The Google Knowledge Graph & SEO

The Google knowledge graph & SEO- How are they related and impact each other?

With Google knowledge graph which typically provides instant answers to questions, websites may see a fall in traffic to their sites since searchers are getting their answers instantly, they won’t have to click on any links.

With Google Knowledge Graph you “click no further”.

For instance, if you type in Mt Everest in Google search box, this is what you see in Google:

But what if a searcher is searching for something more specific, such as; “Nepal Earthquake?” What would the results show?

In such cases, the searcher sees the Wikipedia results and organic results from top news sites.

Google’s knowledge graph will help searchers get to their answers instantly. Especially for searches that can be answered instantly, such as typing in “Mona Lisa”, searchers won’t have to click on any link; they will see a few lines about Mona Lisa along with the image(s) on the right side of the page through Google Knowledge graph. However, in order to know more, the searcher will need to click either on the knowledge graph results or the organic results for more. If your website provides customized, detailed, and genuine content and information, searchers will find you, either through Google knowledge graph or directly from the organic results.

Websites that provide one line answers or instant answers may lose out a bit, or perhaps even gain….if the site is an authoritative site, Google may display results from that site in their knowledge graph results. Anything is possible, it is all about getting to the most authentic answer instantly…

My advice as always would be to keep focusing on creating good content and continue to spread your content using SEO best practices. There will be as always changes in how search engines display results, rankings will go up and down, but there will always be traffic for solid and genuine content. In future, we may need to accept the fact that for instant answers there will be “Google knowledge graph” or something else that may come up, but  for pretty much everything else there will always be “Organic search results”.

Internet marketers will need to revisit and come up with strategies that will enable them to get the most out of this situation. Innovative and unique content and sharing such content, will help in getting increased visibility. At the end of the day it boils down to how good the content is, how it is presented, and whether it is worth a second look.

I am curious to know what your thoughts are about Google knowledge graph and it impact on SEO. I look forward to hearing from you.