Building a Strong Brand Identity for SEO Success

by Rajenvisionon Posted on

Establishing Brand Identity for SEO

A strong, premium, and trusted brand identity is essential for achieving organic visibility.

Google’s introduction of the Search Generative Experience (SGE) and the launch of Bard are transforming the digital landscape, with significant implications for SEO.

One of the key shifts is the renewed emphasis on brand entity SEO.

SEO has traditionally focused on marketing to people.

Establishing Brand Identity for SEO A strong, premium, and trusted brand identity is essential for achieving organic visibility. Google's introduction of the Search Generative Experience (SGE) and the launch of Bard are transforming the digital landscape, with significant implications for SEO. One of the key shifts is the renewed emphasis on brand entity SEO. SEO has traditionally focused on marketing to people. However, with the rise of large language models like OpenAI's GPT-4 and Google's PaLM 2, MUM, and BERT, SEO is now about marketing to machines as well. Thus, creating a well-recognized, premium, and trusted brand entity is fundamental for organic visibility. Brands, Entities, and the Google Knowledge Graph The Google Knowledge Graph is a database that understands relationships between entities and "facts" about them. Google defines an entity as "a thing or concept that is unique, distinct, clearly defined, and distinguishable," typically represented by nouns. Knowledge Graphs allow entities to be contextualized through their connections to other entities, such as locations, cuisines, dishes, and brands. This process also happens in the SERPs, creating rich results like local packs or related searches. Among the many Knowledge Graph entities to optimize for—like location, cuisine, dishes, and awards—the brand entity is the most valuable. SEO for brand entities is already impacting various industries, where rich results in SERPs often contain only entities. This trend will affect all sectors as Bard gains popularity and SGE is fully implemented. If the brand is not an entity in the Knowledge Graph, Google will have less confidence in the "facts" about the brand, its relevance to user queries, and its relationships with other entities. Google will only partially apply entity-level visibility signals, meaning the brand is less likely to be included in AI considerations. By building a detailed profile of the brand entity and its connections to other entities in the Knowledge Graph, Google can confidently match the brand with relevant queries, granting greater visibility across Google surfaces like SERPs, Bard, and Discover. Five Steps to Building the Brand into an Entity 1. Secure CMO Support Building a brand entity is a collaborative effort that extends beyond traditional SEO. This task falls within the CMO's domain, so gaining their support is crucial. Present the opportunity—or threat—by showcasing the current state of the brand's SERP, industry-relevant entity-only SERP features, Bard results, and the brand's current and competitor brand entity presence. Convince the CMO to lead a "brand entity establishment" project, ensuring access to necessary resources from other departments. 2. Define and Align the Brand Entity Bio To become an entity in the Google Knowledge Graph, must clearly and consistently define who the brand entity is and how it relates to others. Start by establishing the official brand name and its variations, considering Google's sensitivity to spelling and capitalization. The brand entity bio should begin with a semantic triple, summarizing the brand's core value proposition, awards, key people or partners, and relevant story. Evaluate the bio using Google's Natural Language API to ensure it aligns with how Google processes and categorizes entities. 3. Confirm Thematic Relatedness Google understands entities based on their relatedness, determined by how frequently they co-occur in authoritative sources. To establish this connection, the website should serve as the most authoritative source for the brand identity. The About page, which can focus primarily on the brand identity, should contain the brand identity bio. Consistent repetition of this bio across various platforms, including social media profiles, industry directories, and relevant websites, helps Google build confidence in its knowledge of the brand, increasing its visibility in thematic queries. 4. Implement Structured Data Markup Use organizational schema markup in JSON-LD format on the About page to communicate key attributes of the brand entity directly to search engines. This step is vital for getting Google to recognize and accept the "facts" about the brand. Include details like the official brand name, legal name, description, images, contact information, and awards. Once the About page is properly marked up, submit the URL to Google Search Console to prompt Googlebot to update its index. 5. Create Related Entities Every relevant entity on the site should be marked up with structured data to strengthen its connection to the brand entity. This practice increases the likelihood of the brand being discovered in thematic queries. Focus on optimizing the brand entity and apply similar efforts to other business assets, such as key people, products, or events, to further solidify Google's understanding of the brand. Collaborating with high-level entities in the industry can also reinforce the brand's status in that space. Building a Strong Brand Entity To succeed in the age of generative AI, it's crucial to build a strong brand entity within the Knowledge Graph. Allows to control how the brand is presented to audiences while enhancing its chances of appearing on various Google surfaces. The importance of entities will only grow, making now the time to invest in establishing the brand identity as a recognized entity.

However, with the rise of large language models like OpenAI’s GPT-4 and Google’s PaLM 2, MUM, and BERT, SEO is now about marketing to machines as well.

Thus, creating a well-recognized, premium, and trusted brand entity is fundamental for organic visibility.

Brands, Entities, and the Google Knowledge Graph

The Google Knowledge Graph is a database that understands relationships between entities and “facts” about them. Google defines an entity as “a thing or concept that is unique, distinct, clearly defined, and distinguishable,” typically represented by nouns.

Knowledge Graphs allow entities to be contextualized through their connections to other entities, such as locations, cuisines, dishes, and brands.

This process also happens in the SERPs, creating rich results like local packs or related searches.

Among the many Knowledge Graph entities to optimize for—like location, cuisine, dishes, and awards—the brand entity is the most valuable.

SEO for brand entities is already impacting various industries, where rich results in SERPs often contain only entities.

This trend will affect all sectors as Bard gains popularity and SGE is fully implemented.

If the brand is not an entity in the Knowledge Graph, Google will have less confidence in the “facts” about the brand, its relevance to user queries, and its relationships with other entities.

Google will only partially apply entity-level visibility signals, meaning the brand is less likely to be included in AI considerations.

By building a detailed profile of the brand entity and its connections to other entities in the Knowledge Graph, Google can confidently match the brand with relevant queries, granting greater visibility across Google surfaces like SERPs, Bard, and Discover.

Five Steps to Building the Brand into an Entity

1. Secure CMO Support
Building a brand entity is a collaborative effort that extends beyond traditional SEO.

This task falls within the CMO’s domain, so gaining their support is crucial.

Present the opportunity—or threat—by showcasing the current state of the brand’s SERP, industry-relevant entity-only SERP features, Bard results, and the brand’s current and competitor brand entity presence.

Convince the CMO to lead a “brand entity establishment” project, ensuring access to necessary resources from other departments.

2. Define and Align the Brand Entity Bio
To become an entity in the Google Knowledge Graph, must clearly and consistently define who the brand entity is and how it relates to others.

Start by establishing the official brand name and its variations, considering Google’s sensitivity to spelling and capitalization.

The brand entity bio should begin with a semantic triple, summarizing the brand’s core value proposition, awards, key people or partners, and relevant story.

Evaluate the bio using Google’s Natural Language API to ensure it aligns with how Google processes and categorizes entities.

3. Confirm Thematic Relatedness
Google understands entities based on their relatedness, determined by how frequently they co-occur in authoritative sources.

To establish this connection, the website should serve as the most authoritative source for the brand identity.

The About page, which can focus primarily on the brand identity, should contain the brand identity bio.

Consistent repetition of this bio across various platforms, including social media profiles, industry directories, and relevant websites, helps Google build confidence in its knowledge of the brand, increasing its visibility in thematic queries.

4. Implement Structured Data Markup
Use organizational schema markup in JSON-LD format on the About page to communicate key attributes of the brand entity directly to search engines.

This step is vital for getting Google to recognize and accept the “facts” about the brand. Include details like the official brand name, legal name, description, images, contact information, and awards.

Once the About page is properly marked up, submit the URL to Google Search Console to prompt Googlebot to update its index.

5. Create Related Entities
Every relevant entity on the site should be marked up with structured data to strengthen its connection to the brand entity.

This practice increases the likelihood of the brand being discovered in thematic queries.

Focus on optimizing the brand entity and apply similar efforts to other business assets, such as key people, products, or events, to further solidify Google’s understanding of the brand.

Collaborating with high-level entities in the industry can also reinforce the brand’s status in that space.

Building a Strong Brand Entity

To succeed in the age of generative AI, it’s crucial to build a strong brand entity within the Knowledge Graph.

Allows to control how the brand is presented to audiences while enhancing its chances of appearing on various Google surfaces.

The importance of entities will only grow, making now the time to invest in establishing the brand identity as a recognized entity.