Introduction to the Knowledge Panel Course
Script from the lesson The Knowledge Panel Course
Introduction to the Knowledge Panel Course
Jason Barnard speaking: Hi, and welcome to the Knowledge Panel course. I’m Jason Barnard, and I’m your tutor. I’ve been studying, experimenting, and tracking thousands of Knowledge Panels for over 10 years. I waited until 2022 to record this course because I’m now sure I’ve mastered the art and science of triggering, correcting, and enhancing Knowledge Panels on Google.
Jason Barnard speaking: Now, importantly, before we get started, some definitions so that we’re on the same page. A Knowledge Panel is what appears on the right hand side of a desktop search. It is the representation of Google’s understanding of the entity you are searching for. I will focus on desktop Knowledge Panels for this course because on mobile, Google shows more or less the same information, but the layout is very different and quite unpredictable.
Jason Barnard speaking: A Knowledge Graph is a machine readable encyclopedia. These are often human curated, i.e. people add the information manually. Google’s Knowledge Vault, which I also refer to as the main Knowledge Graph, is the ultimate aim for us all. It’s a huge Knowledge Graph containing 150 billion facts that was initially filled with human curated information but is now being filled with facts that are determined purely by Google’s knowledge algorithms.
Jason Barnard speaking: Google’s aim is to fill the Knowledge Vault with all human knowledge. And that means that as soon as Google is confident of its understanding about an entity or a thing, it will move the information into the Knowledge Vault. That would mean the information is regarded by the algorithms as indisputable truth. Ultimately, this course will teach you to add the information about your small corner of the internet to Google’s huge project and leverage that in the form of a Knowledge Panel.
Jason Barnard speaking: An entity is a thing, a company, a person, a music group, a product, a film, a podcast, or anything else we as humans understand as things. Entity Identity, this is Google’s understanding of who you are, what you do, and which audience you serve. It’s understanding of the fact about the entity. This is a term my friend, Koray Gübür, coined. Google’s representation of the Entity Identity is the Knowledge Panel and the Brand SERP. The Entity Home is the page on the internet that Google’s algorithms look to for information about the entity from the entity.
Jason Barnard speaking: Left rail and right rail. On Google, the left rail is the left hand side of the search results on desktop. We can look at this as Google’s recommendations. The right rail is the right hand side. We can look at this as the facts according to Google. Since both are mixed together on mobile, this distinction is only clear on desktop search, and we’ll focus on that in this course.
Jason Barnard speaking: Now, this course is about Knowledge Panels. To fully optimise Google’s perception and its presentation of your Entity Identity, then you should also take the Brand SERP course on Kalicube Academy or read my book, The Fundamentals of Brand SERPs for Business. Before we start, here is my Brand SERP with the Knowledge Panel over there on the right. I’ve been working on this for 10 years, so it’s unusually rich for someone who isn’t a movie star or a famous musician, but it does give you an idea of what can be achieved using the Brand SERP and Knowledge Panel strategies and techniques that I teach.
Jason Barnard speaking: Now, let’s get started. Google shows a Knowledge Panel when the search query is specifically about an entity. Google has specifically designed Knowledge Panels as a factual summary of what the user would want to know about the named entity they just searched for. That means Google wants to show a summary of what it considers to be the important facts about the person, company, product, podcast, film, book, music group, or whatever.
Jason Barnard speaking: The huge question is what does Google consider to be facts? Simply stated, what Google shows on the left hand side of a search result on desktop is its recommendation of the most useful information. What it shows on the right hand side is what it considers to be fact. And this entire course is designed to help you establish the fact about your entity in Google’s mind, so that it shows an accurate and positive summary in the Knowledge Panel on the right hand side when your audience googles your personal or your brand name, your podcast name, your music album name, your music group name, or your book name.
Jason Barnard speaking: The most popular will be Knowledge Panels for people and companies, but the course also covers music groups, podcasts, films, books, and any other entity or thing for which Google might show a Knowledge Panel. And the strategies I share in this course work for anyone, anything, and everything since Google simply wants to understand the world. With the tactics, techniques, and strategies I teach in this course, getting Google to understand is absolute child’s play.
Jason Barnard speaking: So, why and when does Google show Knowledge Panels? The short answer is that Google shows Knowledge Panels when it thinks it has understood the facts, and that is key. Google’s Knowledge Graph is simply a massive machine readable encyclopedia, like Wikipedia but literally millions of times bigger. If you want a Knowledge Panel that accurately represents you or your company, then you need to be proactive.
Jason Barnard speaking: To understand the sheer scale of Google’s Knowledge Graph, here are some numbers. Wikipedia has about 50 million articles. Google’s Knowledge Graph contains at least 1,500 billion facts as of 2022. And the information in its Knowledge Graph is growing exponentially. So in a few years, Google’s Knowledge Graph will contain hundreds of thousands of billions of facts. And at that scale, as humans, we no longer have a grasp. And our best bet is to focus on what it understands about us. And what it understands about you, your business, your music group, your book, or whatever will be the single most important thing in your online digital strategy on whatever channel is most important today.
Jason Barnard speaking: Now, the first incredibly important thing to bear in mind throughout this course is that Google uses its Knowledge Graph in every single one of its search results, not only in the Knowledge Panel, as we can see here, but also in carousels, Entity Boxes, People Also Ask, and every single analysis it makes of the content you provide.
Jason Barnard speaking: Always remember that Google is trying to deliver the best answer to its user’s question, the best solution to their problem. So, it’s foundational aim is to understand every single offer out there from every single publisher and every single author. Google’s full and confident understanding of who you are and what you offer should be fundamental to everything you do in SEO. And Knowledge Panels are an indication that it has understood and that it is confident in that understanding.
Jason Barnard speaking: Now, a quick comparison between Wikipedia and Google’s Knowledge Graph. Wikipedia is based on the idea of notability and importance. The litmus test is that people will spontaneously search for you or for your company to find out more about you in an encyclopedic manner. Google is simply trying to accumulate every single fact it can about the world so that it can best serve its users.
Jason Barnard speaking: Now, Google doesn’t have that aspect of notability. It’s simply trying to accumulate every single fact it can about the world so that it can best serve its users. All you need to do is educate Google. Google wants to understand who you are, it wants to understand what you offer, and it wants to understand which audience you serve because it is aiming to match the best offer, hopefully yours, from the best provider, hopefully you, to the person asking the question or presenting the problem. That is the subset of its users who are your audience.
Jason Barnard speaking: So when your audience asks a relevant question to which you have the perfect answer, the Knowledge Panel is foundational, since it represents Google’s understanding of who you are and what you offer. Google’s understanding of the world is its Knowledge Graph. The measurable representation of its understanding is the Knowledge Panel. And this entire course will teach you how you can educate Google so that it can better understand who you are and what you offer, and represent your brand to your audience in the way that you want in the right rail.
Jason Barnard speaking: The aim of this course is to help you to avoid all the mistakes I made and deliver solid sustainable results in just a few weeks. Always remember though that Knowledge Panels are showing up on your search is huge. Google shows a Knowledge Panel based on several factors: Google’s understanding of the information about you, Google’s confidence in that understanding, it’s assessment of the probability that the searcher is looking for you. Let’s call that famousness.
Jason Barnard speaking: But if your Knowledge Panel doesn’t appear on a brand search, then that doesn’t necessarily mean your Knowledge Panel doesn’t exist. Knowledge Panels can exist somewhere in Google’s brain, but it doesn’t show it when your audience googles your brand name. That might be because of several reasons. The name is ambiguous. The geolocation of the user implies that you aren’t relevant. Google doesn’t have sufficient confidence in its understanding. You are not notable, famous enough for Google to show it.
Jason Barnard speaking: So, in order to have a Knowledge Panel and get it to trigger when your audience googles your name, you need to ensure that Google understands who you are, what you do, and which audience you serve, but also that it’s incredibly confident in that understanding and that you are relevant to its user, wherever and whoever they may be.
Jason Barnard speaking: In this course, I will talk a lot about Google as a child. The course is all about how we can educate this child and get the information we want into its brain. I’ll also use an analogy about a broken plate puzzle. Google has the fragments of a broken plate that it has collected all over the internet, and it’s trying to put them together into the completed plate puzzle that represents who you are, what you do, and which audience you serve. Part of your job is to present it with the complete plate puzzle so that it can compare its version to your version and be sure that it’s got it right.
Jason Barnard speaking: For the most part, it’s very simple. However, there is a massive complication. It isn’t as simple as just one single Knowledge Graph. Most people believe that Google has only one Knowledge Graph. In fact, there are multiple vertical Knowledge Graphs that Google uses to trigger Knowledge Panels. And the huge trick you need to play, short term at least, is to pick the right opportunity. Long term, the ultimate aim is to get into Google’s Knowledge Vault. This course will teach you both how to get a Knowledge Panel short term, but also how to get into Google’s Knowledge Vault and have a Knowledge Panel for life, importantly, a stable Knowledge Panel that you can control to a large extent as well.
Jason Barnard speaking: Over 10 years of getting this right for ourselves and for our clients at Kalicube, we know that the trick is to get yourself into one of the verticals, then move yourself across into the main Knowledge Vault. You build confidence for long term stability.
Jason Barnard speaking: So, in this course, I will explain to you which opportunities are reasonable given your situation, which tactics, techniques, and strategies will work to get a Knowledge Panel short term, how you can get into Google’s Knowledge Vault, and then how you can build confidence. If you want a Knowledge Panel that accurately represents you, your company, your book, your podcast, your music album, then you need to be proactive.
Jason Barnard speaking: So, let’s get started.
