Search engines stopped matching strings and started recognising things. If your business is not a thing they recognise, you get left out of the answer.
TL;DR An entity is a business a machine is confident exists. Confidence comes from consistent data corroborated across independent sources. Fix your identity everywhere, get cited by real local sites, and structure a press page that makes you easy to verify.
Entity versus keyword, in one line
Keyword thinking: rank a page for “plumber fall river.”
Entity thinking: be the business a machine names when someone asks who the good plumber in Fall River is.
The second one is what AI assistants do. BrightLocal’s 2026 survey found consumers using AI for local business recommendations jumped from 6% to 45% in a year, and that 42% now trust those recommendations as much as reviews. Being named is the new ranking.
How machines build confidence in you
Three ingredients, all of which you influence.
| Ingredient | What it means | How you build it |
|---|---|---|
| Consistency | Your details agree everywhere | NAP discipline, one description |
| Corroboration | Independent sources confirm you | Local links, press, directories |
| Structure | Your data is explicitly labelled | Schema markup, clear site copy |
Any conflict lowers confidence. Two phone numbers across your listings means the machine is less sure you are one business, and a less certain business is a less recommended business.
The sameAs property, which almost nobody uses
In your LocalBusiness schema, sameAs explicitly tells a machine which other profiles are you. It is the cheapest entity signal available.
"sameAs": [
"https://www.facebook.com/yourpage",
"https://www.instagram.com/yourpage",
"https://www.linkedin.com/company/yourcompany",
"https://www.yelp.com/biz/yourbusiness",
"https://www.bbb.org/us/ma/fall-river/profile/yourbusiness"
]
You are stitching your scattered profiles into one identity by hand. Include every profile you actually control and keep current. Do not list a dead account.
Wikidata, honestly assessed
Wikidata is an open knowledge base that feeds Google’s Knowledge Graph, and you will read that adding your business is a shortcut to entity status.
The honest version. Wikidata has notability standards. A local plumbing company with no press coverage will likely have its entry deleted, and repeated self-promotional entries can get an account blocked. It is not a general-purpose business directory.
When it is legitimate. If your business has genuine independent coverage, a notable founder, a long history, or a significant local role, an entry may stand. Cite the independent sources in the entry itself.
If you do not qualify, and most single-location service businesses do not, skip it. The other tactics on this page do more anyway.
Entity co-occurrence
Machines learn what you are by what you appear alongside.
Make sure your business name appears in text near:
- Your service words. “Sicc Plumbing installs tankless water heaters.”
- Your town and neighbouring towns.
- Your trade certifications and the brands you install.
- Local landmarks and institutions you are associated with.
Where this happens naturally. Sponsorship pages, local press, supplier dealer locators, Chamber directories, forum recommendations. Each one is a machine reading your name next to a place and a service.
Do not force it. Writing “Sicc Plumbing plumber Fall River plumbing” repeatedly reads as spam and does the opposite.
Build a real press page
One page that makes you trivially easy for a machine, a journalist, or a customer to verify.
Include
- Founded date, founder name, and a plain history paragraph.
- Full NAP, matching everything else exactly.
- Certifications and licence numbers, which are independently checkable.
- Every press mention, linked, with date and outlet.
- Awards and memberships, linked.
- A downloadable logo and one photo.
- A named media contact with a direct email.
Why this works. It concentrates every verification signal on one URL, and gives reporters a reason to link you rather than just naming you.
The 90-day entity build
| Month | Action |
|---|---|
| 1 | NAP audit and fix everywhere. Add LocalBusiness schema with sameAs |
| 2 | Build the press page. Ask suppliers for dealer locator listings |
| 3 | One sponsorship link. Send the quotable-expert email to two local reporters |
Then re-run the AI test: ask ChatGPT and Perplexity who the best in your trade is in your town, and see whether you are named.
Ask an AI tool about your business by name right now and check whether it gets your services and hours right. Whatever it gets wrong is your entity data failing in public, and it is fixable this month.
Need a pro to build it? [BOOK A CALL]