes a recognised expert entity in their own right.
Common entity problems
- Inconsistent names, such as “Smith & Sons Ltd”, “Smith and Sons” and “Smiths Plumbing” used in different places.
- Old addresses and phone numbers left on directories after a move.
- A similar name to another business, which leads search engines and AI tools to mix you up.
- A thin about page with no real facts about the business or its people.
- No author information on content.
- Missing or conflicting schema, sometimes from several plugins at once.
- Outdated information after a rebrand or merger that was never updated elsewhere.
How to tell if it is working
Entity SEO is harder to measure than rankings, but there are useful signs:
- A knowledge panel appears for searches of your business name, with accurate details.
- Google shows the right logo, address and profiles in branded results.
- AI assistants describe your business accurately when asked.
- Branded searches and direct traffic grow over time.
- Your content ranks for a wider range of related searches in your topic.
Check these every few months, alongside the usual SEO metrics.
Getting started
Begin with the basics: write down your core business facts, make your about and team pages detailed and specific, add Organization or LocalBusiness schema with sameAs links, and make your details consistent across your main profiles. Then build mentions over time. These steps help with traditional rankings, knowledge panels and AI answers at the same time.
Our entity SEO service covers this work in full, from auditing how search engines and AI tools currently see your business to fixing inconsistencies and building a connected schema graph.
How Eigme can help
Turn this into results.
We can help you put this into practice with a clear plan, hands-on delivery and reporting in plain English.
Book a free strategy call →Frequently asked questions
What is an entity in SEO?
An entity is a single, well-defined thing that search engines can identify, such as a business, a person, a place, a product, an organisation or a concept. Each entity has attributes, such as a name, address or founder, and relationships with other entities. Search engines use these to understand what a page or search is really about.
What is the difference between entity SEO and keyword SEO?
Keyword SEO focuses on matching the words people type. Entity SEO focuses on the things behind those words and how they relate, so search engines understand who you are, what you offer and how you connect to topics and places. In practice the two work together.
How do I get my business into Google’s Knowledge Graph?
There is no form to submit. Google builds its Knowledge Graph from information it finds and trusts across the web. Clear, consistent details on your website, structured data, a verified Google Business Profile, consistent profiles elsewhere and mentions on reputable sites all improve your chances.
Does entity SEO help with AI search?
Yes. AI tools and Google’s AI features need to identify businesses accurately before they can describe or recommend them. Clear, consistent entity information across your website and the wider web makes it more likely they describe you correctly and include you in answers.
Do small businesses need entity SEO?
Yes, though the work is simpler. For most small businesses, entity SEO means consistent business details everywhere, a detailed about page, Organization or LocalBusiness schema with links to your official profiles, named people with real profiles and a complete Google Business Profile.
