Google Knowledge Graph is about sorting data and facts about a brand that displays on search result. Since its inception in 2012, search result pages have carried significant display changes since it allows Google to distinguish the search intentions of a user. It’s not a vanilla display but Google knowledge graph also joins the data points and facts relatively to show the information.
Now, the official representatives can make changes to what Google is displaying. It’s going to be implemented in some time. The changes are highly regulated to help the users, provide accurate and authentic information about their brands.
The brands can now breathe easy as it’s quite a big deal. One can quickly update their phone numbers, locations or new management etc. Not always we go in to the website for a quick check on official information. But, of course the content submitted will be reviewed by Google before final display.
So, how you can make changes in the Knowledge Graph?
Before you edit any data point, you need to log in to your Google account and become an official representative of the brand you desire to update. In order to do so, remember:
- The URL in the knowledge card should match with the official website, YouTube channel as well as G+ profile.
- The website should be attached to search console account
- Log in to the google account that is linked with official website
- Web & App activities should be turned on to make changes
Once Google confirms that you are the official representative; it asks you:
- Is it up to date?
- Suggest a change.
Once you are done with providing all information, it starts displaying what you have changed.
Lot of brands tend to ignore G+ but the data from G+ profiles are also pulled in. Data form Wikipedia, G+ profiles are pulled in along with linked website.
In the above Knowledge Graph of a restaurant from Pune shows linked website information, reviews to the extent of what people are searching from in the relevant fields.
The best practice to use Knowledge Graph:
1. Schema Markup To Tag Your Website Elements
Schema Markup, a type of microdata is used for HTML coding but are not displayed visually. They are read by read by machines such as search engines, site crawlers or browsers to fetch extra information. By using schema you will make it easier for Google to interpret the data displayed on your webpages in more effective manner to display better results to search queries. As Google will now have a clear image of company information derived from schema, the knowledge graph display will have more relevant results to search queries.
2. Create a profile in Wikipedia
Wikipedia is the internet’s encyclopaedia to source any information (not always up to date though). Google knowledge graph trusts Wikipedia as it often ranks in top five positions of search results.
3. Wikidata for your business
One of Google Knowledge Graph’s major information sources are Wikidata. Not many knows but Wikidata is different from Wikipedia. While Wikipedia is a user generated content, Wikidata is majorly managed by machines. It’s a data repository and has 14 million data items so far.
4. Googles’ Freebase
Freebase is a database of entities and topics which is primary source of information for Google Knowledge Graph. It sources and collects information from reputed websites like Wikipedia, G+ etc. to create the plethora of database. Like Wiki, it’s an open source and anyone can edit or contribute to its database making it a user generated content. It helps Knowledge Graph to show up accurate information.
Let’s have a look at the information Freebase is dealing with to understand the databank of Knowledge Graph.
5. Your business to Local Listing
The easiest way to get on to Knowledge graph is through getting on local knowledge graph. The difference is to getting on “local” searches as the name suggests.
Information is triggered by location based search query. E.g. the user is in the same area or he is using the area name as a keyword in his searches. The information shown on Knowledge Graph display results is more specific to location maps, working hours or phone numbers over generic information. It may differ depending on the business.
Hacks to ensure the result pops up in Knowledge Graph:
Maintain same data about your company name, description, phone numbers, address in all your social media channels. This makes it easier for Google to realize the data points of the assets i.e. all unique data belong to one particular company.
6. Put yourself on Press Release.
Press releases make a huge impact on Knowledge Graph. If you research and publish valuable and relevant press releases through particular sites, it makes to “Google News” section. It also establishes the credibility while making any entry to Wikipedia.
7. A profile on Google+
One of the most important attribute to make it on Knowledge Graph is a G+ Profile. We have already mentioned earlier why it is so crucial to have a G+ Profile as Google trusts G+ profiles for Knowledge Graph display. So, get now if you don’t have one.
Apart from the points above, one may also consider to use YouTube Channel and Structured Data better results in Knowledge Graph.
Knowledge Graph clicks are not counted on Google search results console:
Now that’s a major misunderstanding. Search analytics report in Google console doesn’t count the impressions and clicks from Knowledge graph sidebar.
As Google’s John Mueller confirmed “What I know we don’t count is the knowledge graph side bar. So if I search for your company name and then it has a link in the sidebar that goes to your company web site as well. So that is something we wouldn’t count in the Search Console. But I think the Sitelinks we should be counting. Otherwise I see that as a bug.”
Basically if you have 3 links in the first page, it is not 3 impressions. At least the Knowledge graph sidebar is not counted.
Most importantly, what are the major implications on brand?
Providing proper information to the consumer is as important as having good SEO rankings. While a consumer sees your website at top of the search results, also sees the brand information. This could be a major factor on decision making especially industries like B2C. Till date, not many brands utilize the power of Knowledge Graph. You may consider getting the brand ASAP to Knowledge Graph. It will make your brand stand out in the crowd and help to hold a strong business position.
Is Knowledge Graph killing Wikipedia?
According to Wikipedia’s own stats, the page views for English language Wikipedia pages fell by 21 per cent over 12 months to December 2013. The inception year for Knowledge Graph was 2012. For German, Spanish and Japanese language pages, views dropped by 30 per cent, 29 per cent and 25 per cent respectively. Taking into account mobile page views, the falls were 12 per cent (English), 17 per cent (German), 19 per cent (Spanish) and 9 per cent (Japanese). As stated earlier, Knowledge Graph is more than curated content like it’s displayed on Wiki. On the other hand, we also think Wikipedia saved Google for sourcing content as Googles’ honeymoon with content creators ended in 2003 when the content generators realized they can play with search engine algorithms.
Overall, Google always surprise us with its updates or launches. It’s on us to make the best out of it. As far as Knowledge Graph’s updates are concerned, we think it’s extremely helpful to maintain the brand identity.
