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CommonSenSEOSummary
Entity blending is a newly defined, yet critical factor in a diverging Digital Landscape.
With the growing significance of brand and influencer marketing, it becomes increasingly important to clearly define entities across the complex interwoven structure of the Internet.
It is even more applicable for business, as they strive to reach extended markets, yet the dominating search engines and social media platforms continue to push towards a localised bias.
This article introduces the theory of #EntityBlending, in an attempt to widen understanding and good practice.
The Starting Point of an Entity
When considering internet data, it is clear that there is vast potential for ambiguity.
For example, when someone uses the internet to search for Iceland, are they searching for the country, or for the frozen foodstore in the United Kingdom.
Similarly, if the search was for apple, how can it be known whether the search is for the fruit, or for the technology company of the same name.
Not only is this a problem for the search engines, it is equally a problem for business, especially when the brand conflicts with other common terms, such as Apple or Iceland.
Without labouring this point, an article titled
Leveraging Machine-Readable Entity IDs for SEO by Mike Arnesen has been
published at https://www.upbuild.io/blog/machine-readable-entity-ids-seo/ and
provides far greater clarity on this issue.
The First Hurdle for Entities
After reading the article by Mike Arnesen, it is now understood that the seperation between conflicting entities is through the assignment of Machine-Readable Entity IDs, or MREIDs.
As the leading search engine, and perhaps the organisation with the biggest headache over conflicting data, Google have seemingly become the current gatekeeper of these MREIDs.
In many ways this does make sense, but the problem for business now is how to actually acquire an MREID for their own brand or product use.
One such way is to have an authoritative citation published and validated on sites such as Wikipedia.
While this might be an attractive proposition for many, becoming the subject of a Wikipedia page is certainly not an opportunity that is open to just anyone or anything.
Luckily there is a solution in which a business can acquire a MREID.
Strictly speaking, this process is intended for locally based business, but with a little creativity, there is no reason why this limitation can’t be applied to brands and personas.
the process is known as Google My Business, and being a Google product in itself, they have decided the best way to maintain uniqueness between each business listing is to assign a Machine-Readable Entity ID to each business registration.
By applying for a Google My Business listing, an ID is promptly assigned, and once the listing has been verified, the first problem has been resolved.
The Second Hurdle for Entities
Having now learned what entities are, and even how to get one, the next problem is how to associate this MREID with the digital assets that it relates to.
this process is what is now being defined as #EntityBlending.
Once the entity ID is known, it then becomes important that search engines can clearly understand which pages refer to Iceland as the brand, as oppose to Iceland the country, for example.
The reason for this is simple. If a search is made for Iceland the brand, then more results will feature the brand, rather than holiday offers to the country, assuming the entity ID is working to it’s potential.
Applying Entity Blending
The only thing left now is to understand how to connect the MREID of a Google My Business listing, together with a website, social media accounts, or indeed, any instance of brand exposure across the internet.
As a first step, it would be beneficial to connect the website to the entity source (the Google My Business listing).
While this relationship is probably already established from the Google My Business listing to the company or brand website, to strengthen this link, it is worth creating a reverse validation.
One such way would be through site schema, although to do this does require some understanding of the correct syntax.
Another way would be to use a tool such as Wordlift, which can assist with this process.
Conclusion
Entity Blending is an important concept for the reasons suggested above.
By defining your website, your social media and any visual marketing properties with an MREID, the chances of getting greater exposure are heightened with every successful connection.
over time, as searches are made for one aspecit of a business, links should start to bridge across to other brand properties, and in time, the brand persistence is strengthened, esepcially over that of any competitor not applying such strategies.
MREIDs are not a new concept in anyway, but the emergence of their importance to Google has highlighted the opportunity that can be gained by their strategic use.
Release ID: 494894