Google’s Knowledge Graph launches in Australia: Minimal change for business SEO

An SEO expert says businesses don’t need to be too concerned about Google’s latest upgrade, which will see its new “knowledge graph” features implemented in English-speaking countries.

The announcement comes just a few days after the internet giant said it was testing a new feature that would include users’ Gmail messages alongside their search results.

Amit Singhal, senior vice president of Google Search, made the announcement in the company’s blog.

“In May we launched the Knowledge Graph, our database of more than 500 million real-world people, places and things with 3.5 billion attributes and connections among them,” Singhal said.

“We want to extend this feature to people outside the US. So starting today, you’ll see Knowledge Graph results across every English-speaking country in the world.”

“If you’re in Australia and search for [chiefs], you’ll get the rugby team – its players, results and history.”

Singhal said Google will also use this intelligence to help people find the right result more quickly when their search may have different meanings.

“For example, if you search for [rio], you might be interested in the Brazilian city, the recent animated movie or the casino in Vegas,” he said.

“Thanks to the Knowledge Graph, we can now give you these different suggestions of real-world entities in the search box as you type.”

“Finally, the best answer to your question is not always a single entity, but a list or group of connected things. It’s quite challenging to pull these lists automatically from the web… We’re now beginning to do just that.”

“So when you search for [california lighthouses], [hurricanes in 2008] or [famous female astronomers], we’ll show you a list of these things across the top of the page.”

“And by combining our Knowledge Graph with the collective wisdom of the web, we can even provide more subjective lists like [best action movies of the 2000s] or [things to do in paris].”

But according to an SEO expert, this is one algorithm change you don’t need to be too concerned over.

“It’s more about collecting information and finding related facts and figures,” StewArt Media chief executive Jim Stewart told SmartCompany.

“Where it will matter most is if there are searches in certain categories that bring up particular events, something like South by Southwest.”

“Stuff like that is where the graph will come into play, but there has to be a whole volume of data surrounding that.”

“Just make sure you have your information all clear on your website, and have your rich snippets done up properly so Google can find them.”