Optimizing for entities will help your content perform better in search engines. Learn how to get started.
An entity is a uniquely identifiable object or thing characterized by its name(s), type(s), attributes, and relationships to other entities. An entity is only considered to exist when it exists in an entity catalog. I used this definition in my entity SEO article.
The first part of this entity SEO series should be used when you need to justify a tactic associated with optimizing for an entity.
TL;DR from Part 1:
Entities are used as a source for expanding search queries with different terms.
Document relevance to a query is partially understood through the lens of known entities.
Google is a semantic search engine. Semantic understanding is connected to entities and databases like Wikidata and Wikipedia.
Wikipedia and Wikidata are the most beginner-friendly sources of knowledge on the kind of information you should write about as you optimize for entities. Look at the hyperlinks, the table of contents, the sourcing, etc.
Entity understanding is impacted by documents on the web. Google’s understanding changes frequently, and algorithm updates are known moments in time when this updated understanding is applied.
Three data structures exist on the web: unstructured (blogs), semi-structured (Wikipedia), and structured data (Wikidata and JSON schema).
Optimize around search intent when attempting to cover a topic.
Speed of publishing, the number of articles published, and the depth of the articles you publish are the three primary levers you can pull as an SEO focused on entities.
This article will dive right into the actionable advice. We will go over page structure, site structure, important schemas to use and tools that can help you.
Getting started with entity optimization
Every page and every collection of pages has a context. Pages don’t exist in a vacuum.
Why does it exist?
Let’s use Nike as our example. Nike sells shoes. Their website exists to sell running shoes.
How do you figure out the primary entity associated with selling running shoes?
It’s tempting to just say “shoes” or “running shoes,” but that wouldn’t be the best answer.
The best answer requires further abstraction.
Optimizing entities is largely a task meant for our brains, so let’s go through some options.
Running
Shoes
Running shoes
Exercise
Sneakers
Sports
Tennis shoes
Athletics
Athleisure
So what types of intent exist for Nike?
Necessary gear for sports, exercise empowerment, shopping guides for each specific shoe type.
You can expand this further, but the goal is to provide an oversimplified example. If I had to guess, I’d say that the primary search intent is about sports.
While Nike has evolved into a style, the core purpose of Nike and the core intent for searchers is all about sports equipment.
If we ask the “why” question for sports, we could go a step further and say “personal development” or “lifestyle improvement” is the primary search intent.
It’s up to the SEO to figure out the best choices because the entire optimization process is contingent upon:
The search intent.
The context of the website.
The primary entity associated with that context.
If you’d like to dig deeper into this idea, I recommend Koray Tuğberk GÜBÜR’s Topical Authority course (be warned, it’s complicated and designed for a skilled SEO audience).
This realm of SEO has its own vocabulary, and GÜBÜR has spent countless hours extracting terms and formalizing the concepts associated with this area.
Some important terms you’ll want to familiarize yourself with if you’re interested in entities and semantic search:
Topic coverage
Responsiveness
Query processing
Semantic distance
Contextual flow
Contextual bridge
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What are the core concepts associated with entity optimization?
The core concepts associated with entity optimization focus on entity attribute values (EAV), information dilution, language usage, site organization and page organization.
Entity attribute values and Amazon
When optimizing around entities, you’ll want to focus on the attributes that are associated with your entity.
Remember that the context can change the attributes that are most important to use.
We use OpenAI and a simple prompt to get a list of attributes. You can get creative with it, but use the image as your starting point.