Having a website that ranks high in search results is crucial for driving relevant traffic and growing your business. While traditional SEO focuses on keywords and backlinks, entity SEO optimises your site around real-world entities like your business name, products, services and locations. Implementing entity SEO can significantly improve your search visibility and help customers find you more easily. A digital marketing agency can help optimise your site for entity SEO.

What is Entity SEO?

Entity SEO is a process of optimising a website around specific entities associated with a business, such as the business name, location, products, services, events and more. The goal is to clearly identify your business and its attributes to search engines like Google so they understand what your company is about.

When search engines recognise your business entities, you can tap into specialised search results like knowledge panels, maps, review snippets and local packs. Populating in these rich results helps build authority and trust in search.

Why is Entity SEO Important?

With entity SEO, you can boost rankings for branded and local searches containing your business name, service areas, product names and other specific entities. This visibility helps drive more qualified visitors who are actively searching for your offerings.

According to recent statistics:

• 50% of all searches have local intent. Entity SEO helps you tap into this demand by optimising for location-based keywords.

• Knowledge panels appear for one-third of all searches - optimised entities can help you claim this prime SERP real estate.

• Branded keywords account for 30% of searches. Ranking for your brand name builds trust and captures existing demand.

As search engines understand your business better through entity SEO, you can improve both clickthrough rates and conversion rates. By clearly communicating what you offer, your pages become more relevant to searchers' intents.

How to Implement Entity SEO

Optimising entities on your site involves both on-page and off-page optimisations. Here are some key steps:

Identify Important Entities

Start by brainstorming the key entities that represent your business. These typically include:

• Business name

• Location/Service areas

• Product names

• Service categories

• Event names

• Staff names

• Brand slogans

Prioritise entities that are most relevant to your customers and appear frequently in branded search queries.

On-Page Optimisation

Once you know your core entities, optimise them on-site:

Prominently Display Entities

Ensure your business name, location and other key entities appear prominently on homepages and interior pages. Display in titles, headers, page copy, schema markup and images.

Create Entity-Focused Content

Develop pages, blogs and other content centered around specific entities. For example, service pages about "teeth whitening", location pages for "Chicago dentistry" or product pages for "Acme toothbrushes".

Include Entities in URLs

URLs containing entities can improve clickthroughs. For example:

example.com/chicago-dentist
example.com/tooth-whitening-services

Implement Schema Markup

Schema is code that helps search engines understand your business, locations, products, events and more. Implement schema markup on all entity-focused pages.

Off-Page Optimisation

You'll also need to promote your key entities off-site:

Update Business Listings

Ensure your NAP (name, address, phone) details are consistent across directories like Google My Business, Apple Maps and Bing Places. This helps confirm you as the authoritative business.

Encourage Reviews

Reviews that mention your business name and location help search engines understand your entities. Prompt customers to leave reviews on Google, Facebook and industry sites.

Build Links with Anchor Text

Earn backlinks from relevant sites using branded anchor text links like "Acme Dental Chicago" or "Acme Toothbrushes". Avoid over-optimisation.

Leverage Brand Mentions

Page and social media mentions of your business name strengthen your branded presence. Seek credible brand references like press articles.

Analyse Entity SEO Performance

Track your core entities in search to gauge their visibility and search traffic. Monitor rankings for branded and local keywords, knowledge panel presence, local pack rankings and more.

Tools like Google Search Console, SEMrush and Moz can help you identify opportunities to further optimise high-value entities.

The Bottom Line

Optimising your website around key entities like your business name, locations and products is a proven way to improve search visibility. By clearly identifying your business and offerings to search engines through entity SEO, you can increase clickthroughs, boost conversions and grow your brand in organic search.