Site structure · Concept
Entity
Also known as: Named entity
What is Named entity?
An entity is a uniquely identifiable thing — a person, organization, place, product or concept — that a search engine can recognize independently of the words used to describe it.
Search moved from strings to things when Google introduced the Knowledge Graph in 2012. An entity has an identity, attributes and relationships; a keyword only has spelling.
For a website, treating each important thing as an entity means giving it one canonical page, one stable identifier, consistent naming and explicit links to the entities it relates to.
Related entities
- Generative Engine OptimizationGenerative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the work of making a brand one of the sources a generative AI assistant names and cites when it composes an answer.
- Knowledge GraphA knowledge graph stores facts as entities connected by typed relationships, so a machine can answer questions by traversing connections instead of matching text.
- Schema.orgSchema.org is a shared vocabulary, founded by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Yandex in 2011, for describing entities and their properties in machine-readable markup.
- JSON-LDJSON-LD is a W3C standard for embedding linked data in a page as JSON, and it is the structured-data format Google recommends.
- Entity hub pageAn entity hub page is the single canonical page a site maintains for one entity, defining it, listing its relationships and linking to every article that discusses it.
- Google Business ProfileGoogle Business Profile is Google's free listing for local businesses, and it is the primary data source for the Local Pack and Google Maps.
Field notes covering Named entity
- AI Pages vs. AI Architecture: Why Volume LostCreating pages with AI multiplies documents. Having AI build entity hubs, internal links and wiki structure multiplies relationships — and that is what answer engines quote.
- How to Build a Site-Wide Entity GraphStable @ids, hub pages, about and mentions, sameAs, and one registry that keeps markup, links and llms.txt from drifting — a seven-step build guide.
- Your Website Is Not a Stack of Pages. It Is a Knowledge Base.Entities, relationships, schema, internal links, and answer-ready evidence: the architecture machines need when pages alone are no longer enough.
- YouTube Is the Strongest AI Visibility Signal Nobody UsesAcross 75,000 brands, YouTube mentions correlated with AI visibility at ~0.74 — higher than any website factor. How to build a video program machines can read.
- How AI Assistants Read a Website: Crawl to CitationThe five machines between your page and a recommendation — crawl, render, chunk, retrieve, compose — and an interactive robots.txt matrix for AI crawlers.
Sources & identifiers
Search disciplinesSite structureAI systemsLocal searchDistribution & growthAgentic commerceHover to trace relationships · click to open