Most SEO still starts with this question:

“What keywords should we target?”

That’s still useful. But it’s not enough anymore.

Google and AI assistants don’t “understand” the web as a bag of keywords. They try to understand the web as a network of entities: topics, brands, people, places, products—and the relationships between them.

If search engines and AI systems can’t quickly answer:

  • Who you are (brand entity)
  • What you cover (topic entities)
  • Why you’re credible (people entities + evidence)
  • Where to learn more (entity “home base” pages)

…you end up as just another decent article in a sea of decent articles.

This guide is a practical playbook for Entity-First SEO: using topics, brands, and people as the backbone of your strategy so you rank for more queries in Google and show up more often in AI summaries and answer engines. If you want the bigger picture of how this plays with AI Overviews and chat-based tools, read our guide on optimizing your website for AI search engines.

What this post is (and who it’s for)

Why it exists: A lot of “topical authority” advice stays vague (“write more content,” “build clusters”). Entity-first SEO is the concrete version: it tells you exactly what to define, what to connect, and what to standardize so machines can resolve “who/what/where” without guessing.

Who wrote it: The Quick Sprout editorial team (technical SEO + content strategy). We’re not asking you to trust opinions. We’re giving you checks you can run on your own site, plus a repeatable workflow you can use for every topic you want to win.

How to use it: Pick one topic you want to own (like “email marketing” or “VoIP”). Follow the steps. You should end up with an entity map, clean internal wiring, and pages that are easier for Google and AI systems to quote.

Short answer: what “entity-first SEO” means

Entity-first SEO is optimizing around things, not strings.

Instead of starting with:

  • “We want to rank for ‘best email tools’ and ‘email marketing software’”

You start with:

  • “We want Google and AI systems to recognize us as a credible source on the email marketing topic—and on the tools, use cases, audiences, and concepts connected to it.”

Entity-first SEO goal: Make it easy for machines to answer, “What is this page about, which entities does it reference, and why should we trust it?”

In practice, it means you:

  1. Define your entity set (topics, brands, people, places, products) and pick what you actually want to be known for.
  2. Build content around entities (pillars + supporting pages) so your site reads like a coherent knowledge graph.
  3. Make entity signals explicit (clear naming, definitions, internal links, and structured data) without turning your writing into a robot.
  4. Keep entity pages accurate (especially product/pricing/people pages) so your entity signals don’t contradict reality.

Entities 101 (no nerd-speak)

An entity is a specific “thing” that can be uniquely identified.

  • Topic entities: email marketing, VoIP, content refreshes, keyword research
  • Brand/product entities: Nextiva, Shopify, WordPress, HubSpot
  • People entities: founders, authors, subject-matter experts you quote
  • Place entities: Tallahassee, Florida; EU; North America

Entity-first SEO is basically saying:

“Stop chasing every keyword variation. Make it obvious which entities you cover—and how they relate—so Google and AI can trust and reuse your content.”

That matters because Google’s Knowledge Graph is entity-based, and AI assistants rely on entity relationships to understand context and pick sources (see Google’s Knowledge Graph Search API and Cloud’s Enterprise Knowledge Graph overview).

Why entities matter for Google rankings and AI visibility

When systems clearly understand your entities, they can:

  • Resolve ambiguity (“Apple” the company vs. apples you eat).
  • Cluster your pages correctly (which pages belong to the same topic area, which are outliers).
  • Associate expertise (your brand and your authors consistently show up on the same topic entities).
  • Quote you more safely (your content defines entities clearly, cites specific terms, and matches real-world facts).

Practically, this leads to:

  • Ranking across more related queries because your topic coverage looks complete (not scattered).
  • Higher odds of appearing in AI summaries and Overviews because your page contains quotable “definition + decision” blocks.
  • More resilience to updates because you look like a real source, not a keyword farm.

The 5-minute test: is your site “entity-clear” or “entity-confusing”?

Do this before you change anything. It tells you where your entity signals are weak.

  1. Pick one core topic you claim to cover (example: “VoIP for small business”).
  2. Search your site for it and open your top 3 pages. Ask: do they agree on the same definition, subtopics, and recommended tools?
  3. Check your intros: does the first paragraph explicitly name the topic entity and define it in one sentence? If not, AI extraction gets messy fast.
  4. Check for name drift: do you refer to the same product/brand/person by multiple names (“Acme Analytics” vs “Acme” vs “our analytics platform”) in headings and key sections?
  5. Check internal links: is there an obvious “home base” page for the topic entity (a pillar), and do the supporting posts link back to it consistently?

If you’re failing any of those, you don’t have a “keyword problem.” You have an entity clarity problem.

Step 1: Define your core entity set

Before touching content, decide which entities you actually want to own. This is the same strategic work you’d do in a solid SEO plan, just framed around “things” instead of just phrases.

Use four buckets. Keep the list tight. A bloated entity set creates fuzzy authority.

1) Core topic entities

What topics should you be visibly expert in?

  • Email marketing for small businesses
  • VoIP and business phone systems
  • Content optimization for AI search
  • Website builders and hosting

These aren’t “keywords.” They’re topic entities that should have pillars, definitions, and supporting sub-entities.

2) Brand and product entities

List the entities that appear repeatedly in your content and sales motion:

  • Your company
  • Your products/services
  • Tools you review, compare, or integrate with

Non-obvious rule: if you mention an entity often, it needs a “home base” URL. Otherwise you’re leaking authority across random posts.

3) People entities (the credibility layer)

Google and AI systems don’t just evaluate pages. They evaluate who stands behind them.

  • Founders
  • Authors
  • Subject-matter experts (internal or external) you reference consistently

Each should have a stable, consistent identity:

  • Same display name everywhere
  • Same headshot
  • A bio that explicitly connects them to the topics they write about

4) Places and audience segments

These are “context entities” that help disambiguate who the content is for.

  • Places: US, EU, North America, Tallahassee
  • Segments: agencies, freelancers, ecommerce, SaaS, healthcare, legal

You’re drawing the map of what your site is about. Everything else is noise.

Step 2: Build topic clusters around entities (not keyword variations)

Once you know your entities, build your information architecture around them. If this sounds like topic clusters, it is—just done with more precision.

Create an entity pillar (the “home base”)

For each core topic entity, create one page that is the definition + the map. This is what other pages should point to.

  • Make the entity unmistakable in the title, URL, intro, and H2s.
  • Define the entity in the first 100–150 words.
  • Link out to every major sub-entity you cover.

Example pillar wiring:

Pillar job: “If someone (or an AI assistant) needs the best single page to understand this topic entity, this is it.”

Create supporting pages that each “own” a sub-entity

Under each pillar, build pages that each go deep on one distinct sub-entity:

  • Concept entities: open rate, deliverability, IVR, call routing
  • Process entities: welcome sequence, list segmentation, win-back flows
  • Tool entities: Nextiva, RingCentral, MailerLite, HubSpot
  • Use case entities: remote teams, call centers, ecommerce retention, local service businesses

Every supporting page should do three things:

  1. Name the parent topic entity clearly.
  2. Link back to the pillar as the home base.
  3. Link sideways to related sub-entities (so the cluster looks like a web, not a ladder).

Now your site reads like a coherent topic graph, not a random archive.

Step 3: Make entity signals obvious on-page (without writing like a bot)

This overlaps with classic on-page and technical SEO best practices. The difference is you’re doing it with a specific goal: entity resolution.

1) Use canonical names in high-signal locations

In intros, headings, image alt text, schema fields, and internal link anchors: use the canonical form of the entity name.

  • Good: “Nextiva” consistently
  • Risky: “Nextiva,” “Nextiva VoIP,” “Nextiva phone,” “our recommended VoIP” as if they’re interchangeable in headings

You can still write naturally inside paragraphs. Just don’t muddy the identity in the places machines weigh most.

2) Define key entities the first time you introduce them

AI systems love clean definitions. Readers do too. When a page introduces a major entity, include a one-sentence definition that stands on its own.

Definition pattern: “[ENTITY] is a [CATEGORY] that [DISTINGUISHING ATTRIBUTE], used by [AUDIENCE] to achieve [JOB-TO-BE-DONE].”

Example:

“Nextiva is a unified communications platform that combines VoIP phone service, team messaging, and video conferencing into a single app, making it easier for businesses to manage customer and internal communication in one place.”

That one block is reusable by:

  • readers skimming
  • Google understanding “what is this entity?” in your context
  • AI tools searching for “What is X?” answers

3) Use co-occurring entities (the “expected neighborhood”)

This is a sneaky one: entity strength often comes from the company it keeps.

If your page is about “VoIP for small businesses,” a healthy entity neighborhood includes:

  • Concept entities: call routing, extensions, IVR, call recording, softphones
  • Brand entities: Nextiva, RingCentral, Zoom, Grasshopper
  • Context entities: remote teams, call centers, local numbers, toll-free numbers

Don’t force a checklist into the prose. Just make sure the right entities show up naturally—because a page that “forgets” the neighborhood reads thin to machines.

Step 4: Reinforce entities with schema (as a clarity multiplier)

Schema is how you make entity relationships explicit in machine-readable form. Start with Schema.org and Google’s Search Central structured data guide.

You don’t need every schema type. You need the ones that reduce ambiguity and connect identities:

Organization / LocalBusiness (your brand entity)

On your homepage and key brand pages:

  • Organization or LocalBusiness
  • Include: name, URL, logo, and sameAs links (social profiles, listings)

Non-obvious win: sameAs consistency is “entity glue.” If your LinkedIn, YouTube, X/Twitter, and company listings all point back to the same canonical URLs, you reduce identity fragmentation.

Person (your people entities)

For key authors and experts:

  • Person with name, job title, employer, and topic alignment (bio + knowsAbout where appropriate)
  • Links to author pages and social profiles

Goal: “This person is a consistent entity associated with these topic entities.”

Article / BlogPosting (who wrote what, when)

For major content pieces:

  • Article / BlogPosting with headline, description, author, publisher, datePublished, and dateModified

This reinforces trust signals that AI systems actively use: attribution + freshness + publisher identity.

Product / SoftwareApplication (product entities)

For product reviews and comparisons:

  • Product or SoftwareApplication with name, brand, category, and only ratings/offers you can support accurately

This makes product entities cleaner and more linkable to knowledge graphs. For a deeper explainer, see this overview of how Google’s Knowledge Graph works with schema.

Step 5: Use internal links as your entity wiring

Internal links are not “SEO juice.” They’re relationship statements.

Internal linking in entity-first SEO: “This entity is related to that entity, and this is the canonical page that defines it.”

Pick a “home base” URL for each important entity

For every entity you mention repeatedly (topic, brand, product, person), decide which URL is the canonical definition page.

  • Topic entity home base = pillar page
  • Product entity home base = dedicated review/pricing page
  • Person entity home base = author page

Then link the entity name to its home base consistently—especially from high-traffic pages.

Use descriptive anchor text that matches the entity

Examples:

  • “As we cover in our VoIP for small business guide…” (links to VoIP pillar)
  • “According to Nextiva’s pricing…” (links to Nextiva pricing/review page)

Avoid generic anchors (“click here,” “this guide”) when you’re naming entities. Those are wasted relationship signals.

Step 6: Align off-site profiles with your entity strategy

Entity-first SEO doesn’t stop at your domain. You want consistent identity signals across:

  • Social profiles (LinkedIn, YouTube, X/Twitter, etc.)
  • Company listings (Google Business Profile, Crunchbase, G2, Capterra)
  • Author profiles on external sites (guest posts, podcasts, directories)

Keep names, bios, and links aligned

Wherever your brand or key people appear:

  • Use the same name and branding
  • Use a similar description that emphasizes your core topic entities
  • Link back to the correct “home base” URLs whenever possible

“This author on LinkedIn, this guest on a podcast, and this byline on the site are the same entity—and they consistently talk about the same topics.”

That’s reputation. Rankings follow reputation.

Step 7: Bake entities into briefs and refreshes (so it scales without turning into fluff)

Entity-first SEO fails when it’s a one-time cleanup. It works when it becomes a workflow—right next to your keyword research process.

Entity-first content brief template (copy/paste)

Before writing, fill this out:

  • Primary topic entity: (the one this page must define and “own”)
  • Audience entity: (who it’s for: small businesses, agencies, freelancers, etc.)
  • Secondary entities to include naturally: (subtopics, processes, metrics, concepts)
  • Brand/product entities to mention: (tools, vendors, platforms)
  • People entities to reference: (internal SMEs, external experts, founder POV)
  • Entity home base links: (pillar to link back to, plus any product/person pages)
  • One quotable definition block: (write the one-sentence definition early)

This prevents the most common “mass content” failure: pages that target a phrase but never establish a clear entity identity.

Entity-first refresh checklist (for old posts)

When refreshing old content, do these in order:

  1. Rewrite the intro so it names + defines the primary topic entity immediately.
  2. Fix name drift for brands/products/people in headings and key sections.
  3. Add missing “expected neighborhood” entities that a complete page should include.
  4. Wire internal links to the right home base URLs (pillar, product pages, author pages).
  5. Update schema fields that changed (publisher, author, modified date, organization links).

Refreshes are where you convert keyword-first leftovers into entity-first clarity. We walk through that in detail in our Content Refresh Playbook.

Entity-first SEO audit checklist (the “stop guessing” version)

Pick one topic entity and run this audit. If you can’t answer “yes” to most of these, that’s your roadmap.

  1. Is there one clear pillar page for the topic entity?
  2. Does the pillar define the entity early and link to sub-entities?
  3. Do supporting posts each own a distinct sub-entity (not overlapping clones)?
  4. Do you have a “home base” URL for repeated brand/product entities you mention often?
  5. Are entity names consistent in titles, headings, intros, and internal link anchors?
  6. Do key pages include the right schema types (Organization/Person/Article/Product) without spammy fields?
  7. Could an AI assistant explain “who you are and what you cover” using only your site?

If you’re weak on more than a few, you don’t have a traffic problem—you have an entity identity problem.

FAQ: Entity-first SEO in real life

Do I need to stop doing keyword research if I go “entity-first”?

No.

Keywords still help you:

  • measure demand
  • prioritize topics
  • match audience language

Entity-first SEO just says: don’t stop at phrases. Group keywords under the real-world entities they point to—and then build authority around those entities.

How is entity-first SEO different from topical authority?

They’re related, but not identical:

  • Topical authority is the outcome: deep, trusted coverage of a topic.
  • Entity-first SEO is the method: you structure and label the coverage around entities and relationships so machines can “see” the authority.

Is schema required for entity-first SEO?

No. But schema is a multiplier.

Do the content, naming, and internal wiring first. Then layer schema on top to reduce ambiguity. Google’s intro to structured data is the best place to sanity-check your approach.

How long does it take for entity improvements to matter?

Entity improvements can create small quick wins (cleaner indexing, stronger clustering, better consistency), but the real payoff compounds over months as systems get more confident about your identity and topic coverage.

The upside: entity work is durable. Once you’ve correctly defined and connected your entities, you’re no longer “another site targeting [keyword].” You become a recognizable source in a topic area—which is harder for competitors and generic AI content to copy.

Entity-first SEO is basically stepping back and asking:

“What are the real things we want to be known for—and have we built our site so both people and machines can understand that without guessing?”

Answer that well, and you’re not just tuning for another update—you’re making it obvious, to Google and AI assistants, that your brand, your people, and your content are the ones that should show up when it matters.