Entity SEO is the work of getting search engines and AI to recognise your company as an entity: something unique, with a name, an activity, a location and sources that confirm it. When an AI knows who you are and what you do, it can recommend you; if not, it recommends someone it does know.
Google summed it up in 2012, when it launched its Knowledge Graph, as moving from searching for words to understanding things. AI assistants take that idea further: they do not rank pages, they name companies.
Why it matters for AI
When someone asks ChatGPT for "marketing agencies in Chicago", the answer is a list of entities. To get on it, the AI has to associate you with that activity and that city, and find sources that confirm it. That is why two companies with similar sites can get very different results: one is a clear entity and the other is not. It is the foundation of GEO and AEO.
How to build an entity
1. Company structured data
An Organization structured data block (or LocalBusiness if you have premises) on your home page, with name, site, logo, description, address and contact details. It is the ID card search engines and AI crawlers read.
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Your Company",
"url": "https://www.yourcompany.com/",
"logo": "https://www.yourcompany.com/logo.png",
"description": "What you do, for whom and where, in one sentence.",
"sameAs": [
"https://www.linkedin.com/company/your-company/",
"https://www.instagram.com/yourcompany/",
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q000000"
]
}2. sameAs: your official profiles
The sameAs property links your entity to the pages that identify it: LinkedIn, social profiles, Wikidata or Wikipedia if they exist, your Google Business Profile and the directories in your industry. That way AI can confirm all those profiles are the same company. Three or more official profiles is a good base.
3. A consistent description everywhere
The same name, category and services on your site, your profiles and directories. If every source describes you differently, AI does not know what to recommend you for.
4. Mentions in third-party sources
Press, comparisons, directories and industry associations that name you alongside what you do. They are the sources AI takes its lists from, and what most separates the recommended from the rest.
5. An about page
Team, track record, company details and where you are. It is the page search engines go back to to understand who is behind the business.
Common mistakes
- Having WebSite structured data but no Organization.
- Using different names on the site, on Google and in directories.
- Linking pages in sameAs that are not yours or no longer exist.
- Describing the company with adjectives instead of what it does, for whom and where.
The free GEO audit checks your company data, linked profiles and contact details, and tells you whether AI already recommends you. If you want to work on it with us, that is what our GEO and AI SEO service does.
Frequently Asked Questions
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An entity is a single, well-defined thing: a company, a person, a place, a product. Google and AI identify it by its data (name, what it does, where it is) and by the sources that talk about it, not by a keyword.
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It is a schema.org property that links the entity to pages that identify it unambiguously: its LinkedIn page, social profiles, its Wikidata or Wikipedia entry, its Google Business Profile. It tells a search engine that all those pages are about the same company.
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No. It helps if your company meets Wikipedia's notability criteria, but most companies build their entity with their own site, official profiles, industry directories and press mentions.
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Ask ChatGPT or Gemini what your company is without giving it your website. If it describes it wrongly or mixes it up with another, your entity is weak. The free GEO audit checks your company data and linked profiles and asks AI engines whether they recommend you.