# Entity SEO Entity SEO is writing and marking up your site so search engines treat your company, product, people and concepts as entities, not strings of words. It helps small sites get named correctly in search, AI overviews and assistants. You do this with one name, clear pages and consistent facts on and off your site. Updated 2026-09-14 · Source: https://porteur.ai/glossary/entity-seo ## Entities against strings, in practice Search engines store facts about things in a knowledge graph. A string is just text. An entity is a thing with attributes and links to sources. You want your product, company and key people to exist as entities there. Then your pages map to them. Assistants read the same sources and use the same names. In practice this is simple. Use one consistent name. State what the thing is in the first sentence on its page. Add Organization markup with sameAs links. Keep facts the same on directories, review sites and, where it applies, Wikidata. ## What it means for a small site You cut ambiguity. You make it easy for Google to connect your pages, your profiles and mentions to one thing. That reduces mix ups with namesakes. You also help AI answers say your name the same way. That can push correct citations and links. It also clarifies brand versus generic queries in reports. A fixed page looks like this: "/about" opens with "YourProduct is project tracking software for architects." The same words appear on LinkedIn, Crunchbase and your GitHub org page. Your Organization JSON-LD links to those profiles in sameAs. > Rule: pick one canonical name for your product and company and use it everywhere, including punctuation and casing. ## How to check and measure - Search your exact name in quotes. See if results cluster to you, your site and your profiles. - Check for a knowledge panel on brand or founder searches. If one shows, review the sources it cites for accuracy. - Validate your Organization markup. Use JSON-LD and include sameAs links to the profiles that describe you. - Audit third-party facts. Company type, founding date, domain, logo and description should match across profiles and directories. - Watch branded queries in Search Console. Track impressions, clicks and variations of your name. - Read AI overviews and assistants for your topic. See how they name you and which sources they cite. You cannot see a public list of the graph entries that define you. You infer it from consistent naming, panels that appear, and how assistants refer to you, as of 2026. ## What to implement on your site 1. **Set one name and description** Write the first sentence on "/", "/about" and "/product" to say what it is. Example: "YourProduct is time tracking software for agencies." 2. **Add Organization markup** Use JSON-LD on every page. Include name, url, logo, sameAs links to your key profiles. Keep the name identical to your on-page text. 3. **Mark up products and people** Add Product or SoftwareApplication for products. Add Person for founders or authors on "/about" and posts. 4. **Link out to your profiles** Place visible links to LinkedIn, GitHub, YouTube and key listings. Use the same logo and description text. 5. **Tidy third-party facts** Claim profiles. Fix names, domains and summaries. Add your site link. Update any mismatched dates or categories. 6. **State facts on-page** Add a concise facts block on "/about": company type, HQ city, year founded, team size, support email. Keep it in normal text. Keep titles and H1s clear. Avoid clever names that hide what you are. Internal links should use the entity name and the type, for example "YourProduct project tracking" to "/product". ## Common traps and how to avoid them - Multiple names across pages and profiles. Pick one and fix the rest. - Vague homepages. Say what it is in the first sentence, not a tagline. - Missing sameAs. Add LinkedIn, GitHub, Crunchbase or similar profiles you control. - Inconsistent facts on directories and review sites. Align them with your site. - Overstuffed schema. Stick to facts you show on the page and that are true. - Changing names or domains without redirects or updates. Map and update every profile when you rebrand. ## Questions ### What is an entity in SEO? An entity is a real thing in a knowledge graph, like a company, product, person or concept. It has attributes and links to sources. It is not just text on a page. ### What is entity optimisation in SEO? It is the work of naming, writing and marking up your site so search engines and assistants recognise your company and product as entities. You do this with one name, clear first sentences, Organization markup with sameAs, and consistent facts on and off your site. ### Do keywords still matter with entity SEO? Yes. You still match queries with useful pages. Entity work removes ambiguity about who you are. Keywords tell the engine which problems you solve and for whom. ### Do I need Wikidata for entity SEO? Not always. Use it where it applies and you can meet its notability rules. For most small sites, well marked pages and consistent third-party profiles are enough to start. ### How do AI assistants use entities? Assistants use sources that also feed search knowledge. If your name and facts match across your site and profiles, assistants are more likely to name you correctly and cite you. ### How long does entity work take to show? It varies. Crawling and reprocessing can take weeks. You can often speed it up by fixing on-site text now and updating key profiles in the same week. ## Read next - [Knowledge panel](https://porteur.ai/glossary/knowledge-panel): What a Google knowledge panel is, where it pulls from, how a small site earns one, how to claim it, and the traps to avoid. - [Organization schema: the fields that feed your knowledge panel](https://porteur.ai/guides/organization-schema): Set up Organization schema to feed your logo, social profiles and knowledge panel. See the fields, a JSON-LD example, where to place it, and how to test. - [JSON-LD: how to write it, where to put it, how to test it](https://porteur.ai/guides/json-ld): See why Google recommends JSON-LD, where to place it, how to use one @graph, how to test with Google and schema.org, and what to fix. - [Structured data](https://porteur.ai/glossary/structured-data): Structured data is schema markup that names your page type. See why it changes results, how to add JSON-LD, and how to validate it. - [How to appear in Google’s AI Overviews](https://porteur.ai/guides/how-to-rank-in-ai-overviews): What overviews cite, which queries trigger them, and how to structure pages that get linked. Steps to find your openings and measure them. - [Writing pages AI assistants can cite](https://porteur.ai/guides/writing-pages-ai-assistants-can-cite): Want citations from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode and Copilot? Use this page pattern, allow the right crawlers, and test by asking the assistants. - [Knowledge Graph](https://porteur.ai/glossary/knowledge-graph): What the Knowledge Graph is, where it draws from, what it feeds, and how your company gets recognised as an entity in Google. Drop your homepage URL and get a free check in about thirty seconds that reads your site and nearby searches and shows three concrete entity fixes. Free check: https://porteur.ai/