Back in 2012, the search engine giant Google launched the Knowledge Graph. It’s es­sen­tially an extension to search results in the form of a widget displayed as a separate infobox. The infobox contains in­tro­duct­ory facts, a defin­i­tion of the search term or further in­form­a­tion.

The Google widget acts as a knowledge database and provides users with all relevant in­form­a­tion for a queried topic quickly and clearly. As soon as Google re­cog­nises a semantic entity – i.e. a piece of in­form­a­tion with direct con­nec­tions to related topics – relevant in­form­a­tion is shown in the widget. With Google’s Knowledge Graph, se­mantic­ally related content for a search request can include the following in­form­a­tion:

  • In­form­a­tion about certain locations, people or companies
  • Images
  • Text extracts
  • Data with extra details
  • In­form­a­tion about similar search requests
Image: Google’s Knowledge Graph for the search query “dog”
Google’s Knowledge Graph displays this infobox for the search term “dog”.

Google’s Knowledge Graph is displayed to desktop users as an infobox in the search results for around eight percent of search queries. This is usually when the search requests are rather general in nature and Google re­cog­nises a lot of related semantic links to the re­spect­ive search term. The infobox is displayed to users in the widget for the Google Knowledge Graph. For Google, a large semantic sphere means lots of possible points of reference. Places or sights, for example, are ideal search results for Google to present further relevant in­form­a­tion on the results page. Searching for “France” will produce travel tips, flight and hotel prices, at­trac­tions, wiki data, and sug­ges­tions for related search queries. Google iden­ti­fies all this extra in­form­a­tion using the Knowledge Graph.

How Was Google’s Knowledge Graph Developed?

The Knowledge Graph has existed since 2012, boosting Google’s position as the largest provider of relevant in­form­a­tion for users on the internet. Google’s aim was to make it even easier for users to search for in­form­a­tion, and to provide this in­form­a­tion in an even clearer manner. In 2013, the functions of the Knowledge Graph were further expanded as part of the Google update “Hum­ming­bird”. This update allows users to receive answers to specific questions using the Hum­ming­bird algorithm. These answers are then displayed for both desktop and mobile searches. All other basic functions remained unchanged.

The Structure of Google’s Knowledge Graph

The Knowledge Graph typically shows one or more of the following three elements depending on the request:

  • Answer boxes
  • Knowledge panel
  • Carousel

Direct questions are answered by these elements below the search window, in an answer box. A practical example can be seen for the question: “How high is the Eiffel Tower?”.

Image: The Knowledge Graph answer box for the question: “How high is the Eiffel Tower?”
Present­a­tion of the answer box based on the Google Knowledge Graph

This answer box is displayed above the normal search engine result pages (ab­bre­vi­ated to SERPs). However, Google can only provide the cor­res­pond­ing answers in the answer box if in­form­a­tion is known that answers the question posed exactly and is not just somewhat related to the topic. By contrast, in­form­a­tion about companies or people is only shown in the knowledge panel located to the right of the search results. This panel is the central element of the Google Knowledge Graph. Here, you can find all in­form­a­tion about the search request concisely and neatly.

Image: The knowledge panel of the Knowledge Graph
Full display of the Knowledge Graph

The carousel is part of the Knowledge Graph and it can usually be reached with a click on one of the links beneath the answer box – titled “People also search for”. This is where a series of images are presented on related topics. Google thereby provides even more in­form­a­tion in case the user doesn’t find the answer they’re looking for.

Image: Knowledge Graph carousel
The results of the Knowledge Graph in the form of a carousel

How Google’s Knowledge Graph Obtains In­form­a­tion

Google uses credible, publicly ac­cess­ible data and in­form­a­tion from its own data re­pos­it­or­ies. The data needs to be reliable and de­pend­able in order to be used for the Google Knowledge Graph. For instance, verified in­form­a­tion can be taken from Wikipedia or pub­lic­a­tions from trust­worthy gov­ern­ments or or­gan­isa­tions. Google also uses in­form­a­tion from websites that have proven to be reliable sources. The Knowledge Graph therefore often presents defin­i­tions that have been checked by several websites and are in general use.

Note

Google provides the user with in­suf­fi­cient data on where exactly the data comes from. The re­spect­ive websites hardly benefit from an enhanced repu­ta­tion. Plus, the users have to trust Google to a certain degree, since the sources are not always im­me­di­ately veri­fi­able.

The Im­port­ance of Google’s Knowledge Graph for Companies

Companies can primarily use the Google Knowledge Graph as a SEO and marketing tool. They can attempt to influence which in­form­a­tion appears for their brands and products in the Knowledge Graph, thereby actively at­tract­ing users to their websites. Due to the fact that Google uses in­form­a­tion from Wikipedia or company websites for the Knowledge Graph, it’s possible to have a con­sid­er­able effect on the content displayed by Google’s Knowledge Graphs. Both sources are treated equally. It’s therefore possible for companies to use the search engine feature to direct traffic to their websites. But this only works if the in­form­a­tion presented by the Knowledge Graph is appealing, objective, and well-struc­tured.

From a company’s per­spect­ive, there’s also a con­sid­er­able dis­ad­vant­age with this Google feature. If the in­form­a­tion in the infobox is already suf­fi­cient for the user, they may no longer need to click on the cor­res­pond­ing website, resulting in a drop of incoming traffic. For this reason, the Wikipedia community is quite critical about this de­vel­op­ment.

Op­tim­ising the Google Knowledge Graph as a Company

First of all, it’s important to remember that search engine op­tim­isa­tion does not provide you with direct influence on the content of the Knowledge Graph. But there are a range of other options. The most effective of these including main­tain­ing a Wikipedia entry and managing the content on your own website. By present­ing key content about the company in an appealing and struc­tured manner, both in a Wikipedia entry and on the re­spect­ive website, a large part of the work for op­tim­ising the Knowledge Graph display is already taken care of. But it’s def­in­itely not a good idea to hastily overhaul all content and present the company in bright colours. A far better approach is to modestly optimise the objective emphasis of the strengths of the company on both Wikipedia and the company website.

Above all, the data should be presented with a suitable structure – and this is exactly what the Google Knowledge Graph depends on. Here, it’s best to use the markup format­ting of Schema.org. In order to help reveal op­tim­isa­tion potential for websites and company pages, the Big Data giant has provided a free analysis tool called Google Light­house.

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