Organic search<\/span><\/a> has changed a lot over the years and continues to throw curveballs at those of us working in SEO. Even over the past year, the state of search has transformed fairly drastically, with the introduction of <\/span>AI overviews<\/span><\/a>, rise of answer engines, increasing importance of alternative content formats and the concept of total search optimisation. Basically, a lot has happened- or rather, IS happening.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The smarter search engines have become, the more search intent and contextual understanding have made their way to the forefront of how search engines display information to users. A major area of contextual understanding, one that is fundamental to both understand and optimise for, is \u2018entities\u2019. While the exact date of where entities were introduced isn\u2019t easy to pin down, a widely accepted origin comes from the implementation of knowledge graphs (more on these later) back in <\/span>2012<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Google\u2019s<\/span><\/a> own definition of an entity is <\/span>\u201ca thing or concept that is singular, unique, well-defined and distinguishable.\u201d<\/span><\/i> This could be a person, a place, an object, an event- essentially anything with a distinct identity that Google can recognise to build contextual information around a query. They help Google to figure out what the user is actually looking for; particularly important for search terms that could have multiple meanings.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s important to note that entities are <\/span>not<\/i><\/b> keywords. While keywords are specific words or phrases users search for, entities represent the underlying concepts and are a specific record Google has pulled from an index of knowledge graphs. A common SERP feature, Knowledge Panels, are often the form shown to users sourcing from these entities. The example below demonstrates how an entity can be searched for (i.e. person \u2018Larry Page\u2019), and Google\u2019s Knowledge Graphs then pull across other useful entities to provide more contextual information in the form of Knowledge Panels, including age and net worth.<\/span><\/p>\n Short answer: absolutely. Entities remain fundamental to how search engines understand content, but we must recognise that their role has evolved. Instead of just recognising individual entities, search engines now prioritise contextual relationships between them. This shift is driven by AI, voice search, and Google\u2019s increasing reliance on semantic understanding rather than traditional keyword matching. Optimisation now goes beyond simply including named entities in content; search engines now analyse how entities relate to one another, feeding into topical relevance mattering more than ever before.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Google\u2019s <\/span>E-E-A-T<\/span><\/a> framework (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness), while not a ranking factor, does play a vital role in how your online content is perceived by search engines. Brands and websites that consistently cover entity-related topics in depth are far more likely to be recognised as trusted sources.\u00a0 For example, a medical website discussing cardiovascular health should reference entities like cholesterol, heart disease, exercise, and diet to signal expertise to search engines and therefore reinforcing content credibility and authority. This aligns with the concept of topic clustering, where cardiovascular health serves as the pillar page, and related entities like cholesterol, heart disease, and diet are covered in sub-pages that internally link back to it. This structure once again helps search engines understand the relationships between topics, helping to improve both rankings and user experience.<\/span><\/p>\n Optimising content for AI search engines, or answer engines, is a hot topic right now with a digital arms race of sorts seeing marketing experts researching, hypothesising and testing various methods. Well, one thing we can be sure about is the part entities have to play in LLMs like Perplexity and ChatGPT- they\u2019re thought to rely on entities to generate more accurate, context-aware answers. This in turn suggests that content which strategically targets niche entities will have an edge in AI-driven search results.<\/span><\/p>\n I mentioned total search at the beginning of this article for good reason- because entities aren\u2019t just shaping Google search results. They\u2019re influencing visibility across many other platforms including YouTube and TikTok. For example, optimising video content around entities helps to increase reach across these other platforms.<\/span><\/p>\n With third-party cookies disappearing, search engines and advertisers are slowly shifting toward \u2018entity-based\u2019 personalisation. Instead of tracking individual users, Google is grouping users by topics and entity-based behaviors to deliver relevant content, making entity optimisation that much more important for future-proofing personalised search.<\/span><\/p>\n If you\u2019re wondering whether your content is entity-rich, thankfully there are a few simple ways to check. With Google\u2019s <\/span>Natural Language<\/span><\/a> API, we can analyse our text and this tool will highlight recognised entities. This is great for a couple of reasons; one being it\u2019s fairly simple to use and gives clear visibility over existing entities, and the other, more importantly, gives you insight into what Google understands about your content.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Another Google tool is <\/span>Knowledge Graph Search API<\/span><\/a>, which allows you to search for entities using their unique identifiers (MID). If you search for an entity like \u201cTower of London,\u201d the API will provide relevant information, such as entity name (e.g., \u201cTower of London\u201d), description (e.g., \u201cHistoric castle and former royal residence in central London\u201d), official URL (e.g., Visit the Tower of London website) and images (e.g., pictures of the Tower or surrounding landmarks).<\/span><\/p>\n Alternatives that aren\u2019t developed by Google include third-party SEO tools such as Ahrefs and InLinks which have built-in capabilities to show which entities Google associates with your content. The most reliable source for identifying entities is likely using one of Google first-party tools above, similar to how using Search Console is more accurate for organic traffic data than the likes of Semrush.<\/span><\/p>\n Entities help Google move beyond keyword-matching and into true understanding of what a searcher is looking for. When a word has multiple meanings, Google uses entities to figure out the correct interpretation based on the surrounding context- therefore it\u2019s important to make sure your content has depth and presents reasoning. Google also doesn\u2019t just look at individual pages, instead analysing entire topics. A page about \u201cmachine learning\u201d that also covers \u201cAI\u201d and \u201cnatural language processing\u201d provides a more complete picture, helping it rank better.<\/span><\/p>\n With search intent matching becoming a critical factor in how our content is recognised by Google, being able to more accurately match said intent is another valuable aspect of entities. Let\u2019s use \u2018best smartphones\u2019 for an example- a common query type from users looking for new products. Now, \u2018best smartphones\u2019 isn\u2019t just looking for that exact phrase, they\u2019ll likely want comparisons, brand names, specs and reviews. Entities help Google understand this and therefore display the most suitable information based on their intent.<\/span><\/p>\n More recent developments include voice recognition where entities are helping to power conversational and AI-driven search results. Voice search is an increasingly growing method of search for users across the globe, with an estimated <\/span>27% of the global online population using it<\/span><\/a>. In voice search, an entity refers to an identifiable person, place, concept that a search engine can recognise and understand within a voice search query. Of course, contextual understanding is heavily relied upon in this case, where natural language processing is often utilised to interpret said context.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Structured data can be used to explicitly define relationships, attributes and context for search engines, resulting in a precise understanding of entities and their web of connections.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The likes of schema markup directly labels entities and their properties, reducing ambiguity:<\/span><\/p>\n This markup clarifies that \u201cSony\u201d is a brand tied to a specific product, in turn avoiding confusion with unrelated mentions of \u201cSony\u201d (e.g., movies or music). Another benefit of structured data is its use in unlocking SERP features such as rich snippets and knowledge panels; resulting in ratings, pricings, FAQs appearing directly in search results. By strengthening entity authority for brands, people or organisations, we can bolster credibility and visibility, as well as improve CTRs and signalling topical expertise.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Tip:<\/b> For local businesses, one of the most effective ways to strengthen entity recognition is through the use of <\/span><\/i>LocalBusiness schema<\/span><\/i><\/a>. This structured data markup will help Google display accurate addresses, opening hours, service areas, and contact information. A properly deployed LocalBusiness schema will enrich Google\u2019s understanding of the company\u2019s physical presence and make it much easier for any potential customers to find important business information directly in search results.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n We\u2019ve discussed how entities in SEO play such a key role in contextual understanding of content, so it may be unsurprising to hear that we can <\/span>optimise our content<\/span><\/a> and in turn optimise for entities. Essentially, we can build authority by creating comprehensive, context-rich content:<\/span><\/p>\n A well-structured <\/span>internal linking<\/span><\/a> strategy can reinforce entity connections and demonstrate topical authority to search engines crawling your content. For example when mentioning entities within content, always use natural anchor text to link to relevant pages.\u00a0 To avoid cannibalisation and prevent the dilution of ranking potential, try to designate one authoritative page per entity rather than spreading similar content across multiple competing pages.<\/span><\/p>\n Tip:<\/b> Leverage synonyms and variations of entity names to strengthen relevance. What we mean by this is if an entity is commonly referred to in multiple ways, such as \u201cEVs\u201d for \u201celectric vehicles\u201d, linking both variations to the same destination helps search engines associate them as a unified concept.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n For quite some time now, SEO has been shifting towards total search optimisation. Enabling search engines to have greater contextual understanding of content helps to improve its visibility. Entities in SEO remain a highly important piece of the puzzle; search engines want to understand what content <\/span>means<\/span><\/i>, not just what words are on the page. The more your content fits into the bigger entity-based ecosystem, the better it\u2019s likely to perform.<\/span><\/p>\n To find out more about Hallam\u2019s Organic<\/a> offering, <\/span>get in touch today<\/span><\/a> or read about the great work we do here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Organic search has changed a lot over the years and continues to throw curveballs at those of us working in SEO. Even over the past year, the state of search has transformed fairly drastically, with the introduction of AI overviews, rise of answer engines, increasing importance of alternative content formats and the concept of total […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":95747,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[31659,24793,19340,12733],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-95746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marketing","tag-entities","tag-hallam","tag-optimise","tag-seo"],"yoast_head":"\nDefining entities in SEO<\/span><\/h2>\n
![\"larry-king\"](\"https:\/\/hallam.agency\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-13-at-13.16.22.png\")
<\/p>\nDo entities still matter in 2025?<\/span><\/h2>\n
E-E-A-T<\/span><\/h3>\n
AI-powered search engines<\/span><\/h3>\n
Multi-platform discoverability<\/span><\/h3>\n
Personalisation and privacy<\/span><\/h3>\n
How can I identify entities in my content?<\/span><\/h2>\n
How do entities improve the relevance of search engine results?<\/span><\/h2>\n
How to optimise for entities<\/span><\/h2>\n
Structured Data<\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"schema-markup\"](\"https:\/\/hallam.agency\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-13-at-13.17.57.png\")
<\/p>\nContent Optimisation<\/span><\/h3>\n
\n
Internal Linking<\/span><\/h3>\n
Wrapping up<\/span><\/h2>\n