What is an entity?
An entity is one specific, identifiable thing in the world: a business, a person, a place, a product or a concept. Search engines and AI assistants try to work out which entities a page is about, so a business that is easy to identify as one clear entity is easier to describe, cite and recommend.
Things, not strings
In 2012 Google introduced its Knowledge Graph with a blog post titled "Introducing the Knowledge Graph: things, not strings". It described a model that "understands real-world entities and their relationships to one another". At launch it held more than 500 million objects and 3.5 billion facts about them.
The idea is simple: the word "Mercury" is a string, but the planet, the element and the car brand are three different things. Search works better when it knows which thing you mean.
What counts as an entity
| Entity type | Examples | Typical identifiers |
|---|---|---|
| Organization | A company, a clinic, a school | Official website, registration number, profiles |
| LocalBusiness | One branch or location | Name, street address, phone |
| Person | A founder, a doctor, an author | Profile pages, credentials, employer |
| Place | A city, a neighbourhood | Coordinates, official names |
| Product or service | A treatment, a course, a software plan | Brand, model, price |
What this means for a business
To be understood as one entity, a business needs:
- One name, used everywhere. The same spelling on the website, listings, social profiles and invoices.
- Stable identifiers. Official website, address, phone, and for some businesses a registration or licence number.
- Clear links between its profiles. So the website, LinkedIn page, Google Business Profile and directory listings read as the same thing. Lesson 3 covers sameAs links.
Lesson 4 shows what happens when names don't match: how name variants split a business.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the difference between a keyword and an entity?
- A keyword is a string of text. An entity is the real thing the text refers to. "Mercury" is one keyword but several entities, such as a planet, an element and a car brand.
- Why do entities matter for SEO and AI search?
- Search engines and AI assistants organise what they know around entities. If they can tell exactly which business you are, they can attach your reviews, profiles, prices and locations to you instead of to a business with a similar name.