Knowledge Panels | Services to Create or Improve Knowledge Panel

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Creating a Google Knowledge Panel

The knowledge panel is a highly visible summary of information about an entity that appears in search results. The information found in knowledge panels comes from sources considered authoritative on the subject. Knowledge panel development involves "teaching" search engines about an entity.

Two types of panel

There are two types of knowledge panels:

Brand panels
Local panels

Brand panels show up far more often than local panels and in a wider geography. A Wikipedia page often triggers a brand panel, but a Google Business profile triggers a local one. Local panels are far easier to achieve but can be a stepping stone to a brand panel.

Where knowledge panel information comes from

The most often cited source of information for a knowledge panel is Wikipedia. But it's not the only source. Sources for knowledge panel information include:

Wikipedia
A brands' own website (called an "entity home")
Business databases
Wikidata
Google My Business
High-authority websites
LinkedIn.com
Britannica.com
Finance.Yahoo.com
Faceboook
Brainyquote
Inc.com
... and more

The Bing Knowledge Panel is far more transparent than Google; Bing shows you where it gets its information at the bottom of each panel.

Is a Wikipedia page necessary for a knowledge panel?

No, a Wikipedia page is not necessary for a knowledge panel. As the section above describes, knowledge panels get information from many sources, but Wikipedia is big. A Wikipedia page about your brand is a big step to getting a brand panel.

Corroborative sources

Information in a knowledge panel does not usually spring from a single source. Remember, panels are populated by trusted facts. Search engines often verify facts as information from multiple trusted sources that agree with each other. This "source corroboration" is a strong indicator of the verity of a fact. Reputation X works to assure trusted factual sources are in agreement by editing data sources. The enables search engines to more easily find and corroborate factual information, making the knowledge panel more likely.

Entity home

The "entity home" is the most authoritative source of information on a subject. For a corporate entity, this may be the company website, for a historical figure it might be History.com or a Wikipedia page. Reputation X will look at the entity home of similar entities to understand the kinds of information search engines are pulling facts from, and then recommend changes to the entity home based on what we learn. This may include links to trusted information sources, edits to information, specific types of schema markup, and more.

Social media and knowledge panels

There are many types of knowledge panels, but those for people and companies often include social media information at the bottom. Being active on social media can help improve search results by increasing the likelihood they will rank highly but can also trigger their inclusion in the knowledge panel itself.

Local business listings

Directory listings can influence knowledge panel information, especially if they are corroborative. There are dozens of directories, so having the same information across the entire spectrum is important to establish factual information. If there is confusion between listings, search engines may not know which information is accurate. They can choose the wrong information or simply decide not to generate a knowledge panel.

A Wikipedia page is not strictly necessary to get a Google Knowledge Panel, but it helps. A local panel certainly doesn't require Wikipedia. But a branded (national or global) panel often depends on Wikipedia – but not always.

A local business can usually generate a local knowledge panel by creating a Google Business profile. A local panel includes reviews, name, address, telephone number, a map, and images of the business. It's different from a brand panel that shows up globally. Brand panels include information like CEO name, founding date, number of employees, and more. Brand panels often evolve from a Wikipedia entry, but not always.

Both Google and Bing feature knowledge panels (so do other engines). Knowledge panels are triggered when the search engine is confident of the facts needed to populate the panel. Facts are found when trusted entities document the facts, especially when multiple trusted sites agree.

There are two types of knowledge panels, local and brand. Local panels are far more common as they appear for local businesses and other subjects. Brand panels appear in much wider geography but are triggered based on much more information, especially a Wikipedia page.

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