Trust Google to never let search technologies remain static.
Google Knowledge Graph is its blue-eyed boy and it does add a new slant to searches as we know it.
Google’s avowed policy is that searches should show up information referenced to the keywords used by searchers. Unfortunately, the reality is different.
What you see is links to businesses that offer products or services related to the keyword and that defeats Google’s objective and that of the searcher.
Google Knowledge Graph makes amends. It is putting together a mammoth storehouse of knowledge about people, places, animals, events, and history by drawing on authoritative sources like Wikipedia and Freebase.
The tech is nothing new; it has been around since 2012 but it still is not quite as widely known as it deserves to be.
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What is Google knowledge graph?
If you have not heard about it you may well ask “what is Google Knowledge Graph?”
Google Knowledge Graph is about helping people to find information through its knowledge database. The database accesses respected, authoritative, and trusted sites like Wikipedia and Freebase. This tech collates data relevant to a topic and presents it on your search page.
You are familiar with the way Google shows a brief write up about a person referenced to their Wikipedia page when you search for someone.
This is Knowledge Graph at work. Initiate a search by typing in the text string or by using the voice search feature on your mobile.
Google will access all databases, both structured and unstructured and links them all together in a meaningful way.
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The knowledge graph result on the search page displays more than just a link.
Without clicking through you can read primary information about the individual or event or place, all linked together.
How is it helpful?
Key decision makers are looking for vital knowledge that will help them take appropriate decision. By connecting together trusted datasites and drawing from reliable datasets and presented all the information in a unified way, Google helps such decision makers and users get the information they were looking for.
They trust the sources of that information and are likely to refer to such sources again. That makes knowledge graph a wonderful tool for search engine optimization.
Knowledge graph SEO
On the face if it you would think that Google Knowledge Graph simply presents information about people, places and events.
However, dig a bit deeper into all the relevant information that knowledge graph compiles then you will find that the company or business associated with an individual also shows up or, when you search for information about a company, it shows details about the individuals behind the company.
Knowledge graph SEO can take advantage of this since the technology connects words and concept to the concept of the query and user intent.
The concept is simple: subject, predicate, and object. Google will do this type of contextual search first and then, if it cannot find any data, it will look in the open web area.
Also Read: Google My Business for Small Business
What are the Featured Snippets in SEO?
Talk about SEO and any SEO expert is likely to ramble on about content, back links, link building and search results.
What one ignores is right there under our nose, staring at us in the face whenever we search Google. It is there at the top. It is a knowledge graph.
You can use it to drive traffic to your site. Leverage the algorithm and its power behind knowledge graph and you can make it work for you.
Google’s algorithm focuses on considering information as data and matching search queries with the intent of users. Therein lies the answer to what is a knowledge graph in SEO.
Google collects and compiles reliable data from all over the web and puts it into its database that it terms knowledge graph and this, in turn, returns results in searches that it considers to be relevant to the user.
It is not uncommon for Google to make use of part of the keyword string in search result display. From one SEO perspective, it is about helping Google’s bots and algorithms to understand what your web page is about. Its Hummingbird algorithm emphasized this part and thus knowledge graph optimization will likely put normal search engine optimization on the backseat.
Knowledge graph in SEO assumes even more importance when you consider that English language is full of synonyms and homonyms as well as words that take on specific meanings according to context.
For instance, if you search for a company that makes sports shoes then the results are likely to show the company, its products, sports stars using that shoe and even sporting events.
As you can see there is quite a bit of artificial intelligence involved here rather than the straight matching of keywords with companies, individuals, places, or products.
Of particular importance is that Google will always give first preference to entities that match its knowledge graph criteria and thereafter list results from the open web.
This means you have to rethink your SEO practice and strategy.
What Things to Consider before implementing
Think data and practice it if you wish to get into the top slot using Google Knowledge Graph SEO.
The usual practice is HTML based content to help you get links and be found. A typical google semi-structured knowledge graph process:
- Act on query
- Identify schemas with specific keys included therein
- Search encoded data items linked to identified schemas
- Show data in response to queries by identifying values in converted data items
What this means for you if you are handling SEO?
- Make more use of structured data
- Share more content on Wikipedia, Wikidata and similar trusted, authoritative sites
- Create a knowledge graph-like structure in your website consistent with the knowledge graph and you can drive more traffic with relatively less effort.
Engage in knowledge graph SEO:
- Post content on Wikipedia
- Profile audience
- Analyze audience trending topic linked to audience profiles
- Create content hubs on your sites and optimize content for human consumption.
Know how knowledge graph works and tailor strategy to let Google’s algorithms find what they are meant to find.
You help Google when you create contents that can be curated, identified and connected with knolwedge graph.
If it is all gobbledygook then you will find it is better to engage an SEO expert who can align with Google Knowledge Graph.
There are benefits apart from ranking at the top in Google searches. You learn to create content that aligns with the intent of the user and delivers true information.
Knowledge Graph-based activities also reduce your effort to climb to the top of search results.
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