sameAs, Wikidata and the knowledge panel: what a B2B company can and cannot control

The short answer. You control sameAs: list only official pages that are unambiguously about the same entity. You partly control Wikidata: an item is appropriate only if the company meets one of Wikidata’s notability criteria, which most new B2B companies do not. You do not control the knowledge panel: Google creates it automatically when there is enough information on the open web, and once it exists you can claim it and suggest changes. Work in that order.

This article uses the schema.org and Google Organization definitions, Google’s knowledge panel help page and Wikidata’s notability policy.

• sameAs

  You control it.

  • Official profiles only
  • About the same entity
  • Also linked visibly on the site

  Do this first; it costs nothing but care.

• Wikidata item

  You partly control it.

  • Only if a notability criterion is met
  • Facts need public references
  • Others can edit it

  Do this when independent sources exist.

• Knowledge panel

  You do not control it.

  • Created automatically by Google
  • Can be claimed once it exists
  • Changes are suggestions

  The result of the other two, over time.

What belongs in sameAs?

Official pages that identify the same entity. schema.org defines sameAs as the “URL of a reference Web page that unambiguously indicates the item’s identity”, giving a Wikipedia page, a Wikidata entry or an official website as examples. Google’s Organization documentation describes it as “the URL of a page on another website with additional information about your organization”, for example a profile on a social media or review site, and says you “can provide multiple sameAs URLs”.

Three rules keep it useful:

1. Same entity, not related entity. A founder’s personal profile describes a person, not the company. A parent company’s page describes the parent. Each goes on its own node.
2. Pages you maintain. An abandoned profile with an old name or address is a conflicting source, not a confirming one.
3. Visible on the site too. Google’s general guidelines require markup to describe visible content, so link the same profiles in the footer or on the About page.

What if the brand sits inside a parent company?

Model two organisations and link them. This is common in B2B: a consultancy, product or service line trading under its own name, owned by a legal entity with its own profiles. If the brand’s node lists the parent’s profiles in sameAs, a system reconciling them may conclude the brand and the parent are one entity, and describe the brand using the parent’s description.

The schema.org vocabulary has the properties for this: parentOrganization on the brand and subOrganization on the parent. Put the parent’s profiles in the parent node’s sameAs, and the brand’s own profiles in the brand’s. If the brand has no profiles of its own yet, leave its sameAs empty rather than borrow the parent’s. State the relationship in visible text as well, for example on the About page. Google’s Organization documentation does not mention these two properties, so treat them as clarity for any reader of the graph, not as a Google feature.

This site is an example: the AISEOExpert.co organisation node carries parentOrganization, and the parent company’s profiles sit on the parent’s own node. The About page states the relationship and lists the parent’s profiles under their own label.

When is a Wikidata item appropriate?

When the company meets one of Wikidata’s notability criteria. The policy lists three, any one of which is enough:

1. The item “contains at least one valid sitelink” to a page on Wikipedia, Wikivoyage, Wikisource, Wikiquote or another Wikimedia project.
2. It “refers to an instance of a clearly identifiable conceptual or material entity” that “can be described using serious and publicly available references”.
3. It “fulfills a structural need”, for example because it is needed to make statements in other items more useful.

For most new B2B companies the second criterion is the relevant one, and the operative words are “serious and publicly available references”. Your own website and your own profiles are where the facts start, not the references that establish them. Coverage in trade publications, registry entries and independent directories are the kind of sources the criterion describes. Without them, an item may not survive review. Wait until they exist.

If an item already exists for your company, check it with the same care as your own pages: name, website, founding date, founder, headquarters location. Correct errors with references.

How are knowledge panels created and claimed?

Automatically, and then by verification. Google’s help page says knowledge panels show Knowledge Graph information, that “facts in the Knowledge Graph come from a variety of sources that compile factual information”, and that “Knowledge Panels are created automatically by Google Search Algorithm”. There is no form to request one.

Once a panel exists, “the subject or an official representative of an entity” can claim it after verification and suggest changes. Anyone can send feedback. Businesses with a physical location manage their details through a Business Profile instead.

Google’s Organization documentation says the markup “can influence visual elements in Search results (such as which logo is shown in Search results and your knowledge panel)”, and that it “does not guarantee that features that consume structured data will show up”. The markup shapes a panel that exists; it does not create one.

A checklist

1. The organisation node’s sameAs lists only official profiles about this organisation, each checked for matching name, URL and description.
2. The founder’s profiles are on the founder’s Person node, not the organisation’s.
3. A parent company, if any, is its own node with its own profiles, linked with parentOrganization and subOrganization, and the relationship is stated in visible text.
4. Every profile in sameAs is also linked somewhere visible on the site.
5. A Wikidata item is created only when a notability criterion is met, with references that are not your own site.
6. An existing Wikidata item has been checked and corrected with references.
7. If a knowledge panel appears, it is claimed and checked against the site’s facts.

What we don’t claim

• We do not claim that any of these steps creates a knowledge panel. Google says panels are created automatically.
• We do not claim a Wikidata item helps every company. For one that does not meet the notability policy, it may simply be deleted.
• We do not claim that parentOrganization changes how any specific engine describes a brand. It removes an ambiguity from your own markup, which is the part you control.