What is entity SEO?
It's SEO that treats your business as a thing, not a set of keywords. The goal is that Google and the assistants know exactly who you are and what you do, without guessing.
Classic SEO asks: does this page match this search? Entity SEO asks: does the search engine know this business exists, what it is, where it is and how it relates to other things, such as its founder, its services, its town and its clients? Answer that well and every page you publish starts from a stronger position.
Why does entity SEO matter for AI search?
Because assistants recommend businesses, not pages. To name you, they need to be confident you're one real business with clear facts.
If your company name is shared with others, or your address, phone number and services differ between your site and your listings, the assistant has to work out which details are right. It might merge you with someone else, describe you wrongly or pick a competitor whose facts are cleaner. Consistent facts remove that doubt.
How does Google know what your business is?
From everything it reads about you, collected into its Knowledge Graph. Google says the Knowledge Graph holds facts about people, places, things and organisations, and powers the knowledge panels you see in search.
The inputs are your website, your structured data, your Google Business Profile, and other sites that mention you: directories, press, partners, social profiles. If they all agree, Google can build a clear picture. If you have a knowledge panel, you can get verified and suggest changes to it.
How do you do entity SEO, step by step?
This is the order we work in. The first three steps fit in a day.
- Write a fact sheet: legal and trading name, address, phone, email, founding year, founders, services, areas served and a one-line description.
- Search your business name in Google, Bing and the assistants, and note anything wrong, missing or mixed up.
- Fix your website first: an About page with the facts, a contact page with the full address, and the same details in the footer.
- Add Organization or LocalBusiness schema with name, logo, address, phone and sameAs links to your official profiles.
- Add Person schema for founders and key staff on a team page, linked to their profiles.
- Update every listing and social profile to match the fact sheet word for word.
- Earn mentions that confirm the facts: press, trade bodies, partners and directories.
- Re-check how Google and the assistants describe you every month, and correct errors at the source.
What does sameAs do?
It tells search engines that your website and your profiles elsewhere are the same business. It's a short list of links in your Organization schema.
Point it at your official profiles only: LinkedIn, your Google Business Profile, Companies House listing, and any major directory or social account you control. It won't make you rank by itself. It removes ambiguity, which is the point.
Do people count as entities too?
Yes. Your founder and senior team are entities, and connecting them to the business helps both.
A team page with real names, roles and links to their LinkedIn profiles, backed by Person schema, tells search engines who is behind the business. Bylines on guides, talks and press quotes add to it. For a small, senior team, this is often the strongest signal you have.