Google Knowledge Panels – The Ultimate Guide

If you regularly use Google as your search engine of choice, it’s likely that you have already come across the Google knowledge panels. This is a block of information, often with images, to the right-hand side of the SERP. It can surmise everything you need to know without needing to click on the website – handy if you want to find out information quickly. As time has gone by, the Google knowledge panelGoogle's Knowledge Panel displays snippets of information about a topic that you search for in a Google search. has started to appear for many different search queries. This is great news for business owners, as you now have the opportunity to secure a Google Knowledge Panel yourself.

Curious to know why you need to take some time to do this? In this guide, we will take a more in-depth look into what Google knowledge panels are, why they should be important to you as a business owner, and last but certainly not least, how you can attempt to get one yourself. So without further ado, let’s jump straight in.

What are Google Knowledge Panels?

As we covered above, a knowledge panel is an information box on the right-hand side of the SERP. On mobile, this displays slightly differently, appearing between the results, but this is still pretty clear and obvious to see. Many people would consider these to be “rich results”. You can potentially learn everything you need right there and then. In most cases, though, viewers like the ability to quickly preview the results before clicking on the website to read more.

As this is so easy to spot, most people will recognise it straight away. However, if you have a keen eye when using Google, you may notice that the knowledge panel doesn’t appear every time you search for something.

In fact, it only shows up when you search for a particular entity. This could be:

• People
• Cities
• Organisations and businesses
• Objects
• Animals
• Countries
• Plants

Essentially, any entity that is already in the Knowledge GraphThe Knowledge Graph is a knowledge base that Google uses to organize information. will be able to appear as a knowledge panel. However, don’t let this fact distort your views on how easy it will be to obtain a knowledge panel yourself. Yes, it might appear that all you have to do is get into the Knowledge Graph, but there is a common theme surrounding the above entities. The Google knowledge panels only contain information that Google views as fact, determined by an algorithm. This algorithm will take GooglebotGooglebot is a web crawler. It follows links and indexes pages for search engines to make it easier for users to find what they're looking for. data and cross-reference them with several trusted sources. Only then will it procure the facts and display them for you as a knowledge panel.

Quick Note: It is important to point out the difference between a knowledge panel and the Google My Business box. You can easily distinguish between the two due to the little icon found in the boxes to the right-hand side.

What Features are There on The Knowledge Panel?

The knowledge panel will reveal details specific to your search query and is updated automatically when the information changes elsewhere, but as standard, you can expect to see:

• A section called “People also search for” with images and names.
• Photos and videos – These can come from several sources.
• Website link
• Brief description with critical details included about your search entity. For individuals, this could be when they were born, their full name, and if they are married, who they are married to. For brands or businesses, it could provide details about the CEO, founders, where they are based, when they are open, etc., for example.

However, not all knowledge panels are equal. They differ in many ways. Each knowledge panel could display various features and information. Take this example. When you search for a banana, a knowledge panel will show up. This particular result has several drop-down boxes offering more information in addition to the block of text that summarises the search query. When compared to another example, this drop-drop feature might not be available but instead has one or all of the following:

• Social profiles
• Available on
• Movies/ Albums may display if you search for a celebrity
• For location knowledge panels, you may see the features such as “Plan a trip” with linksHyperlinks, also known as links, are the connection points on a webpage that take you to other webpages. that enable you to search for flights or things to do, or population numbers.

Each knowledge panel offers something slightly different to the user, all determined by what is out there on the web.

Why are Google Knowledge Panels Important?

At this point, it is important to understand why you need to go to the effort of trying to secure yourself a knowledge panel. As a business, you want to be showing up as much as possible in the SERPs. In your effort of doing that, a knowledge panel can become your best friend. After all, if you can get a knowledge panel from Google, you can dominate the results page and get a lot of clicks as a result. All you need to do now is make sure you can keep the visitors there long enough. However, considering Google already views you as an authoritative figure to give you a knowledge panel, this should mean that your website is hitting their requirements and is user-friendly.

From a user’s perspective, knowledge panels can prove extremely useful, enabling them to see the best results quickly, overall improving their user experience. If you get a knowledge panel and the user experience is already off to a great start, you have more chance of them becoming a customer.

How Do You Get a Knowledge Panel?

So, now that you know how important these can be, the only question is how do you get one? Often, only those who are well known and have Wikipedia pages about them are generally granted a knowledge panel. Of course, Google will always get the final say and decide whether or not to display a knowledge panel for you, but you can do a few things to boost your chances of this happening.

Know what you are aiming for

There are two forms of Google knowledge panels for businesses, so you need to know what you are aiming to achieve. First, there are the branded knowledge panels. Branded panels will display information about large corporations and multi-location franchise businesses like McDonald’s. Then, there are the local knowledge panels, which will showcase information about individual business locations.

As established earlier, the information on each knowledge panel will slightly differ, and it is the same case for these two business panels. For example, a local panel might display opening hours, popular times to visit, reviews, the address, and star rating. In contrast, for a branded panel, expect to see the number of employees and locations, the customer service number, and more.

A branded panel has been known to be harder to achieve than a local panel. However, if you can show that your brand has authority, then there is every chance that you can make this happen.

As a small-medium-sized business, you should first be aiming for the local panel. With our following tips, you have a much better chance of securing this. However, before you do so, the first thing we recommend doing is to check that you don’t already own a knowledge panel. Simply search in the SERP to see if your business comes up. If it doesn’t, then you can move onto our tips for helping achieve a knowledge panel.

What Happens if You Have a Knowledge Panel

If you have a knowledge panel, you need to claim it. Click the “Claim this knowledge panel” button found at the bottom of the knowledge panel. By clicking on this, you will be redirected to Google’s search results page so that you can suggest edits to your listing. To confirm that you are then the owner, you need to login into your Google Search Console account. If you don’t have an account yet, now is the time to make one. Click “Settings” and review the property settings. If you are the owner, a green tick stating “You are the verified owner” should display next to Ownership Verification.

Tips for Getting your Knowledge Panel

Creating Listings on Local Directories

If you want a local panel, it only makes sense that you need to have local directories. To do this, you need to set up a Google My Business account if you don’t already have one. This has multiple benefits. Naturally, the first one is that it allows you to add relevant information about your business. In other words, you are supplying Google with the facts about your business, such as where you are based, when you are open, and any photos you have. This is all information that could be displayed in the knowledge panel. The other bonus of starting a GMB account is that this can kickstart your local SEO efforts and gets you listed on Google Maps. We can help set you up with your local SEOLocal SEO is the process of optimizing your website to rank on the 1st page of Google for a search term and geographic location that is relevant to your business. campaign and ensure that your GMB account has everything it needs to help your efforts in trying to secure a knowledge panel.

Build Your Online Presence on Social Media

As you start to focus on your local SEO, it is important to not lose sight of the bigger picture. You still need to maintain a presence with the wider community through your social media channels. By remaining active on your social media platforms, you can do your part in helping Google learn more about you as a business. They can uncover more about your brand, the services you offer, how your company operates, and so much more, such as how you interact with your customers.

Being active on social media is completely worth the time, as you won’t just be doing it to gain a knowledge panel. By staying active, you are also ensuring that more potential customers find your business.

Have a Wikipedia Page

Google uses Wikipedia as a primary source for forming their knowledge panels, and so without a Wikipedia page, getting a knowledge panel is a lot harder, although not impossible. Therefore, you need to ensure that you have pages set up for you and build your online presence on these.

Not sure how to create a Wikipedia page? Follow our quick five-step guide here:

1. Create a Wikipedia account – You can find this in the right-hand corner of the Wikipedia page.
2. Edit pages – You need to become an auto-confirmed Wikipedia user, and so the best way to do this is by editing Wikipedia pages. Spend at least a month doing this.
3. Create your page once you are confirmed. Make sure your page is packed full of information, is grammatically correct, and offers great readability. You need to include citationsA citation is a mention of your company, product, or service in an online publication. Citations increase the ranking of your site on search engines. Sources such as books, newspapers, and journals are all great but don’t use social media, PR pieces, blogs, etc.
4. Submit your page – Wikipedia will look over this and determine if the information you have supplied is credible.
5. Update it – Don’t just leave your Wikipedia to gather dust. Make sure to update it regularly.

It can also be handy to create a Wikidata page. Just like Wikipedia, Google uses this as a primary source for forming their knowledge panels. However, just because Google uses these as their primary sources, it doesn’t mean this should be your sole focus. For example, if you were to put all your eggs into this basket and gain your knowledge panel, but the Wikipedia page was to disappear, so too could your knowledge panel.

Look at Your Website

Google does use Wikipedia as a way of learning more about you, but there is one excellent source that should have an abundance of information about you: your website. Every website should have an “About Us” page or section that provides details about who you are, what you do, and more – these are the facts about your business that Google could use in your knowledge panel. If you can, you should try to include links from sources to verify what you are saying.

However, it can only be used to your advantage if you are carrying out the right actions. What we mean by actions is making sure that you have an optimised site and you have implemented schema markup.

• Optimise Your Site

A site with higher site authority has more chance of getting a knowledge panel. Google wants to promote trustworthy and relevant businesses, so if you want to show them that you fit this bill, you need to boost your site authority. How do you do that? The short answer is with the use of SEO.

If you can optimise your site, meeting as many of the requirements that Google has said to expect from websites, it can help you boost your domain authority. We recommend carrying out an SEO audit to see where on your website you could improve. You might find that you need to focus on improving the user experience or enhancing your content.

Of course, optimising your site alone won’t boost your authority. One recommended course of action is to start a link buildingLink building is a process of acquiring links pointing to your website. These links are obtained by creating content, participating in social media or commenting on other blogs. campaign. By doing a combination of SEO methods that work, you can start to build your authority. You can easily find out what your authority score is using handy tools online.

• Schema Markup

You should implement structured data to help Google study your site and its content more effectively, looking into how it is structured. In addition, like most tips on this list, it can aid you in other ways too. For example, schema markup can enhance your online visibility and improve your click-through rates as a result. You need your schema markup to be clean and correct, easily pointing Google in the right direction, and if you can prove to Google long term that everything you are saying is accurate, they will trust you more.

Make content for the User

Creating content that you want will never do as well as content that has been specifically created with the user in mind. If you study the user intent, you can start producing content, optimising it as recommended. This can increase your chance at obtaining a knowledge panel simply because Google has more faith in you that you can offer the user a better experience in finding out what they need to.

Our top tip: Optimise your meta tagsA meta tag is a structured data element that appears in the head section of a webpage. and descriptions and the titles with a primary keywordKeywords are the words and phrases that potential customers might search for to find your business., with details about the author, to further your efforts in achieving a Google Knowledge panel.

Reviews Matter

Reviews are great for showcasing how great your brand is, but many businesses fear them due to the risk of seeing negative reviews pop up and damage their reputation. However, reviews can play an influential part in helping Google understand more about your business. Google will review them carefully before making a decision. Having user reviews could make the difference between you acquiring a knowledge panel and not.

Of course, the above tips aren’t a guaranteed way to secure a knowledge panel, but they do provide you with a fighting chance. With the opportunity to benefit in multiple ways, trying out these actions is worthwhile. With our team of experts able to help you with a number of these areas, get in touch with us today to see how we can help you on your mission to gain a knowledge panel.