Why Entity Search is Your SEO Secret Weapon

When creating content for your website, using strategies that will increase search engine optimization (SEO) is key to growth. But regular keyword SEO—that is, just using simple words and phrases in an effort to drive traffic—isn’t enough to bring the type of internet users you need for your content to be successful. 

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This is where entity search SEO comes in. 

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Over the years, Google’s search engine system has become more complex. This is good for you, because now more than ever you can tailor your content to the user experience. 

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Entity search SEO moves beyond generic keyword stuffing and instead uses context and relevant information in order to provide good search results for the user. You can think of entity search SEO as a type of web that works to weave different ideas together to provide the user with the information they need. 

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Entity search SEO is one of the most innovative and effective ways to boost your brand, and you should most definitely be employing it in your SEO strategy. 

How does it work?

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Entity search is so useful because it moves away from keyword use and instead prioritizes idea searching. Searches around a specific and unique idea help content creators market their websites to users more effectively. 

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Why? 

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Because you’ll know what users are looking for. Users can search for specific questions and then be presented with results that are ultra-specific answers to their questions. And most of the time, these answers will go beyond answering the original question and offer the user answers to other questions within that related topic. 

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When you know what questions users are asking, you can give them the answers that they need within a specific group of related ideas, words, or concepts.

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Entity search SEO is focused on the user experience. 

For example, if users search for a single word, like “phone,” Google will provide a variety of different related search terms for the user because simply searching “phone” doesn’t give them an idea of what the user is looking for. Do they need a new phone, want to compare different brands of phones, or find reviews of phones? By using entity search SEO, we can find out. 

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Nowadays, more users will type full questions into the Google search bar. And if they don’t, Google will give them search suggestions that will help them narrow down their inquiry. 

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Their question will then usually look something like this: “what is the best iPhone I can get for cheap?”

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This type of search is where entity search SEO really shines. 

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In the question, we have a few places to pinpoint. First, the search is specific and unique. There is a definitive question that needs a definitive answer. But we also have information about what type of phone the user wants (iPhone), the general price point they are comfortable with (relatively inexpensive), and the most highly rated smartphone within that price point (which would likely be the newest, or closest to newest model). 

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As a content creator, this type of search gives you a lot of information to work with. If your blog focuses on tech information, you have almost (but more on that later) enough information to build a helpful, comprehensive blog for the user to find the best inexpensive iPhone on the market. 

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Building an informative piece of content that can help users find the answer to their question or questions is largely dependent on creating semantic SEO-friendly content. But you can and should build upon the foundational principles of semantic SEO-friendly content to better utilize entity search SEO. This will help you boost the chances that you’ll find your blog on the first page of Google through entity search SEO practices enhanced by semantic SEO such as:

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1. Making your website mobile friendly through mobile-indexing
2. Ensuring that your content has enough information (i.e, price points for your products, for Google to pick up 

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Mobile-indexing is incredibly important in boosting your website traffic. Because so many users search for content on their phones, optimizing your website for mobile is imperative to get and keep users interested in what you have to offer. No one likes wading through a clunky website that won’t open properly on their phone.

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But that’s not all. 

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Entity search SEO also requires that your website is navigable with all the important information about your brand. This includes clear and easy to find prices for your products, information about where you are located or based, who your organization is, and rich snippets (more on this later), to name a few. 

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It may sound like a lot, but the good news is that you probably already do most of these things for your brand. Just by nature of engaging in good semantic SEO practices, you’ve likely already built a user-friendly website that is optimized for mobile use. Your website is also pretty navigable with lots of information about you, your brand, and what you can offer. Entity SEO just encourages you to take these already great principles and make them a little bit better in order to help users and yourself. 

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So, in a nutshell, entity search SEO helps: 

1. Narrow the search term or phrase to better understand what a user is looking for by connecting ideas and concepts that a user is interested in
2. Prioritize mobile-indexing
3. Will help your content rank higher on Google 

Why should you use it?

If you’re not using entity search SEO, you’re missing out on great SEO strategy tools that will stunt your business if you don’t use them. 

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Entity search is so great because it helps you zero in on what users are looking for so that you can better provide the services and products on your website to them. 

How do you use it?

That was a lot of information about why you should use entity search SEO. But it’s worthless if you don’t know how to use it. 

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The first step of entity search SEO is to utilize semantic SEO strategies. If you’re unfamiliar with what semantic SEO is, that is the first step to learning entity search SEO, so go check that out. But in short, semantic SEO encourages you to create content with plenty of quality pieces of information so that the user can find everything they need on your website. 

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→ Pro tip: Linking, both externally and internally can help you create more entities through idea linking while boosting your website traffic at the same time! This works because entity SEO is inherently based on connecting various concepts and ideas. Linking internally and internally will help you diversify different sets of ideas to create a bigger search entity that will be picked up by Google. 

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The second method is to ensure that your website is mobile-friendly, usable, and authoritative. If you only have information about tech (and more specifically iPhones) on your blog, that’s a great start. You’ve created a specific brand that will likely be able to answer a lot of market questions. But why should the user trust you? What makes your website a quality source of information? 

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This is where it becomes important to clearly identify yourself, your organization, your products, and your prices. Users like to know where they’re getting information from, and often how much it will cost. They like to compare sources and prices so that they can get the best information or deal out there. 

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If your website is lacking in any of these areas, users (and Google) might think you’re spam and will probably avoid ranking your website on Google. 

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An example of a rich snippet that features this Pittsburgh restaurant’s reviews, the type of food they serve, and their location. This type of information is incredibly useful for users.

Alt text: An example of a rich snippet.

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Another great way to utilize entity search SEO to your advantage is by using rich snippets. This SEO strategy helps users easily identify your product and prices so that they can quickly compare purchase options available to them. Of course, this is only useful when you are selling a product like clothing or a guide of some sort, but if you are, it’s very helpful. 

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Using rich snippets does require a bit of coding, but it’s another fantastic way to key into what ideas and concepts users are looking for and highlight important information like reviews and prices. 

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Entity search SEO is the next big thing in the world of search engine optimization. If you take the steps to implement this into your brand, you’ll see your website traffic jump in no time, and users will be more happy and satisfied with your content. 

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