The Knowledge Panel Course: Getting Your Knowledge Panel to Show on Your Brand SERP
Script from the lesson The Knowledge Panel Course
Getting Your Knowledge Panel to Show on Your Brand SERP
Jason Barnard speaking: Hi and welcome. As we’ve seen, many entities have Knowledge Panels, but they don’t necessarily trigger on the Brand SERP. Question is how to get your Knowledge Panel to show on your Brand SERP.
Jason Barnard speaking: First case is that if there is absolutely no ambiguity, i.e. the name is totally unique, then the problem you need to solve is Google’s confidence in the understanding that it has. That requires Kalicube’s 3 step process, plus some good PR with relevant third party articles about the entity.
Jason Barnard speaking: There might also be an issue with the amount of information it has. If Google has only the name and subtitle, for example, adding the Knowledge Panel to the SERP brings no additional value to the searcher. In that situation, Google will generally not show the panel. Even with a photo, this is usually the case, since Google will add image boxes in the left rail to cover this.
Jason Barnard speaking: The solution here is to add additional attributes and a description. Look at the information that Google includes for Entity Equivalents, and add that information to your Entity Home and other profiles, and then wait for Google to crawl, and give the Knowledge Algorithms a month or two to digest the information, so it can generate a micro Featured Snippet, as I like to call the information snippets in a Knowledge Panel.
Jason Barnard speaking: If you have ticked those first two boxes for Google, confidence in its fundamental understanding of the entity and the quantity of relevant information it can show, look at relevancy, especially geo relevancy. Even with a unique name, an entity that only serves an audience in the US is not relevant to an audience in Finland. In that situation, in Finland, Google might not show the Knowledge Panel. Generally speaking, you can trigger your irrelevant Knowledge Panel in Finland, Fiji, and France by building Google’s confidence to the point it will display the Knowledge Panel purely to show off.
Jason Barnard speaking: In any case, I strongly advise you to build Google’s confidence as much as you possibly can over several years for every entity you ever work on for reasons of stability, visibility in different Rich SERP Elements such as carousels, entity boxes, and related searches. But don’t do it just to show your Knowledge Panel to people who cannot use your services. Focus on doing things that help you improve your brand on Google for your real audience.
Jason Barnard speaking: Now, when there is ambiguity and Google has multiple Knowledge Panels competing for that spot, including Google Business Profiles, then the algorithm needs to decide which is the most relevant and helpful. Google calls this the dominant entity.
Jason Barnard speaking: Which entity is dominant depends on many factors including:
Jason Barnard speaking: 1) the popularity of the entity, a film star will tend to dominate over a business owner, for example,
Jason Barnard speaking: 2) Google’s perception of the intent of the specific user, for example, within a search session, the series of searches made by the user might suggest that the business person is the entity the user is interested in rather than the film star, and in that case, the business person’s Knowledge Panel would trigger,
Jason Barnard speaking: 3) the geo relevancy, the dominant Mary Moore in the US is the actress, in the UK, the dominant Mary Moore is Henry Moore’s daughter,
Jason Barnard speaking: 4) Google’s confidence in its understanding, for example, I am the dominant entity for Jason Barnard around the world, purely through this technique, pure confidence,
Jason Barnard speaking: 5) the amount of information Google has to show about the entity, a richer Knowledge Panel would have a slight advantage over a less complete one.
Jason Barnard speaking: Generally speaking, the one to focus on the most is popularity, as measured by search volume and references around the web on authoritative sources. This then means it is significantly more probable that the user is looking for this entity.
Jason Barnard speaking: Probability is huge for Google as a deciding factor in the choice for any element on a SERP. If you are competing against a popular entity, then focus on your geo region first and spread out. Build local PR. Your solution here is to become more relevant to users searching in your town than the star.
Jason Barnard speaking: When building that PR, be sure to add each new article about you to your website with a link to the article and a brief summary. Each of these third party articles should have a dedicated web page on your site. So, you will build a news section and gradually fill it with these highly geo relevant articles that will help build up Google’s perception of the probability people in that region are searching for you.
Jason Barnard speaking: From here, if you want a Knowledge Panel nationally, you need to work out little by little by reiterating this process in other towns and relevant national news outlets.
Jason Barnard speaking: Good luck with that.
Jason Barnard speaking: Now, for people, there is a huge problem with ambiguity, since many people share the same name. There are over 300 Jason Barnards in the world, a footballer in South Africa, a hockey player in Canada, a professor at Golden Gate University, a podcaster in the UK, an actor, and multiple digital marketers in several countries. I have managed to dominate worldwide purely by confidence in understanding, a strong Entity Home, consistent information around the web, and a constant stream of relevant digital PR. I have it relatively easy. Mary Moore, Simon Cox, and Robert Smith all have tougher jobs than I with dominance.
Jason Barnard speaking: For a person, one solution is to rebrand yourself. You can add a middle initial or even your full middle name. This reduces ambiguity massively. Jason M Barnard would reduce the field of competition significantly. Jason Martin Barnard would reduce it to just a few. You could also add an associated word. Mark Preston SEO is an example that we’ve seen recently. Or you could switch to a nickname. Jase “the bass” Barnard would work if my main career was as a musician.
Jason Barnard speaking: Because of trademarks and company registrations, company names tend to be less ambiguous than people. So, the problem is generally smaller. For books, films, music albums, music groups, products, and other entities, it is a good idea to consider ambiguity in your decision when choosing a name. If the entity is already named and is public, then you either work for dominance or you rebrand.
Jason Barnard speaking: If you do change the name of a person, a company, or another entity, even if only a very slightly by adding a middle initial or changing the company brand from Brooks to Brooks Brothers, then you need to treat it as a complete rebrand, and so expect
the process to last a year or more. You would need to change every major reference to the entity on first, second, and third party sites. Consistency here is absolutely the key.
Jason Barnard speaking: But you would also need to communicate extensively with your audience so that they search the new name. Google pays a lot of attention to the volume of search on a brand name. So, you need your audience to use the name that you have chosen as much as possible. One advantage is that a rebranding gives you an excuse to communicate and get mentions, links, and articles, all of which will help with the Knowledge Panel and indeed with your business.
Jason Barnard speaking: There is no need to change domain name. In fact, that would often be a mistake, since it would set you back several steps in terms of Google’s understanding of you. Same thing for social media. The actual handle or URL makes little difference.
Jason Barnard speaking: What does make a difference is that Google has already started to associate you with your website and your social accounts, whether you have a Knowledge Panel now or not.
Jason Barnard speaking: You do need to change every reference on the official site, every reference on any first, second, or third party sites, and update your Schema Markup using alternameName field to explicitly remind Google that both versions of the name refer to that entity.
Jason Barnard speaking: Finding all of those references is a huge task. Please look in the additional materials, where we have a case study about how to do that. You’ll see in the case study that the speed with which you can change all of those references is immensely powerful.
Jason Barnard speaking: The faster you do it, the more solid the piece of information that Google gets in one go and then quicker. It will change its appreciation of what your name is, and you will move forwards much much faster, if you can do it all in one go. When I say all in one go, a couple of weeks, maybe a month maximum.
Jason Barnard speaking: One thing to look out for on the Brand SERP when you are working from a position of no Knowledge Panel or being dominated by another entity is See Results About.
Jason Barnard speaking: If you get a See Results About without a Knowledge Panel for your entity on the Brand SERP, then Google lacks confidence in its understanding. It is also possible that it is lacking enough information. So, just click on that See Results About and take a look.
Jason Barnard speaking: If the Knowledge Panel on that SERP contains information your audience would find helpful, then work on the confidence. That’s PR and links to the Entity Home. If there isn’t much information in that Knowledge Panel, then work on providing more information and corroborating it. In a case where there are multiple entities vying for position and none has obvious dominance, Google will simply show multiple See Results About like this.
Jason Barnard speaking: You’ll notice that I took screenshots from three locations. The entities are not the same in each one. Geo relevancy is also incredibly important. Right now, Google often gets this wrong. It will show a Google Business Profile for a local business
from the US on a SERP in France, for example. However, it is getting this increasingly more right. But as you can see here, the dominant entity can vary enormously. And then some entities are truly dominant, like Robert Smith.
Jason Barnard speaking: As a quick aside, take a very close look. You’ll notice some differences that are due to the geolocation. Aside from the People Also Search For, in the UK, the fact that Blackpool is in the UK is implicit. So, Google shows simply Blackpool. In the US, his height is given in feet and inches, rather than metres and centimetres. Small differences, I know, but it demonstrates that Google adapts, and even the most solid and dominant Knowledge Panels will vary according to geo, so you need to keep an eye on that.
Jason Barnard speaking: Now, back to how to get your Knowledge Panel to show. If you are competing against a dominant entity that is irrelevant to your geo region, then you need to focus on 1) getting a Knowledge Panel if you haven’t got one, 2) building confidence in Google’s mind, and 3) enriching your Knowledge Panel so that Google has something useful and helpful to show.
Jason Barnard speaking: If you are competing against an entity that is relevant to your geo region or dominant like Robert Smith, then once you have a Knowledge Panel, you need to work hard on localised PR, mentions and links to your Entity Home from authoritative third party sites that are geo relevant. Start by getting the Knowledge Panel to trigger in the town where the entity is most relevant, then move to state or county, then country. And the trick is to build outwards from the place where the likelihood that the searcher is searching for that specific entity is highest, and build your PR geographically outwards from there.
Jason Barnard speaking: Also note that news cycles can affect Knowledge Panels. If there is a huge news story around a namesake, a court case or a celebrity marriage or major acquisition of a company, for example, then that entity will often become dominant during the period of time the world is focusing on that. And then things will usually go back to how they were when the news has died down. So, don’t panic here. Generally speaking, only big news stories that are covered by highly authoritative and relevant media will have this effect.
Jason Barnard speaking: We now have three aspects to work on for dominance: confidence in understanding, helpfulness of the information Google has to display, and geo notability. Once you have established the Entity Home, written a great description, done the spring clean of first, second, and third party corroborative sources, and signposted all of this with or without Schema, then a well-focused and highly relevant digital PR campaign is the key.
Jason Barnard speaking: Bear in mind that dominance is something you need to attain, and then maintain over time. Google is constantly evolving and improving. So, things can change unexpectedly if you aren’t working on understanding, information, and geo notability constantly.
Jason Barnard speaking: A fatal mistake a great many people make is to trigger the Knowledge Panel on the Brand SERP and think job done. In these cases, the Knowledge Panel will be unstable and likely to be removed when Google updates its algorithms. Believe me, this happens a lot. You have to build up confidence, information, and geo notability over time. And you need to maintain an up-to-date Entity Home description, consistent corroboration around the web on the first, second, and third party sites, and maintain up-to-date Schema Markup and/or link based signposting.
Jason Barnard speaking: And finally, always retain a realistic ambition in terms of Knowledge Panel presence on a Brand SERP. Look at the competition and set yourself realistic targets, goals, and timelines. If you are working on Robert Smith, for example, you’ll need a lot of patience and hard work over a very long period of time.
Jason Barnard speaking: Thank you, and I’ll see you soon.
