Entity-Based Optimization: AEO Beyond Keywords

Entity-Based Optimization: AEO Beyond Keywords

Keywords helped businesses rank in the past. Entities will help them survive in the future. Search engines—and now AI assistants—have shifted from indexing pages full of words to building knowledge about entities: real-world people, places, companies, products, and concepts.

If you want your brand to be surfaced, cited, and recommended by AI, you need to optimize not just for what you say, but for what you are. Welcome to Entity-Based Optimization, the next frontier in Answer Engine Optimization (AEO).

What Is an “Entity” in AEO?

An entity is any uniquely identifiable subject—like:

• A business (e.g., One Hundred)

• A product (e.g., ChatGPT)

• A person (e.g., Elon Musk)

• A concept (e.g., AEO)

• A location (e.g., Santa Monica, CA)

AI models, search engines, and knowledge graphs don’t just understand pages—they understand the relationships between entities, and how those entities are referenced, described, and connected across the web. Your goal: become a known entity with attributes that are verified, consistent, and contextually rich.

Why Entity-Based Optimization Matters

AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity are built on top of semantic understanding, not keyword matching.

This means:

• Your brand doesn’t need to rank for a keyword to be recommended

• Your entity profile must be consistent across the web

• Citations matter more than keyword density

• Schema, citations, and context create your AI reputation

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If AI can identify your business as an entity—and recognize its role within a topic—it will confidently use you as a source.

Step-by-Step: How to Optimize for Entities

1. Create a Consistent Digital Identity Across Platforms

Make sure your name, description, industry, location, and key services are the same everywhere.

Key places to optimize:

• Google Business Profile

• Crunchbase

• LinkedIn

• Wikipedia (if notable enough)

• Data aggregators like Yext, Moz Local, BrightLocal

• Social bios (Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, IG)

Include key identifiers like:

• Legal business name

• Founding date

• City/state

• Logo

• Primary services

• Domain name

• Founders or leadership team

2. Add Organization and Person Schema

On your website, include structured data that explicitly defines your entity:

• Organization schema: for your business as a whole

• Person schema: for founders, CEOs, or public-facing team members

• Product schema: if you sell or market distinct products

• SameAs property: link to your profiles on LinkedIn, Crunchbase, etc.

• 
  

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "One Hundred",
  "url": "https://onehundred.org",
  "sameAs": [
    "https://www.linkedin.com/company/onehundred",
    "https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/one-hundred"
  ]
}

3. Associate Your Entity with Core Topics

AI models map your entity to concepts. Help them do that by:

• Using consistent topic clusters (e.g., AEO, AI marketing, structured data)

• Writing content that links your brand to those ideas

• Including keywords and entities in page titles, headers, and anchor text

• Publishing on sites that reinforce your area of authority

For example:

“One Hundred, an agency specializing in Answer Engine Optimization and AI search visibility, works with brands to improve their presence across platforms like Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Gemini.”

4. Get Mentioned by Other Entities

One of the best ways to strengthen your entity profile is to get cited or mentioned alongside other trusted entities.

Tactics:

• Get listed in “Top Agencies” lists on sites like Clutch, G2, DesignRush

• Appear in articles or interviews on industry blogs and news outlets

• Partner with known brands and publish case studies or co-marketing content

• Join associations or standard-setting bodies (like C2PA, W3C)

AI picks up patterns. The more you appear next to relevant, trusted entities, the more reliable you become.

5. Monitor and Expand Your Knowledge Graph Presence

Google’s Knowledge Graph is public—but AI assistants have their own internal graphs. You can’t always access them directly, but you can influence them.

Ways to expand:

• Create content that references and links to known entities

• Use tools like Kalicube Pro to analyze your brand’s knowledge panel readiness

• Encourage structured mentions on Wikidata, GitHub, Crunchbase, and other open data platforms

• Align your metadata with semantic best practices (titles, descriptions, schema)

  
  

TL;DR: Think Like a Machine

The future of AEO isn’t about ranking for “best agency near me.”

It’s about becoming the agency that AI already knows, understands, and recommends.

Entity-Based Optimization is how you do that—by shaping your digital footprint to match how machines see trust.

Want help turning your brand into a recognized entity across AI and search platforms?

We build schema, citations, and contextual content that trains the algorithms to trust you.

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