Welcome to part two of our series covering the world of entities. If you haven’t yet read part one, well, honestly, that kind of chaos is something that we kind of respect. But seriously, you should read it.
Don’t forget that you can download our full guide to all things entity SEO at the end of this blog. And, keep an eye out for the next in our series of blogs where you can find out all about practical tips for optimising for entity SEO – and what the future looks like.
Now that we touched previously on what entities are, you might well be wondering how this entities business affects the practice of search engine optimisation.
You may have even heard people discussing ‘Entity SEO’ as if it’s its own discipline. While we’ll soon come to how you can optimise your site for entities, the actual connection between entities and SEO is simple.
Entity-based SEO essentially describes the practice of using context — not just keywords — to help users reach the information they are looking for. While keywords are a crucial part of SEO strategy, they are quite static and don’t fully reflect the way in which users are searching nowadays.
As an example, the keyword “IT Support London” is not fully reflective of the nuanced search language that a user seeking managed IT services in London might use. Instead, they might Google “cheapest cybersecurity support services in London near Clapham”, as an example.
As we use entities, Google is able to determine the topic of a webpage and whether it’s relevant to the user, without the need to explicitly contain the exact keyword.
Google understands this because it can look for other terms related to the same entity, and understand the relationship between them. As an example, we can show Google that we are talking about ‘IT support’ without ever mentioning that phrase by creating the correct context, and using other words related to it, such as: managed service provider, cyber security assistance, IT consultant, and so on.
Now for the more technical bit.
Now that we touched previously on what entities are, you might well be wondering how this entities business affects the practice of search engine optimisation.
You may have even heard people discussing ‘Entity SEO’ as if it’s its own discipline. While we’ll soon come to how you can optimise your site for entities, the actual connection between entities and SEO is simple.
Entity-based SEO essentially describes the practice of using context — not just keywords — to help users reach the information they are looking for. While keywords are a crucial part of SEO strategy, they are quite static and don’t fully reflect the way in which users are searching nowadays.
As an example, the keyword “IT Support London” is not fully reflective of the nuanced search language that a user seeking managed IT services in London might use. Instead, they might Google “cheapest cybersecurity support services in London near Clapham”, as an example.
As we use entities, Google is able to determine the topic of a webpage and whether it’s relevant to the user, without the need to explicitly contain the exact keyword.
Google understands this because it can look for other terms related to the same entity, and understand the relationship between them. As an example, we can show Google that we are talking about ‘IT support’ without ever mentioning that phrase by creating the correct context, and using other words related to it, such as: managed service provider, cyber security assistance, IT consultant, and so on.
Now for the more technical bit.
Not sure what entities your site is currently targeting? Fortunately, there’s more to it than simply plucking a guess from thin air – but it doesn’t have to be too complicated.
As a first step, you can absolutely identify entities with your own eyes – simply by reading the content of a page on your website, and thinking about what it should be focused on. If you want to expand on that, or take a more techy approach, you can also use a number of free tools, such as:
Some AI tools, such as ChatSonic, are also able to identify the entities on a webpage; however, bear in mind that in order to do this you’ll need an AI which is capable of looking at real time data – which most AIs can’t do at the moment. As internet-connected AI tools start to develop further, we may see this become a viable way of assessing a website’s entities in a fast and efficient way.
When ‘doing’ entity SEO, it is important that you check whether the entities on your page exist formally in Google’s Knowledge Graph. You can do this by using the Method entities.search tool on the Knowledge Graph API page.
Just a note here – it’s not a good idea to reference your Knowledge Graph @id in your sameAs structured data, as it might change.
If there is not already a Knowledge Graph for your entity, you can create one! It’s quite tricky to get a page on Wikipedia, but you can create your own entity on Wikidata for a brand, company or product! You’ll need to link this to the Wikidata page in your structured data in order for it to work.
When ‘doing’ entity SEO, it is important that you check whether the entities on your page exist formally in Google’s Knowledge Graph. You can do this by using the Method entities.search tool on the Knowledge Graph API page.
Just a note here – it’s not a good idea to reference your Knowledge Graph @id in your sameAs structured data, as it might change.
If there is not already a Knowledge Graph for your entity, you can create one! It’s quite tricky to get a page on Wikipedia, but you can create your own entity on Wikidata for a brand, company or product! You’ll need to link this to the Wikidata page in your structured data in order for it to work.
You’ll have likely seen something called a Google Knowledge Panel on the search engine results page. This is a search results feature that offers users a helpful condensed breakdown about a certain entity (company, brand, person, etc). This is collected by Google from a variety of sources.
Every Knowledge Panel has something called a kgmid (sometimes just called a kgid) — a sort of identification code. Aside from looking up the entity on the Knowledge Graph API page, you can also use the kgid to see what Google understands about your entity.
So, how can we find the kgmid for an entity? One of the easiest ways to do this is by using a tool like Kalicube’s Graph Explorer.
Alternatively, you can use the Page Source on Google when a Knowledge Panel shows up. All you need to do is view Page Source and search for either /g/ or /m/ which starts with ‘[null,’. The sequence after the /g/ or /m/ s the kgmid:
Once you know the kgid, you can actually use it in a Google search, EG: https://www.google.com/search?kgmid=/g/12hrpjyrx.
This will show you the search engine results page associated with that kgmid https://www.google.com/search?q=Sleeping+Giant+Media.
As a best practice, it is a good idea to then perform a normal Google search for that entity. If the two search results pages look the same, you can feel confident that Google’s understanding of that entity is pretty solid.
Want to learn more about entities, and the impact they’re going to have on the future of SEO? Download our full guide here. It’s got everything you need to stay ahead of the curve.
So, how can we find the kgmid for an entity? One of the easiest ways to do this is by using a tool like Kalicube’s Graph Explorer.
Alternatively, you can use the Page Source on Google when a Knowledge Panel shows up. All you need to do is view Page Source and search for either /g/ or /m/ which starts with ‘[null,’. The sequence after the /g/ or /m/ s the kgmid:
Once you know the kgid, you can actually use it in a Google search, EG: https://www.google.com/search?kgmid=/g/12hrpjyrx.
This will show you the search engine results page associated with that kgmid https://www.google.com/search?q=Sleeping+Giant+Media.
As a best practice, it is a good idea to then perform a normal Google search for that entity. If the two search results pages look the same, you can feel confident that Google’s understanding of that entity is pretty solid.
Want to learn more about entities, and the impact they’re going to have on the future of SEO? Download our full guide here. It’s got everything you need to stay ahead of the curve.
Instead of showing a page of links, Google’s Gemini-powered AI now delivers complete, conversational responses built from sources it trusts most. This means your goal is no longer to rank number one, it’s to be cited inside the AI’s answer box.
In this blog, we break down what AI Mode is, how it’s reshaping user behaviour, and the strategies your business can use to stay visible in an AI-first world — from Generative Engine Optimisation to entity building and trust signals.
AI is changing how people search for courses, qualifications, and education providers. To stay visible, organisations need to create useful content and make sure their websites are technically sound.
In recent months, Google’s Gemini-powered AI Overviews have completely reshaped search engine results pages — and, more importantly, how users are interacting with them. The “10 blue links” of old have been largely replaced by a summative AI-generated statement, and brands are increasingly having to compete for share of voice at the top of the SERP (search engine results page).
