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by Wayne Smith
We know branded websites are entities because we can see their knowledge panels. Sites that register with "Google My Business," receive a Google Knowledge Panel. Knowledge graph data includes hours of operation and other information they give to Google. Schema can also be used to build the knowledge panel and supply the information to Google's Knowledge Graph.
We know Google categorizes sites into types; Forums and sites using user-generated content can be requested using search parameters, and leaked documents include attributes for site types. Google uses search intent to build the search results page and serves branded sites and local businesses for commercial search intent.
Knowledge panel information needs to be verifiable; An algorithm that can do this is called E-E-A-T and it is a qualifier, not a rating factor.
Using the knowledge graph API the machine-readable ID is seen plain as day ... And, the entity exists before a knowledge panel is shown.
Websites can be Entities, (Search Topics), What about Pages?
When we understand what entities are, and understand that sites can have their own KGMID, "Knowledge Graph Machine ID" Google Knowledge Graph, it is clear that sites are entities. Topical sites can and do exist and they can receive a knowledge panel when they meet the minimum viable E-E-A-T for google to publish it as a knowledgepanel.
Several sites exist which when a page is created a knowledge panel normally follows
- Wikipedia pages normally turn to knowledge panels. The requirements for a Wikipedia page is the topic has been spoken about in a journal, (normally newspaper), but also extends to books and science journals, which have a minimum viable fact checking and are considered objective. The information about the topic must be based on the facts already published. Wikipedia does not do first hand reporting, true or not.
- IMDb database contains information on films, movies, television shows, video games and includes cast, crew and personal biographies. These pages are turned to knowledge graphs and are the source of a great number of the panels that refer to people. An individual in IMDb can edit their information, this information is public and with consent, (Normally, given to the production studio to allow them to use the person's name and image in association with the production).
- Google Trends creates entities, that have a panel which is not populated with data. These entities of interest to Google may or may not expand into full panels, but are available for use by natural language processing algorithms.
- Wikidata.org An open database of concepts that can be used for natural language processing.
Google Trends creates or reports on KGMID or Search Entity Topics
An entity exists for "YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) Pages / Google Latest Algorithm change (August Upadate)" Note the spelling, oops. KGMID number "/g/11fhrq357f" ... https://www.google.com/search?kgmid=/g/11fhrq357f ... It is not possible because of mathematical probability that this graph data was created by many people searching for the term and not a single typo from a web page.
The requirements for creating a search entity page URL are not clear. But, it is fair to suggest: It was a page that came up when people searched for terms and topics related to that page, and was ranked higher than other pages. Google trends may have played a part. In other words breaking news that many people searched for, and the page had a high enough E-E-A-T to be trusted for a panel.
Finding Search Entities with Google Trends
When you enter a term into Google Trends, the search box suggests topics when it finds one. Let's use example as the example, there are three entities, the word, a musician, and a coloring book.
For entity SEO an additional entity would be needed to make the reference unambiguous, for natural language processing, and topical relevance. The old school would be related keywords.
For example, you may wish to say, "Example the stage name of Elliot John Gleave," or reference his website, if you wish to unambiguously reference the musician; Or say "as an example," or "to illustrate by example," to unambiguously mean example. Pulling up the knowledge panel for the entity will provide, dare I say, Examples.
Competition dictates what topics need to be unambiguous, and how much gain of knowledge for the terms on the page is beneficial.
When using schema you can make an unambiguous reference to the Wikipedia URL, the Google Knowledge Panel, or the site if it has a Google Knowledge Panel as a "sameAs."
Finding the KGMID to research the topic for SEO
The Google Trends results for the topic provides the entity or KGMID, it is embedded in the URL.
https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=%2Fg%2F120ht8kb the KGMID is the q=[entity]. Move this value to Google search. Note: Other name=value fields are not needed.
https://www.google.com/search?kgmid=%2Fg%2F120ht8kb The Knowledge Panel for the topic, concept of example, (word), is as small as it gets. Note: The "%2F" is the same as "/" and should be changed to "/" IE /g/120ht8kb.
The list of sites for Google Knowledge Graph for the concept of "example, (the word)," is also small. Five dictionaries, One Wikipedia page, and four Google pages are used for natural language processing of the concept of example, which you can look at to gather the related terms.
Finding Search Entities from the Google Knowledge Panel
To get the KGMID from the panel: Click the "..." and select share. Follow that link, it will redirect to the URL of the Google Knowledge Panel