Everything You Need to Know About Google Knowledge Graph

Adi Kumar

Jan 29, 2021

9 min read

What if I tell you that a user can discover your online business or brand, in the Google search engine results without even searching for your actual website? Isn’t that great? This is what “Google Knowledge Graph” is all about. Let’s get started! Running an online business is like stepping into a competitive sport, everyone is looking to enhance their brand’s visibility and is constantly improving the information they deliver to their customers. Just when we talk about ‘enhancing brand visibility’ and providing a premium search experience to users, Google’s Knowledge Graph comes into play.

The inception of Google’s Knowledge Graph took place in 2012 when Google announced this tool as a way to deliver interconnected google search results to the users. Delivering search results in a way that information like places, people, facts, etc. could be clubbed with other relevant data and can be shown to its users. Google wanted to portray its search results as relevant answers to its users, not just some website links. With the help of Google Knowledge Graph, this idea was turned into a possibility and the online search experience was enhanced. Since then, it is helping the Google search engine in providing data to its users in a much more accessible and convenient format.

Okay, so what does this look like? Have you seen the little card on the right side of the page results? Yes, that little card is a dedicated tool from Google that provides crisp, direct, and easy information to the user. Does Google Knowledge Graph only help the user? No, not just users, even online brands and businesses can reap the benefits of this Tool. It is a very crucial tool for businesses. A business can use this tool, optimize it and provide better information to Google so that it can understand your website’s content effectively.

Here’s the deal, when a relevant user punches a keyword/query in the Google search engine, Google shows your brand or business. This boosts your visibility and helps you to drive more traffic to your website which simultaneously enhances your SERP ranking.

How Does Google Knowledge Graph Work?

How can a business be visible on the knowledge graph? What are the parameters that are responsible for the visibility? It is based on these three major factors -

User Behavior

Google algorithm focuses on the search behavior of its users. It closely analyzes what they are looking for, what are they searching for, what keywords do they use more often, how much time do they spend on a particular webpage, etc.

These factors help Google’s algorithm to create relevant results for users that may even align with your brand’s website content. The end motive is to provide the best result that can resolve the user’s search query.

Semantic Search

To deliver relevant search results that can exactly match the user’s search intent, Google Knowledge Graph also emphasizes the semantic search for the same reason. This usually involves the context of research, the geographical location of the user, synonyms, and other information.

Entity Recognition Or Indexing

Google catalogs all the relevant entities through a mechanism that is popularly called Entity Recognition and Disambiguation which allows it to provide factual data about every entity.

For instance, when you search for a particular restaurant in the search engine by typing the name of the restaurant, you notice a small box on the right side of the page. If you look carefully, you’ll notice that there’s a lot of information in there. Things like some specific details of the restaurant, address, contact details, customer reviews, navigation, etc.

Can Google Knowledge Graph Help Your Brand Too?

As we said earlier, ‘stepping into the sphere of online business is a competitive sport’, because everyone is looking to improve their website ranking in the search results. ‘Ranking up’ on the SERPs is a very crucial factor in deciding the fate of your online business or brand. Here’s a simple equation, the higher the rank of your webpage is, the greater the clicks you are likely to receive, the greater will be your website traffic.

That’s not the end, you can take your website one notch higher by focusing on Google Knowledge Graph. Acquiring a place in the Google Knowledge Graph is not a cakewalk. Yes, it requires a lot of time and effort, but the results that you’ll notice in the end will be fruitful enough. Businesses who have bagged a position in the Knowledge Graph can easily portray their business information such as their working hours, address, navigation, contact information, and much more to their users. Users can also see their customer reviews and ratings that help them to boost their brand’s credibility. Great reviews and high ratings can attract new customers to their website who have just discovered your business. From the perspective of the user, this tool saves a lot of time because now they don’t have to click on each link and visit each webpage to find out the information they are looking for.

Source: Unsplash

What Are The Benefits Of Using The Knowledge Graph?

There are multiple benefits of using the Google Knowledge Graph, many people across the internet aren’t aware of these benefits. Let’s discuss them quickly.

From Basic Details To Relevant Information

The knowledge graph is a tool that constantly improves with time. Once you are listed on the Knowledge Graph, it will provide the users with some basic information about your business, but as we said, Knowledge Graph evolves with time, therefore after some time, it will start showing more relevant details to the users and optimized search results based on searches.

Enhances User Experience

The Knowledge graph card on the right side of the page is quite significant in enhancing the user’s search experience. It provides a lot of relevant data to the user based upon their search query. You get to see relevant photos, places, facts, etc related to your search query. This card delivers a lot of information in a small box which makes it convenient for the user to read and find what they have been looking for.

Boosts Your Website Traffic

Remember what we said at the beginning? ‘That a user can discover an online business or brand, in the Google search engine results without even searching the actual website.’ Knowledge Graph interconnects the user with the brand before even making the user click on that particular website. Features like ratings and reviews help in building trust among the new users. They learn more about the brand. Positive reviews and ratings can easily convert them into high-value customers.

How To Ace A Place In The Knowledge Graph?

Since we have discussed how Knowledge Graph works we must understand the process behind acquiring a place in the Knowledge Graph.

Create A Google+ Account

Initial steps towards acquiring a place in the Knowledge Graph involve creating a Google+ account for your business. A Google+ Account will help you in providing important information about your business to the Google graph. One must ensure that their brand name must match their Google+ account name so that potential users can reach out to them. When you create a Google+ account, you have to fill out basic details that are often related to your business such as what kind of business you have, what products or services do you offer, etc. After these steps, you must customize your public profile, promote your page and optimize it further to make the process of lead generation effective.

Ensure Your Business Is Listed On Google

While we talk about greater visibility on Google SERPs, Maps and attracting more customers to your business, we must understand that claiming your Google listing is very crucial. A user searches for a business like yours and your business pops up in the search results, this is possible through Google My Business.

Create Your Accounts On Social Media platforms

If you look into the Knowledge graph panel, you’ll notice a dedicated section for social media profiles, this indicates what kind of social media presence or status your brand has. In case you have your business page on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc you will notice three icons at the bottom. This helps your customers to discover your business on various social media platforms that are responsible for social media engagement.

Always Use structured data

It is very important to code your website with structured data. This enables search engines to crawl your website and analyze its content. Well coded websites will always have an upper edge over poorly coded websites because data provided by these codes help Google in creating snippets.

Customer Reviews Are A Must

As we had discussed earlier, features like ratings and reviews help in building trust among your new users. They learn more about your brand. Positive reviews and ratings can easily convert them into high-value customers. So, customer reviews can drive more traffic to your website. You must encourage your previous customers to write reviews about your business on review websites. As per customer behavior studies, it can be seen that consumers tend to choose brands with high positive feedback. The purchase intent is greater when the reviews are good. Develop Quality Backlinks Having quality backlinks from eminent websites and publications adds value to your website. Quality backlinks are a significant factor in deciding your Google Rankings. Enhanced rankings in SERPs can get you listed in Google Knowledge Graph. Make Your Wikipedia page Wikipedia is among the world’s largest websites. Google Knowledge Graph considers content and information from Wikipedia. A major portion of data is taken from Wikipedia on the Google Knowledge Graph.

How Can You Optimize Google Knowledge Graph For Your Business

When we talk about optimizing Google Knowledge Graph, we must talk about humanizing the content. What do we mean by ‘humanizing the content’? One must treat their users with valuable content rather than just focusing on the search engines. Optimize your content as per your audience, choose keywords that are relevant for them so that it boosts your visibility too. While optimizing your page, you must place keywords, titles, introduction, images, descriptions, URLs, more naturally rather than just stuffing them. Focus on delivering content that adds value to their life. Ensure that your website content is interesting, engaging, and organized to capture the attention of the user. Yes, sales are important but you can’t sell them directly if you can’t hold their attention. Ensure your articles or blogs are in a proper format. Design and write your content by using headlines, subheadlines, headings, sub-headings, bullet points, call-to-action, and conclusion.

Conclusion

From boosting brand visibility, improving Google search rankings, to driving more traffic to your brand’s webpage, Google Knowledge Graph helps you in accomplishing several things amid your online business journey. It will bring your potential customers closer to your business by providing them relevant information and other details. If you want your online business to flourish and reach your desired business growth then implement these techniques right now or connect with Saffron Edge to take care of all your worries.