How to Optimise Content for Entity-Based SEO: A Guide for Entity SEO Content

Entity optimisation is a strategic approach to help Google and other search engines understand your content better through structured data, semantic relationships, and clear entity connections. This guide covers everything you need to know to optimise your content for entities effectively.

Key Takeaways

• Entity SEO focuses on helping search engines understand the meaning behind your content.

• Structured data: Schema markup structures data and is essential for defining entity relationships

• Content with entities: Content strategy must align with your entity framework.

• Internal linking is crucial: plays a crucial role in connecting related entities.

• Knowledge graphs: help create meaningful connections between entities

• Focus on brand reputation: Brand mentions and sentiment impact your rankings.

• Continuous audits and refinements: Regularly check and improve your entity optimisation.

Understanding Entity SEO Fundamentals

What are Entities and Why They Matter

Entities are distinct, singular, and well-defined things or concepts that search engines can recognise and understand. They can be people, places, products, events, ideas, or brands. Entities matter because they help search engines disambiguate search queries and provide more relevant results.

The Role of Entities in Modern Search

Entities are the building blocks of search, enabling search engines to interpret content, align queries with relevant results, and disambiguate meanings. For example, searching for “Paris” could refer to the city, a person, or a movie, but entities help Google understand the context and deliver the right results.

How Google Uses Entities to Understand Content

Google uses entities to create a knowledge graph, which maps relationships between entities. This graph helps Google understand the semantic meaning of content, connecting users’ search queries with the most relevant and authoritative content available. Entities are identified through structured data, natural language processing (NLP), and other signals.

Difference Between Keywords and Entities

Keywords are specific queries users type into search engines, while entities are the real-world objects or concepts those queries refer to. For instance, “digital marketing agency” is a keyword, but “digital marketing” and “agency” are entities. Using more keywords for lesser-known entities can help, but the focus should be on creating comprehensive content around these entities.

How Google NLP works?

Google uses special computer programs called Natural Language Processing (NLP) to understand web pages. NLP can break down text, find key details, and even judge the tone or feeling of a page.

Google’s NLP API uses machine learning to do all of this and much more. When you give the API text to analyse, it will break down the text in different ways and return the results. These 5 methods are:

• Entity Analysis: Using data points to identify known entities, such as public figures and places, can enhance your approach to search engine optimisation.

• Sentiment Analysis: Determines the author’s attitude as positive, negative, or neutral.

• Entity Sentiment Analysis: Determines the emotion of a writer towards an entity detected in a text

• Content Classification: Determines a content category to return for a text

• Syntactic Analysis: The text is broken into a series of words and provides additional information about their relationships.

Compare results from Google’s NLP API with tools like Inlinks and you see how Google understands web content across different industries.

Creating Your Entity SEO Foundation

Start with Your About Us Page

Begin by optimising your About Us page with comprehensive information about your brand. Include schema markup to help Google understand your brand’s entity presence. This page serves as the foundation for how Google will present your brand in search results.

Add Comprehensive Schema Markup

Use schema markup to provide explicit signals about the entities in your content. This includes using tags like sameAs, knowsAbout, and employedBy to define relationships between entities. Schema markup helps Google recognise and understand your content better.

Take Control of Your Brand’s Entity Presence

Feed Google with accurate entity data. Don’t hold back; provide as much information as possible to ensure Google presents your brand correctly. This includes managing your Google Business Profile and other directory listings to improve content for search engines.

Building Your Knowledge Graph

Create a knowledge graph by interlinking entities within your site architecture. This involves manually curating relationships between entities, going beyond just basic schema markup. A knowledge graph enhances the semantic understanding of your data, improving search engine visibility.

Integrate Your Content with Google’s Knowledge Graph

Google Knowledge Graph collects a lot of data to make search results more informative. Being part of this network makes your content more visible and trustworthy. Knowing how the Knowledge Graph affects search habits can help you create strategies that match Google’s way of understanding and ranking things.

Directives for Knowledge Graph Optimisation

• Establish a comprehensive presence for your entity through Google Business Profile (Google My Business), Wikipedia, and other credible databases to feed the Knowledge Graph with accurate and authoritative information.

• Deploy structured data markup such as Schema.org to specify the entity your content represents, facilitating Google’s seamless integration of your information.

• Ensure your content reflects the characteristics associated with the entity it discusses, including timely information, clear context, and named relationships with other recognised entities.

Linking to trustworthy websites helps build your entity’s network, and getting links from reliable sources improves your entity’s reputation. Focusing on content that matches what the Knowledge Graph says about your entity makes this process easier.

Make sure your information is accurate and relevant, so it’s valuable to users and the Knowledge Graph. Engaging with the Knowledge Graph isn’t accidental; it’s a deliberate practise of organising information, both on and off your site, with a focus on factual connections and valuable contributions to the entity ecosystem.

Essential Steps to Optimise Content for Entities

Perform an Entity Audit

Start by performing an entity audit to identify the main entities relevant to your website or business. Use tools like Google NLP, TextRazor, Inlinks, or SEMRush topics tool to extract and group entities logically. Analyse these topics to suggest new content that supports your entities.

Structure Your Entity Sets

Cluster entities based on their attributes and features. For example, a healthcare website might categorise its content into entity sets such as:

• Physicians

• Treatments

• Conditions

• Symptoms

This structure helps in implementing structured data and improves site navigation.

Create Entity Relationships

Establish relationships between entities using structured data. For instance, use knowsAbout or mentionedIn to link related entities, enhancing the semantic understanding of your data and improving search engine visibility.

Implement Semantic Markup

Use structured data to provide explicit clues about the meaning of page elements or entities. Apply schema markup codes to strengthen entity connections and help search engines understand the context of your content.

Optimise Internal Linking Structure

Optimise internal linking to support your entity base. Use semantic anchor texts that encapsulate the context of linked entities. Establish logical internal links based on relational depth, ensuring navigation ease for users and signalling significance to search engines.

Align Content Strategy with Entities

Align your content strategy with your entity base by conducting keyword research and understanding user intent analysis. Match keywords not just to entities but to the correct type of content, such as informative articles or how-to guides. Incorporate new page types that align with user intent to enrich your site’s content landscape.

Advanced Entity Optimisation Techniques

Creating a Pillar Content Strategy

Adopt a pillar-based content strategy that revolves around entities and connections. Create a main entity page, secondary entity pages linked to the main page, and blog posts or content that point to the most relevant entity pages. This strategy helps in interlinking entities logically and enhances user navigation.

Strengthening Entity Connections

Manually curate relationships between entities to create a comprehensive network of interconnected entities. Go beyond automated schema markup tools and ensure that your schema correctly reflects the relationships between your entities.

Manual Schema Markup Creation

Manual schema markup creation allows you to meticulously map out how different aspects of your site interlink, forming a cohesive and intelligible structure. This approach is more effective than relying on automated tools that may only create an entity Create a catalogue of entities and their relationships for better search engine optimisation.

Entity-Based Keyword Research

Focus less on high Average Monthly Search Volumes (AMSV) keywords and more on comprehensive content around entities. Target a wider range of topics, including lesser-known entities, to create extra depth around your core entities.

Testing and Measuring Entity Optimisation

Test the impact of schema markup and entity optimisation on a subset of pages before a full rollout. Monitor click-through rates, engagement, bounce rates, and conversions to ensure that the changes are beneficial. Use tools like Visual Ping to stay updated on changes in Google’s documentation for structured data.

Tools and Resources for Entity SEO

Schema Markup Tools

Whilst I always recommend writing Schema JSON-LD yourself, you can use tools like Wordlift, SEO Press (For WordPress) and Schema App to implement structured data on your site. These tools help in creating and validating the existence of structured data, ensuring that your entity markup is correct and effective.

Entity Extraction Tools

Leverage tools like Google NLP, TextRazor, Inlinks, WordCount (1000 words free), Ahrefs content ideas (paid tool) or SEMRush topics tool to extract and group entities logically. These tools are essential for performing entity audits and identifying relevant entities for your site.

Monitoring Tools

• Utilise tools like Athennian or MinuteBox to monitor your corporate brand.

• Rank Tracking for Entity-related Keywords: Track search engine rankings for keywords related to your entities.

Tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Google’s Google Search Console can show how your pages perform for specific queries over time. Improved rankings mean better entity recognition and relevance.

These tools help in understanding your digital ecosystem and identifying areas needing improvement.

Testing Tools

Use the Rich Results Validator from Google to test and validate your structured data implementation. This tool ensures that your schema markup is correctly applied and understood by Google.

Building Entity Authority and Relationships

Securing Relevant Entity Mention

Focus on securing mentions on pages that have a strong relationship with your entities. Being listed in trusted sources and relevant directories can enhance your entity’s authority and improve your search visibility.

Creating Authoritative Content

Create high-quality, relevant content around your entities. Expand on entities found in Wikipedia or other trusted sources by adding value, facts, and unique insights. This helps in deepening the understanding of each entity and establishing your site as an authoritative source.

Establishing Entity Connections

Establish logical and semantic connections between entities. Use internal links and structured data to create a network of interconnected entities, enhancing navigation and search engine understanding.

Managing Brand Reputation

Focus on brand reputation as it affects your rankings. Ensure that mentions of your brand are positive and relevant, as Google understands sentiment around a brand and adjusts rankings accordingly.

Future-Proofing Your Entity Strategy

Preparing for AI Search Features

Prepare for the shift towards AI-driven search features by optimising your content to focus on semantics and entity relationships. This involves understanding how AI Overviews will change the way keywords and search terms are categorised and how internal links will become more significant.

Moving Beyond Traditional Link Building

Link building may become less important as Google understands brands as entities and their relationships. Focus instead on brand mentions and the relevance of those mentions, rather than just the authority of the source.

Focusing on Semantic Relationships

Focus on creating and strengthening semantic relationships between entities. This involves manually curating schema markup and ensuring that your content is aligned with the entity base, enhancing the overall integrity and visibility of your entity framework.

Adapting to Search Evolution

Stay agile and adapt to the evolving search landscape. Test entity SEO strategies and remain open to changes in how keyword research and content optimisation will be affected by new technologies like AI Overviews.

Local SEO and Local Entity Visibility in Search

Local entities carry significant weight in search engine optimisation, shaping the way a business is indexed and discovered on a regional scale. With users increasingly searching for services and products ‘near me’, search engines prioritise local content, making optimisation a decisive factor for visibility.

To optimise content for a local business entity, start by ensuring that the business name, address, phone number (NAP) and website are consistently mentioned across the website. This uniformity assists search engines in affirming the legitimacy of the local business.

Strategies to amplify a local business entity’s online presence

• Embed a Google Map on your site’s contact page to reinforce location-specific signals.

• Develop content that resonates with local audience interests, including references to local landmarks, events, or news.

• Secure listings on local directories and business platforms such as Yelp or the local Chamber of Commerce to enhance local citations.

• Seek out opportunities for local outreach, such as sponsorships or community involvement, which can lead to valuable local backlinks.

• Encourage satisfied customers to leave positive reviews on Google Business Profile and other review platforms, as aggregate ratings can affect local search rankings.

• Add your social profiles to your GBP to optimise for entities.

Collectively, these actions not only aid search engines in recognising the presence of a business in a specific locality but also serve to improve the entity’s authority and trust within its regional market.

Measuring Entity SEO Success

Tracking Entity Visibility

Monitor how your entities appear in search results. Using SEO tools like UberSuggest, SE Ranking, Ahrefs, SEMRush to SerpStat etc. will analyse your brand’s digital ecosystem and see what rich features are triggered for your entities.

Monitoring Rich Results

Track the performance of rich results, such as featured snippets, knowledge panels, and other SERP features. This helps in understanding the impact of your entity optimisation efforts.

Analysing Brand SERPs

Analyse your brand SERPs to understand your digital strategy’s effectiveness. Look at text, rich elements, and SERP features to identify areas for improvement and optimise for entities.

Measuring Engagement Metrics

Monitor engagement metrics such as click-through rates, bounce rates, and conversions. This helps in understanding how users interact with your content after finding it through entity-optimised searches.

Testing and Refinement Strategies

Continuously test and refine your entity optimisation strategies. Use feedback and performance data to ensure that your content meets user needs and enhances visibility and engagement.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

As you dive into entity-based SEO, watch out for these common mistakes:

• Overusing entities: Don’t stuff your content with entities. Use them naturally and meaningfully.

• Ignoring user intent: Remember, your primary goal is to create content that serves your audience, not just to please search engines.

• Neglecting content quality: Entities are important, but they should enhance, not replace, high-quality, valuable content.

Forgetting about traditional SEO: Entity-based SEO complements, not replaces, traditional SEO practises. Don’t neglect basics like on-page optimisation, link building, and the importance of structured data in your digital marketing efforts.

Conclusion

Optimising content for entities is a powerful SEO strategy that helps search engines understand the context and relevance of your content. By focusing on entity identification, structured data, internal linking, and content alignment, you can enhance your site’s visibility and user experience. Stay agile and adapt to the evolving search landscape to ensure long-term success.