How to Find Entities for SEO Optimization

Last Updated on May 22, 2025

SEO was all about keyword density and exact-match phrases when I started optimizing content. But things have changed drastically. In 2025, Google will not rank pages based on keywords but on entities and how well your content fits into a broader semantic context.

Entities are the building blocks of semantic SEO. They help search engines understand your content, not just match it with words people type. And this shift isn’t subtle. According to a 2024 study by InLinks, entity-based optimization increased organic traffic by 32% on average across 114 content-driven websites. Another analysis by Semrush revealed that over 70% of top-ranking pages in competitive niches are optimized using structured data and entity recognition.

So if you’re still chasing exact keywords without considering the entities behind them, you’re missing a massive ranking opportunity.

In this guide, I’ll explain how to find entities for SEO optimization, integrate them naturally into your content, and use them to strengthen your topical authority in the eyes of Google.

What Are Entities in SEO?

In simple terms, entities are unique, identifiable things that Google can understand independently of keywords. They are digital concepts with fixed identities, people, places, organizations, products, or even abstract ideas.

For example:

• “Apple” can mean a fruit or a tech company. To a search engine, these are two different entities.
• “Albert Einstein” is not just a name; it’s an entity tied to concepts like physics, relativity, and the Nobel Prize.

Entities are often stored in Google’s Knowledge Graph, a vast database that helps the search engine connect dots between topics, giving users richer, more accurate results. That’s why when you search for something like “Barack Obama”, you don’t just get a list of blue links, you get a structured panel showing his birth date, role, spouse, and more.

In SEO, using entities helps Google understand your content better, rank it more appropriately, and even feature it in knowledge panels, featured snippets, and PAA boxes.

Pro Tip: Google’s understanding of entities goes beyond keywords. It uses tools like BERT and MUM to match content semantically. That’s why including related entities, not just variations of your keyword, can significantly improve relevance and rankings.

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Why Entities Matter More Than Ever in 2025

Google’s search algorithm has undergone a fundamental shift. With the rollout of BERT, MUM, and advancements in natural language processing (NLP), the focus has moved from keywords to context, and entities are at the center of that context.

In the past, stuffing a keyword like “best wireless headphones” into a page several times might have worked. Today, Google wants to know:

• Is your page about wireless headphones?
• Does it mention related entities like Bluetooth, ANC (Active Noise Cancellation), battery life, brands like Sony or Bose?
• Do you provide contextually rich, interlinked information that signals topical expertise?

According to a study by BrightEdge, over 85% of content that ranks in the top 3 positions now aligns with known entities in Google’s Knowledge Graph. What this means for SEOs is clear: your content isn’t just competing on keyword usage, it’s being evaluated on its semantic richness and entity coverage.

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Here’s how entities impact modern SEO:

• Featured Snippets & People Also Ask: Google uses entity relationships to pull accurate answers.
• E-E-A-T Signals: Entities like author name, organization, or credentials reinforce trustworthiness.
• Topical Authority: Covering all related entities in a topic cluster shows depth and relevance.

Bottom line: If your content isn’t optimized around entities, you’re speaking a language Google no longer fully understands.

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Tools to Discover Relevant Entities

Finding entities manually can be time-consuming. Fortunately, several free and paid tools can help you extract, map, and use relevant entities to enhance your SEO strategy.

A. Google-Native Tools

1. Google NLP API
This tool analyzes your content and highlights entities that Google already recognizes. It categorizes them (e.g., PERSON, ORGANIZATION, LOCATION) and assigns salience scores to show relevance.

2. Google Search Console (GSC)
While GSC doesn’t explicitly mention entities, you can spot patterns in high-performing pages and their correlated queries, which often reflect semantic intent and related entities.

3. Google SERPs: Autocomplete & PAA Boxes
By analyzing autocomplete suggestions and “People Also Ask” questions, you uncover familiar related entities people associate with your main topic.

B. Third-Party SEO Tools

1. InLinks
Specialized in entity SEO. It maps your content to entities in Wikidata, suggests internal links, and helps structure your pages around recognized concepts.

2. Surfer SEO
Surfer’s NLP module highlights relevant terms (including entities) used by top-ranking pages. It’s excellent for semantically optimizing on-page SEO.

3. MarketMuse
Uses AI to suggest topics and entities based on competitive content. Ideal for building topical authority across long-form content.

4. IBM Watson NLU or TextRazor
These NLP tools extract deep semantic information and entity relationships, which are great for advanced SEOs building structured content systems.

Tip: Tools are only as useful as how you apply the insights. Don’t just insert entities blindly, understand how they relate to your topic and build your content strategy around them.

How to Find Entities Step-by-Step

Optimizing for entities isn’t about guesswork; it’s about structured discovery and strategic placement. Here’s a step-by-step approach I use when creating entity-rich content.

1. Start With a Seed Keyword or Topic

Begin with a primary topic or keyword. This acts as your anchor for identifying semantically related concepts. For example, if your topic is “email marketing”, that becomes your seed.

2. Analyze Top-Ranking Pages

Look at what’s already ranking for your topic. Use tools like Surfer SEO or a manual content audit to extract standard terms, concepts, and named entities.

• Scan for people, brands, tools, and statistics mentioned repeatedly.
• Use a browser extension like SEO Minion to scrape PAA or FAQs.

3. Use NLP Tools to Extract Entities

Paste top-ranking content or your draft into tools like:

• Google NLP API
• TextRazor
• IBM Watson NLU

These tools return a list of entities along with relevance scores. Prioritize entities with high confidence and semantic relation to your seed topic.

4. Group and Categorize Entities

Organize your findings into categories like:

• People/Brands (e.g., Mailchimp, HubSpot)
• Concepts (e.g., CTR, segmentation)
• Tools/Software (e.g., SMTP, CRM)
• Industries/Use-Cases (e.g., B2B, SaaS)

This helps you structure the content around supporting clusters.

5. Prioritize and Integrate

Not all entities need to be used. Select:

• High-relevance entities with strong user intent signals
• Entities mentioned across multiple competitor pages
• Concepts aligned with Google’s Knowledge Graph

Weave them naturally into your headers, body content, alt text, and internal links.

Example: For a blog on “Cybersecurity for Small Businesses”, key entities might include:

• “Firewalls” (Tool)
• “NIST Framework” (Standard)
• “Data breach” (Concept)
• “SOC 2 compliance” (Entity from regulation)

Where and How to Use Entities in Your Content (Expanded Guide)

Once you’ve identified relevant entities, the next step is intentional implementation. Where you place entities in your content directly impacts how search engines interpret your page’s topic, intent, and authority. Here’s a deep dive into how to do it right.

1. Page Title (H1) and Meta Title

• Best Practice: Include the core entity that defines your page focus.
• Why: Google gives significant weight to the <title> tag and H1 when crawling and indexing.
• Example:
  “Complete Marketing Guide”
  “B2B SaaS Marketing Guide for 2025 [With Case Studies]”
  (Entities: B2B, SaaS, Case Studies, 2025)

2. Subheadings (H2–H4)

• Integrate supporting entities that relate to your core topic.
• Helps structure the content semantically and improves keyword/entity co-occurrence.
• Example: For a blog about SEO tools, headings like:
  • “How Ahrefs and Semrush Compare for Entity Optimization”
  • “Using Natural Language Processing in Surfer SEO”

3. Introduction and First 100 Words

• Google scans the intro first. Mention primary and secondary entities early to anchor topical focus.
• Pro Tip: You can use exact entity names + semantically close variants for better natural integration.

4. Body Content: Semantic Clustering

• Don’t just mention entities once, build around them.
• Cluster related concepts to show topical depth.
• Use NLP-focused tools to evaluate entity density and semantic gaps in your draft.
• Example:
  Topic: Cybersecurity in Healthcare
  Entities to embed: HIPAA, endpoint security, ransomware, NIST, IoT, EHR systems

5. Schema Markup (Structured Data)

• Add @type entities via JSON-LD markup.
• Helps Google explicitly understand:
  • Who authored it (Person, Organization)
  • What it’s about (Thing, Topic)
  • Where it applies (Place, Service)
• Use tools like Schema.org generator or InLinks for structured entity tagging.

6. Image Optimization (Alt Text + Filenames)

• Include entities in:
  • alt text (e.g., “Entity-based SEO example using IBM Watson”)
  • image file name (e.g., entity_optimization_example.webp)
• This boosts image SEO and helps Google interpret visual content contextually.

7. Internal Links with Entity Anchors

• Link text (anchor) should include the entity or a semantic variant.
• Link to:
  • Related guides or cluster pages
  • Case studies of that entity
  • Tool/service mentions with a strong topical tie

8. FAQs and People Also Ask (PAA) Targets

• Structure your FAQs with question-style entities.
• Great for featured snippets and voice search.
• Example:
  Q: Is BERT an SEO ranking factor?
  A: BERT is a machine learning entity used by Google to understand search queries, especially longer natural-language questions.

9. URL Slugs and Breadcrumbs

• While not a major ranking factor, entity-rich URLs support semantic clarity.
• Example:
  /entity-based-seo-guide vs /seo-guide-2025

10. Anchor Text from External Backlinks

• Encourage your link partners to reference your page using entity-rich anchor text.
• This amplifies entity association in Google’s NLP understanding of your page.

Remember: The goal isn’t to “mention” entities, it’s to build a context-rich environment where those entities live together naturally. Think like a topic expert, not a keyword stuffer.

Building Topical Authority with Entities

Search engines don’t just evaluate a single page; they assess how your entire site covers a topic ecosystem. And that’s where entities become your foundation for building topical authority.

What Is Topical Authority?

Topical authority is Google’s confidence that your site is a reliable, in-depth source on a subject. Writing a single post on a topic is no longer enough; you must cover every relevant angle and associated entity.

How Entities Help Build Topical Authority

Entities act like semantic nodes that Google uses to map your expertise:

• When you consistently mention and link related entities across your content,
• When you cover supporting subtopics thoroughly (not just superficially),
• When you structure internal links between those entity-focused pages,

Google has started to see your site as an expert source.

Example: Say You’re Targeting “Remote Work Software”

Here’s how to build a topical authority cluster using entities:

Core Topic	Supporting Entities
Remote Work Software	Zoom, Slack, Notion, Microsoft Teams
Cybersecurity	VPN, Zero Trust, Endpoint Detection
Productivity	Time tracking, Pomodoro, OKRs
Legal/Compliance	GDPR, SOC 2, ISO 27001

Each supporting entity can be a separate blog post or section, internally linked to your pillar content.

Practical Steps to Build Entity-Based Authority

1. Build a Pillar Page on your core topic.
2. Create Cluster Content around secondary entities.
3. Interlink Strategically using contextual anchor text.
4. Use Schema Markup to reinforce entities across all pages.
5. Continuously Update with new entity mentions as the topic evolves.

Case in Point: One SaaS client I worked with improved their keyword coverage by 48% in six months by implementing an entity-driven content strategy across just 10 interlinked posts.

Real-World Example: Entity SEO in Action

In 2024, I worked with a B2B SaaS company that offered marketing automation solutions. Despite having well-written content targeting the keyword “marketing automation for SaaS”, their pillar page was stuck beyond position 20 in Google’s search results. They had solid backlinks and decent on-page optimization, but rankings weren’t moving.

The issue became clear when I conducted a deeper semantic analysis using InLinks, Surfer SEO, and Google’s NLP API: the content was keyword-rich but entity-poor. Key concepts and terms that Google associates with this topic, like CRM integration, HubSpot, user onboarding, and behavior-based triggers, were missing entirely or underrepresented. Worse, their internal linking strategy didn’t support any semantic cluster, and they lacked structured data like Schema markup to reinforce topical relevance.

To fix this, I rewrote the pillar content to incorporate the missing entities naturally, ensuring that each was contextually relevant and supported the user’s intent. Then, I created three supporting blog posts around secondary topics: “CRM integration for SaaS tools,” “User onboarding workflows,” and “Behavior-based automation triggers.” These acted as semantic reinforcements for the main page.

Next, I added structured data using Schema.org markup, defining the content type as a Product and associating it with the Organization. I also marked up one article as a HowTo guide, which helped improve visibility in Google’s rich results. Finally, I connected all cluster content using internal links that reflected the entity-based anchor text.

Within 90 days, the main page jumped from position 28 to position 4. The cluster articles began to appear in Featured Snippets and People Also Ask boxes. Most impressively, total organic clicks to the site increased by 62% in just three months. This transformation clarified that entity optimization isn’t just a theoretical advantage; it has a tangible, measurable impact.

Final Thoughts

Keywords alone won’t cut it. As Google evolves, its understanding of content goes beyond words and deepens into entities, context, and relationships. You’re already behind if you’re not optimizing your content to align with how Google processes meaning through its Knowledge Graph and NLP models.

The good news? Entity-based SEO isn’t rocket science. By identifying the right entities, placing them strategically throughout your content, and linking them into a broader topical cluster, you give Google every reason to trust your site as an authoritative source. You’re not just improving rankings, you’re building relevance, depth, and long-term search equity.

This approach has worked consistently across SaaS, cybersecurity, and content-driven sites. I use it to help brands transition from scattered blog efforts to structured, semantic, high-ranking ecosystems.

Want to see how entity-based SEO could work for your site? Get in touch with me.
I’d be happy to take a look and offer advice based on what’s worked for me.

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