Posted by
Mordy Oberstein
Knowing Google’s Knowledge Panel – Ignite SEO Series Transcript
I’m Mordy from Rank Ranger & welcome to the second installment of the SEO Ignite series where we’ll trek through the boundlessly brilliant and downright brazen Google Knowledge Panel lickety-split in line with the ignite format.
Knowledge & Panel, What is Knowledge Panel?
Good question. If a query relates to an entity (think companies, people, movies, stores, restaurants, etc.) Google may show a panel chock full of information related to that entity… hence KNOWLEDGE PANEL… a Panel of Knowledge…
Know Thy Knowledge Panel, What’s Under Thine Hood?
What’s in a Knowledge Panel? What’s not?! There’s more variety here than in my mom’s magazine collection! Corporate info, movie showtimes, team rosters, song release dates, reviews, critic’s lists, menus, TV schedules, popular shopping times, prices, available in store products, hotel amenities…
Tailored to Perfection
Before we go on, it’s important to remember that what shows up within a Knowledge Panel, heck what kind of panel you get is all dependent on the entity. For example, Google shows local movie times in the panel…. If you queried Bill Gates do you think Google tells you what time he gets to work? No, no… well not yet.
Just Your Basic Facts
Let’s get more specific… In a lot of ways Knowledge Panels are like your local 6 o’clock news, they offer the basic facts without much color. Think contact info, entity summaries, hours of operations, reviews, & so forth.
Shopaholics Paradise
Suffering from shopping addiction? You may want to stay away from local store Knowledge Panels. How long do people spend at a store, how busy is the store RIGHT NOW, what products are available… it’s shopping Shangri-la.
Food Glorious Food!
Oh How Google Loves It!
Google knows the way to your heart is through your stomach. That’s why panels for local eateries are constantly evolving… With critic lists, menus, establishment highlights, actual pictures of the food, carousels of similar eateries, & the ability to make a reservation, these panels are good enough to eat… Which would just be weird if you tried to.
Without Reservations
Hotels in Knowledge Panel
If this were 1966 I would say something like, holy hotel info Batman… Good thing it’s 2017. And in 2017 we can check availability, compare rates, analyze price trends, look at amenities, see transportation options, & access the most prolific set of reviews in the Google-verse.
A Mobile **** Fest
Sidebar your honor! A lot of the items I’ve listed here are only within MOBILE Knowledge Panels. Google tweaks its mobile panels more often than Hollywood releases a movie that horrifically kills another part of what was once a nostalgic part of my childhood. It’s all part of Google’s larger mobile strategy.
And the Oscar Goes to…
This is no B movie, Google rolls out the red carpet when it comes to movie panels. Links to trailers, showtimes for current flicks, ratings and reviews, cast lists, awards wins, carousel after carousel of related movies….most of which only appears within mobile panels. Either way we are not in Kansas anymore!
Following Mobile Movie Panels Down the Rabbit Hole
Unlike Alice’s trip, there is nothing chaotic or strange here, but MOBILE movie panels are the perfect place to get endlessly lost. Any actor or other movie you tap on in the mobile panel just takes you to another mobile panel. So you can go from Spielberg to Indiana Jones to the Frisco Kid to Gene Wilder in four taps and without EVER hitting a real site!
A Little Knowledge is a Dangerous Thing
Dangerous to websites that is. Since the panels are so prolific, and being that you can hop from panel to panel on mobile without ever visiting an actual site, websites can end up on the short end of the stick with less visitors… just like they did during the last Olympics games (wait for it, wait for it…).
The Olympics – A Shining Example for Us All
So glad you waited! Did you know Google created what was all but a mobile Knowledge Panel, threw it on desktop, & used it to cover the Olympics? You could move from sport to sport, country to country, athlete to athlete endlessly getting totally lost in Googleverse. I never once visited the actual official Olympics site. Case in point! (And it’s not the only case.)
Pure Knowledge Panel Genius
We **** our five inches of screen and can’t pull our eyes away. Mobile Knowledge Panels are the perfect tool to keep our eyes glued and tuned into Google. With an endless amount of info and the propensity to hop from one panel to the next, Google’s got the goods to help us get lost in their world. Which is the whole point.
Everyone Loves This Know-It-All!
Ah, Knowledge Panel, it’s the one know-it-all we actually ****… Google wants us to see them as a provider of information. In doing so, Google becomes the go-to source for information, an authority on all things. Smart eh?
And with that I hope you’ve enjoyed our time together. Until the next installment of Rank Ranger’s Ignite SEO series… toodles.
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