Google’s Entity Search Is Changing How SEO Works

Semantic search is the future of search engines — and of the digital world in general.

Google intends to become one of the very first search engines to offer a complete semantic search option, and this is why ‘Google’s Entity Search’ is a term you’ll hear more and more often.

A complete semantic search engine will be a great addition to the digital world as we know it, allowing search engine users to find answers to their queries in an even quicker and more efficient manner than they do today, yet it also poses certain difficulties for businesses and website owners like you.

In short, Google’s entity search is changing how SEO and online marketing will work most effectively.

It is believed the move towards semantic search will make less room for organic search results on Google’s Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) in favour of including more detailed information actually on the SERP.

Let’s take it from the top.

What is Google’s Entity Search?

In simple words, Google’s entity search is about making its “bots” more intelligent so they can understand what words mean and the intent users have behind their search queries.

It’s not just about presenting lots of text links anymore. Google is now trying to understand what entities are, and when it gets to that level, SEO will be a different ball game.

Here is what Amit Singhal of Google had to say about all this:

“It’s a challenging task, but the work has already begun. Google is building a huge in-house understanding of what an entity is and a repository of what entities are in the world and what should you know about those entities.”

The Impact on Search Engine Results Pages

While all of that is interesting, you may be more concerned about the kind of impact it has on the search engine results page.

This is how the search engine result pages often look with Google’s entity search and The Knowledge Graph.

As you can see in the above image, the organic results are now really at the bottom of the barrel.

If there are no paid results, the “answer” panel will have the top spot, and text links will follow.

In short, it is now more important than ever to answer specific questions in a very specific step-by-step manner, so you can have a better chance of getting in that graph panel.

Otherwise, you may see some damage to your search engine traffic.

What’s the Future of SEO?

A valid question, isn’t it?

Is SEO dead? Do the text-results not matter any more?

Well, as a matter of fact, no SEO isn’t dead. It’s just getting started. As search engines are becoming smarter and more intelligent, SEO will be, too.

Moreover, natural and relevant backlinks are going to be the key to success in near future.

Either way, there is still a lot of time before search engines are fully evolved with such kind of “entity-based” results.

So hope for the best, keep your fingers crossed and stay tuned for the latest developments.