Google Knowledge Graph
We’ve had a lot of viewers asking us about Google’s Knowledge Graph since it launched in the US last week and thought we’d use this weeks blog post to answer some of the most common questions asked about Google’s Knowledge Graph.
Got your own question? Send it to Ask [email protected] and we’ll post it!
What’s all this about a ‘Knowledge Graph’?!
Google’s Knowledge Graph is a database of information that contains over 3.5 billion facts about and relationships between more than 500 million different real-world objects. Where Google uses its Link Graph to understand how websites are connected, Google’s new Knowledge Graph seeks to understand the relationships between concepts and where the information on these concepts are online.
So what does this thing actually DO?
The Knowledge Graph helps Google understand search phrases semantically rather than solely by keyword, providing their algorithms with context and relationships between real world things rather than simply a string of characters. It provides Google with the kind of real world understanding that keyword search has always lacked, allowing Google to provide answers rather than just links. Google’s goal with the Knowledge Graph is to get relevant answers to searchers quicker by cutting out both the middleman and the work required of a searcher to find the information they’re after.
But where will all this information be used?
Google have added a new sidebar packed with information to search results when it recognises a search query related to it’s Knowledge Graph. Searching for ‘Nikola Tesla’ for example brings up summary with a picture, short Wikipedia snippet, the main details of his life (born, died, education, projects, awards) and books on the man himself.
As well as the summary, the new sidebar also brings a whole new exploratory element to Google’s SERPs. Links are littered not only throughout the Knowledge Graph summary to delve deeper into the specifics, but also in a new ‘People also search for’ section that shows what other Google users search for in relation to the original query.
The new summary section allows Google to keep more searchers on-page rather than sending them off to the far corners of the web, resulting in more ad exposure and more time spent with Google’s services.
Got any tips on how we can use this to boost our search traffic?
The Knowledge Graph isn’t exactly something you can submit information to, however it will undoubtedly grow over time to help it make better decisions on what to deliver to searchers. If you’re an author of a book on Nikola Tesla for example, you may want to ensure your work is available on Google Books, ask your fan base to write Google Books reviews, set up a website promoting your book and ensure the authorship for the book links back to your Google profile.
For most businesses, exploring what the Knowledge Graph finds when searching around your industry will show you the kinds of results Google believes are important to these searches and allow you to find ways in which to gain further exposure. Each Knowledge Graph result will be different, so keep in mind that there is no one size fits all approach to showing up in Knowledge Graph results.
So when does it launch? For Stateside Googlers the knowledge base is live but like most new Google products, it won’t hit Australian shores for a few months yet. Check out the video above for some real life examples of Google’s Knowledge Graph in action!
That’s it for today guys. Shoot any questions to Ask [email protected] and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can!
Jim’s been here for a while, you know who he is.
