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What is Entity?

Updated on November 6, 2026

In search, an entity is a thing the engine recognises as one object (a company, a person, a place, a product) with properties and relations, independently of the words used to name it.

Google has worked with entities since its Knowledge Graph in 2012: when you search for a company, it matches the name to a record with an address, a founder, a sector, and other names for the same thing. AI assistants build answers the same way, from what they know about the entity rather than from the exact words of a query.

A company becomes a clear entity when it is described consistently: the same name, address and activity on its site, in directories, in its Google Business Profile, in press and in structured data. Ambiguity (two names, two addresses, a vague activity) weakens recognition, and a weakly recognised brand is rarely named in an answer.

Frequently asked questions

How do you make a company a recognised entity?

With one consistent description everywhere, an Organization structured data block on the site, a Google Business Profile, listings in trusted directories, and mentions by name in other sites. Consistency does more than volume.

Is an entity the same as a keyword?

No. A keyword is a string of words typed in a search. An entity is the thing behind the words; several keywords can point to one entity, and one word can name several entities.

Related terms

Brand mention

A brand mention is the name of a company written in a page or in an AI answer without necessarily a link. Engines use mentions to understand what a brand is and how it is regarded.

Structured data (schema.org)

Structured data is a block of machine-readable facts added to a page, in the schema.org vocabulary, that tells engines what the page is about: a business, an article, a product, a question and its answer.

E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, trust)

E-E-A-T is the grid Google's human quality raters use to judge whether a page and its author deserve trust: first-hand experience, expertise, authority in the field, and trustworthiness. It is a guideline, not a ranking score.

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