Glossary · Definition

Entity SEO

By Christopher TaylorLast updated

Entity SEO is the practice of optimizing for the entities — people, places, organizations, products, and concepts — that search engines and large language models understand and connect, rather than for raw keyword strings. An entity is a distinct, well-defined thing that a system can recognize and relate to other things, independent of the exact words used to describe it.

Search engines store these relationships in a Knowledge Graph, and LLMs encode similar connections in their training. The goal of entity SEO is to make your brand, your authors, and the topics you cover into clearly defined entities that those systems can identify and trust. Structured data helps a great deal here: schema.org markup with sameAs links, and references to authoritative identifiers like Wikidata, tell engines exactly which entity a page is about and how it links to known ones.

Entity SEO works hand in hand with topical authority, because clearly defined entities and comprehensive topic coverage reinforce each other, and it is central to Generative Engine Optimization, where being a recognized entity improves the odds of being cited in AI answers.

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