Entity SEO: help Google recognise your business

Entity SEO means making it clear which firm a web page is talking about. A business card does this well because it has one name, one trade, one area and one phone number. Google and AI tools work best with the same clarity from your website and your listings.

Here’s a made-up example. Two plumbing firms in the Inner West have similar names. One website gives the owner’s name, the suburbs it really covers and links to its genuine profiles. The other only says “best plumber in Sydney” so a homeowner has far more clues to tell the first firm apart.

Our AI SEO agency can run these identity checks as part of a review for AI search. Work on how AI answers describe a firm is called GEO, short for generative engine optimisation. Our guide on what is GEO explains that wider job. This page covers the identity part: getting your name, work and place right everywhere.

What should you check first?

Start with the plain facts customers can see, such as your phone number and your trading name, before anything technical.

1. Write down your trading name exactly as it appears on your van, quotes and invoices.
2. Compare it with your website, your Google Business Profile and your trade listings, then fix any that differ.
3. List the work you do and the suburbs you cover and remove anything you don’t really do.
4. Add your licence number if your trade needs one, plus a phone number that works.
5. Link to your real profiles from your website, such as your Business Profile and your trade association page.

The sections below explain why each step matters and how to check it.

What is an entity in SEO?

An entity is a real thing that can be told apart from other things, such as a firm, a person or a place. Google keeps a large store of facts about them called the Knowledge Graph, with millions of entries on real-world people, places and things.¹

Definition: An entity is a thing such as a firm, a person or a place. A knowledge graph is a set of facts that links those things together. Picture your business card joined to your services, your team and your finished jobs.

Google says facts in the Knowledge Graph come from a variety of sources.² That means your own website may not be the only place Google learns about you, so keep your listings accurate too.

How is entity SEO different from keyword research?

A keyword is the words someone types into Google. An entity is the real firm, person or place behind those words. Keyword research tells you what people ask for. Entity work helps Google and AI tools pick out your firm as one clear answer.

You don’t need a Wikipedia page for this. Schema.org names an official website as one way to point to a business.⁶ What matters is that every page and profile about you says the same true things.

Which facts help people identify your business?

Six facts help people tell your business apart. They are your real name, your licence and ABN, your work and area, how to reach you, your genuine profiles and proof of the work. Use the table below as an identity card for your own firm.

Google’s rule for the name is simple: a Business Profile name should reflect the business’s real-world name.⁷ Google lists marketing taglines and service or product details as things that don’t belong in it.⁷ So “Smith Plumbing” stays “Smith Plumbing” even if “Cheap Emergency Plumber Sydney” sounds better for search.

Outside pages matter too. Google says local ranking draws on how many websites link to your business and how many reviews you have.⁸

What should match across your website and your listings?

Your name, phone number and web address should read the same everywhere. Small differences such as “Pty Ltd” on one site and not another can make a customer think you’re a different firm, so fix them.

Three Australian details are worth checking:

• Licence: NSW Government guidance says all building and trade advertising must show the licensee’s name and licence number. It also needs a business phone number.¹⁰ Check that your website and listings show yours.
• ABN: ABN Lookup is a free public record from the Australian Business Register.¹² It shows the business type, the GST status and past trading names where available.¹² If you changed your trading name, look at what it still shows for you.
• Address: Google says a service-area business should hide its address from customers.⁷ It gives a plumber who works from home as the example.⁷ You don’t need to publish your home address to make your details match.

Don’t set up a profile in a suburb where you have no office. Google says a rented mailing address you don’t work from, called a virtual office, isn’t eligible for a Business Profile.⁷ Our Google Business Profile management service covers this work if you want a hand.

How do project pages connect a business to its work?

A project page ties your name to a real job, a place and something a reader can check. That gives Google and AI tools more to go on than a bare claim.

Kavera note: Google’s AI Overview for “duplex bondi beach” named SHORE’s SOL duplex and cited its project page. SHORE is our client. You can see the captures in our what is GEO guide.

A good project page names the job, the suburb, what you did and when. Use real photos and details the customer has agreed to share. Link each service page to the project pages that show that work. Then link each project page back to its service page. Our guide to showing real experience and trust covers how to do that on a page.

If you can’t show a real project, leave the claim out. A page that says “we have built hundreds of homes” with nothing behind it gives readers nothing to check.

Do you need schema or a Google knowledge panel?

Not as a first step. Schema is code that labels facts already on your page.⁵ A knowledge panel is a box of facts that Google builds by itself.²

Google calls this code structured data and describes it as a standard way to give details about a page and sort its content.⁵ One type, called Organization markup, can help Google understand your company’s details and tell it apart in search results.⁴ Google doesn’t guarantee that any feature built on structured data will show.⁴

One field in that code is called sameAs and it points to another page about the same firm. Schema.org describes it as the address of a reference page that shows the item’s identity.⁶ Its examples include a Wikipedia page and an official website. Only link pages that are really about your business. Google’s own definition is a page on another website with more details about your company.⁴ Our schema guide covers the code in more detail.

A knowledge panel works differently. Google says these panels are created automatically when enough public facts exist on the web.² Businesses have their own Business Profile panels and Google points local businesses to a Business Profile instead of a claimed knowledge panel.²³ Google’s Knowledge Graph Search API is a tool for developers. It only lets them look up facts and returns matches for individual people, places or things, so it isn’t a way to add your business.¹

How can you check whether Google and AI tools have the right business?

Search your exact trading name and read what comes back. Then ask an AI tool a question your customers ask. Look for wrong names or wrong places and for links that point to someone else.

1. Search your firm’s name on Google and look for wrong phone numbers, old names or another firm’s details.
2. Open the three-dot menu beside your own result and choose “About this result”. It can show when Google first saw the source plus a Wikipedia or generated description.⁹ It is only available in some regions.⁹
3. Ask ChatGPT or Perplexity a question a customer would ask, such as who installs hot water systems in Marrickville. Save the answer, the date and every link.
4. Repeat each month with the same question. Our AI visibility guide shows a simple way to keep the record.

Kavera note: In our Sydney trades check one Perplexity answer read a Canterbury lock-change question as Canterbury in England. That question didn’t name Sydney. Where an answer showed a link beside a business name, we could match it to that business’s own website in 140 of 144 ChatGPT name appearances. In Google AI Mode the figure was 77 of 253.

Write the state and suburb beside place names on your own pages so they are less likely to be mixed up. A free search of your own name does most of this job. Some paid entity tools list the things they find on a page. None of the Google pages we read gives a score for entities, so treat a tool’s score as that tool’s opinion.

What should you fix first?

Pick the one wrong fact most likely to send a customer to the wrong firm and fix it before anything else. Then work down this list, remembering that the ratings are our judgement and not measured results.

Our SEO audit is free. It is a technical, visibility, keyword, competitor and Google Business Profile review with a prioritised roadmap. Implementation is separate unless retained. Compare the options on our SEO packages page. No SEO package guarantees rankings, leads or revenue.

The fine print

This guide reports what Google and Schema.org say and neither publishes how much any of it affects ranking. We haven’t seen a controlled test that isolates an entity effect for a small business, so we don’t claim one.

The SHORE answer is one recorded Google result, so it shows a project page being cited and doesn’t show which change caused it. The Sydney counts come from one fixed set of 50 questions. They are lower bounds because an unmatched link doesn’t mean a business’s website was missing. The study also didn’t test why Perplexity read Canterbury as the English city. Read the method in the study before using them.

Our AI SEO agency can run this identity check for you and tell you which fix to make first.