Our brand has been around for 8 years. We have good content, decent SEO, respectable market presence. But AI systems don’t seem to “know” us.
What we observe:
Our hypothesis: Our “brand entity” is weak. AI systems haven’t built a clear understanding of who we are, what we do, and how we’re different.
Questions:
We have the substance. We need AI to recognize it.
Let me explain entities in AI terms:
What is an Entity?
An entity is a distinct, recognizable thing in a knowledge system. For brands, it includes:
How AI Understands Entities:
AI systems build entity understanding from:
The Entity Strength Framework:
| Factor | Weak Entity | Strong Entity |
|---|---|---|
| Naming | Inconsistent across platforms | Identical everywhere |
| Description | Generic or varying | Unique and consistent |
| Structured Data | Missing or incomplete | Complete in Wikidata, Crunchbase |
| Relationships | Unclear category | Clear industry and connections |
| Differentiation | Confused with competitors | Unique, distinguishable |
Your first step: Audit your entity presence across key platforms.
Wikidata is the single highest-impact entity action.
Why Wikidata matters:
Our Wikidata optimization:
Before:
After:
Result: Within 4 weeks, Google Knowledge Panel appeared. Within 8 weeks, AI systems had clearer understanding of who we are.
Check if you have a Wikidata entry. If not, create one. If yes, complete it.
Entity strength comes from consistency.
The consistency audit:
Check these platforms for identical information:
What must be consistent:
What we found in our audit:
No wonder AI was confused.
Created master brand document. Updated all platforms. Entity recognition improved significantly within 6 weeks.
Schema markup makes your entity machine-readable.
Essential Organization Schema:
{
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Your Company Name",
"legalName": "Your Company Legal Name, Inc.",
"url": "https://yoursite.com",
"logo": "https://yoursite.com/logo.png",
"description": "Your consistent company description",
"foundingDate": "2016-03-15",
"founder": {
"@type": "Person",
"name": "Founder Name"
},
"address": {
"@type": "PostalAddress",
"streetAddress": "123 Main St",
"addressLocality": "City",
"addressRegion": "State",
"addressCountry": "US"
},
"sameAs": [
"https://www.linkedin.com/company/yourcompany",
"https://twitter.com/yourcompany",
"https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/yourcompany"
]
}
The sameAs property is crucial: Links your website entity to your profiles on other platforms. Helps AI systems understand these are the same entity.
Include sameAs links to:
This cross-linking strengthens entity recognition.
Entity confusion requires explicit differentiation.
The confusion problem: If your name is similar to a competitor, AI may mix you up. If you’re in the same category without clear differentiation, AI may treat you as interchangeable.
Differentiation content strategy:
Explicit comparison page “[Your Brand] vs [Similar Competitor]: The Difference”
Unique value proposition content Repeat your differentiators consistently:
Unique entity attributes Things that can’t be confused:
Third-party differentiation Get others to distinguish you:
Our comparison page alone reduced confusion mentions by 60%.
Entity strength comes from relationships.
What relationships tell AI:
Relationships to build:
Industry associations
Partner entities
Customer entities
Expert entities
Example: “[Your Brand] integrates with Salesforce, HubSpot, and Slack”
This tells AI: You’re in the business software category, at a level where you integrate with major platforms.
Relationships position your entity in context.
Crunchbase is underrated for entity building.
Why Crunchbase matters:
Optimize your Crunchbase profile:
Claim your company page (if not already)
Complete all fields:
Add unique content:
Keep it updated:
What we saw: After completing Crunchbase profile, AI systems started citing more accurate employee count and funding information.
Took 30 minutes to update. Impact appeared within weeks.
Google Business Profile affects entity more than people realize.
Even for non-local businesses:
GBP optimization for entity:
Accurate information:
Proper categorization:
Profile completeness:
Verification:
Entity signal: When Google has verified your business entity, other AI systems often pick up this verification signal.
Even remote-first companies benefit from a verified GBP.
Monitor your entity representation:
Regular testing prompts:
What to monitor:
Tracking approach: Monthly tests across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Google AI. Document responses in spreadsheet. Track accuracy trend over time.
What improvement looks like:
Use Am I Cited or similar to automate some of this monitoring.
Entity building is ongoing, not one-time.
This transforms how I think about brand for AI. Action plan:
Week 1: Entity Audit
Week 2: Foundation Fixes
Week 3: Differentiation Content
Week 4: sameAs Linking
Ongoing:
Key insight: Entity strength comes from:
Thank you all - this gives us a real entity building roadmap.
Get personalized help from our team. We'll respond within 24 hours.
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