The Knowledge Panel Course: What Information Does Google Show in Knowledge Panels?
Script from the lesson The Knowledge Panel Course
What Information Does Google Show in Knowledge Panels?
Jason Barnard speaking: Hi. What information does Google show in a Knowledge Panel? Obviously, that depends on the entity type and many other factors, but we’ll look at that in a moment.
Jason Barnard speaking: Before delving into this topic, bear in mind what the Knowledge Panel is designed to do. The purpose of the Knowledge Panel is to show the user a factual summary of the entity to save that user the time of researching the entity. What they’re trying to do is bring together the information from multiple sources that summarise the most important information and the facts, so the user gets an overview of the fundamental facts about the entity without having to visit multiple sites.
Jason Barnard speaking: So, what Google puts in the Knowledge Panel is what Google thinks the user would want to know at a glance. Essentially, it is a summary of essential and useful factual information from the left rail. In order to be able to show information, a description or an attribute, a social channel, a song, a film, or whatever, Google firstly needs to be very sure the information is true. It needs to understand and be confident in that understanding. But secondly, it has to believe that the searcher will find the information helpful.
Jason Barnard speaking: That means Google doesn’t show all the information it has understood about the entity. So, try playing with the Knowledge Panel hopping game, and you will see more of the information Google has and what it feels is of no interest to the casual searcher, but of interest to someone researching the entity. So, here I click on Veronique Barnard, then click on my name in Veronique’s Knowledge Panel, and that brings up a lot more information about me. Google understands that I am researching Jason Barnard because I clicked on a related entity and then back.
Jason Barnard speaking: So, don’t be fooled by what you see on the initial search on the entity name. Dig down to see how many attributes, how much information Google has before you start worrying about working on trying to add them. If Google has the information
and isn’t showing it, that is because it doesn’t believe that information is of primary importance or it isn’t sufficiently confident.
Jason Barnard speaking: For a Knowledge Panel triggered by Google Podcasts, the Knowledge Panel will contain just the cover image and the description from Google Podcasts. You cannot add more information. The exception is if you can move the podcast over into the Knowledge Vault. This is what has happened to The Daily podcast, and their Knowledge Panel is full of useful information. We can consider this to be a proper, fully fledged entity that can be managed and enhanced without the restrictions imposed by its original knowledge vertical, in this case the podcast Knowledge Graph.
Jason Barnard speaking: The situation is the same for Google Books and Google Scholar. To add additional information or change the description, you need to move the entity into the Knowledge Vault. You can check if your podcast or book or any other entity is in the Knowledge Vault using the free Knowledge Graph explorer tool on Kalicube Pro. Look in the additional materials for the link.
Jason Barnard speaking: Entities in the Web Index are not subject to specific restrictions. You can add additional information and get the description you want by following Kalicube’s 3 step process of Entity Home, machine-understandable description, and corroboration. Doing this will bring the additional benefit of moving the entity into the Knowledge Vault.
Jason Barnard speaking: Google Business Profiles are a special case. Your Business Profile account gives you control of some items. Which elements you control depends on the type of business. For information that is not editable in the GBP management interface, you only have indirect control, much like for a Knowledge Panel. Examples of this are reviews from around the web, social channels, additional events, and some descriptions.
Jason Barnard speaking: Note that as of late 2022, for any business, the Google Business Profile will exist in addition to your Knowledge Panel, and each will have its own kgmid. The Google Business Profile is the physical location of the business, and the Knowledge Panel is the business itself. Exceptions include educational establishments and tourist attractions, where the Google Business Profile and the Knowledge Panel are merged and have one single kgmid.
Jason Barnard speaking: As I explained in other lessons, the best way to figure out what Google is likely to show in a Knowledge Panel is to look at what it is showing for Entity Equivalents, same entity type, same geo region, same industry. That will give you a good idea of what you can realistically aim for. And if you can do a bit of Sherlock Holmes style investigation, you can generally figure out where Google is getting its information from. The trick there is to obviously add your information to the same or an equivalent source, and present the information in a similar format, semantic triple, HTML list, HTML table, or whatever.
Jason Barnard speaking: In order to maximise your options for adding information to a Knowledge Panel and also to exert the most influence on the contents, the aim is to get your entity into the Knowledge Vault since that has the least restrictions and caveats. Once there, you can manage the contents of the Knowledge Panel indirectly using the technique I keep repeating: add the information to the Entity Home, creating second and third party corroboration, and signpost it all.
Jason Barnard speaking: Importantly, even when you’re in the Knowledge Vault, the vast majority of the information in the Knowledge Panel does not come directly from there. The one exception is entities that have been added to the Knowledge Graph by having a Wikipedia article, where most of the information in the Knowledge Panel will come from the Wikipedia article. For me, that is yet another good reason to avoid Wikipedia. You really do hand over control to the faceless Wikipedia editors and admins.
Jason Barnard speaking: For other entities that trigger a Knowledge Panel through the Knowledge Vault, the only information that comes directly from there is the name and the kgmid. That’s it. I know it sounds nuts, but it’s true. In the next lesson, I’ll explain how this actually works, and that the contents of Knowledge Panels are actually based on the Web Index.
