Knowledge Graph vs knowledge panel: a glossary for companies

This glossary explains the terms you'll meet when you look into what Google shows for your company's name. The pair people mix up most is Knowledge Graph vs knowledge panel: the Knowledge Graph is Google's database of facts, and a knowledge panel is the box on the results page that displays some of them.^1,2

Google's own terms cite Google's documentation. Industry shorthand that Google doesn't use is labeled, and anything from our screenshots is marked as observed, with the date. Each entry links to the guide that covers it.

Knowledge Graph vs knowledge panel: the record and the display

The Knowledge Graph is the record. Google calls it a “database of billions of facts about people, places, and things,” gathered from public sources, licensed data and content owners.² Each item in it is an entity with its own ID.¹⁸

A knowledge panel is one way Google displays that record. Panels are generated automatically when someone searches for an entity, and Google's systems decide when a query shows one.^1,2 Corrections work on the record: when Google accepts a suggested change, “it's updated in the Knowledge Graph.”⁴

Our interpretation: that's why a company can be in the graph without a panel showing for its name.

Panels, profiles and their parts

What searchers see, and the Google products that look like panels.

Knowledge panel

An information box Google shows when someone searches for an entity in its Knowledge Graph: a person, place, organization or thing. Google generates panels automatically from sources across the web.¹ See what a company knowledge panel is. See also how Bing shows panels for companies.

Company knowledge panel

A knowledge panel about a company or other organization. Business, brand, organization and corporate knowledge panel are informal names for it, though “business” can also mean a Business Profile, one of Google's “special Business Profile panels.”² See what people call it.

Knowledge card

An informal name, not used in Google's knowledge panel help, for a box of Knowledge Graph facts shown within the results rather than beside them. Google says that on mobile, “one or more knowledge panels may appear interspersed among the overall results.”⁵ See where a panel appears.

Title

The name at the top of a panel. Google generates it automatically and will consider a different one only when feedback shows “substantial evidence” that a more representative title exists.⁴ See editing a company panel.

Type label (subtitle)

The short line under the title, such as “Software company.” Google calls it the subtitle, generates it automatically and “doesn't accept or create custom subtitles.”⁴ See what you can and can't edit.

Description

The summary paragraph, usually with a source credit; five of our six captured panels credited Wikipedia (observed on 2026-11-09). Google says descriptions “can't be edited”; you correct the source instead.⁴ See fixing a description.

Featured image

The main image in a panel. If a panel has one, a verified representative can propose a replacement by giving a direct image URL; if it has none, Google can't add one on request.⁴ Other images, especially collections, are a preview of Google Images results.¹ See logos and images.

Logo

The company logo shown in Search results and panels. Organization markup's logo property helps Google understand which logo you want; the image must be at least 112×112 pixels and crawlable, and Google doesn't promise to show it.⁶ See company logos on Google.

Key facts

Label-and-value rows such as Founded, CEO or Headquarters, which Google says panels typically include.⁵ Some come from licensed data; Google names stock prices as an example.² See CEO, founders and key people.

Social profiles

Links to the organization's accounts on sites such as LinkedIn, Instagram or YouTube. Verified representatives can suggest new profiles or edits, but Google says it “can't change the order that profiles appear in.”⁴ See editing profile links.

People also search for

A row of related entities, often other companies, shown with a panel. Google builds it automatically from public information, won't customize it and removes items only when they break its policies.⁴ See People also search for and competitors.

Business Profile

Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business)²⁸ is a listing for a business that serves customers at its own location or travels to them within a service area. It looks like a knowledge panel, but Google lists brands, organizations and online-only businesses as ineligible.^1,11 See knowledge panel vs Business Profile.

Service-area business

A business that visits or delivers to customers but doesn't serve them at its own address. Google allows it one Business Profile for its whole service area and says to remove the address from the profile.¹² See which one a company has.

Store panel (merchant knowledge panel)

The shopping layout Google can show for an online retailer, as in our Patagonia example. Google's markup documentation calls it a “merchant knowledge panel” and says a merchant can influence some of its details, such as the return policy, address and contact information.⁶ See store panels and brand profiles.

Brand profile

A display on Google Search that eligible online businesses can claim, with details such as descriptions, images, social profiles and promotions. Google sources it from the brand's website, Merchant Center account, Search, licensed data and public sources.¹³ See brand profiles for e-commerce companies.

Search profile

A profile, launched in June 2026, that gathers a publisher's, creator's or brand's content from several platforms. As of November 2026, Google requires 10,000 followers on YouTube, Instagram, X or TikTok and offers it in Canada, India and the US. Google says claiming one “may trigger” a knowledge panel for publishers and creators who are eligible.^14,15 See Search profiles and companies.

Site name

The website name Google shows with a search result, separate from a panel's title. Google picks it automatically, one per domain or subdomain; WebSite structured data on the home page is how you state a preference.⁸ See logos, favicons and site names.

Favicon

The small icon next to a site's name in search results. Google's rules include a square image of at least 8×8 pixels. Even when every guideline is met, Google says the favicon might not show.⁹ See favicons and company logos.

AI Overviews and AI Mode

Google Search features that give AI-generated answers with links to web pages. Google says there are no additional requirements or special optimizations needed to appear in them.¹⁰ See knowledge panels and AI search.

Identity and data: how Google knows a company

The records, identifiers and code behind a panel.

Knowledge Graph

Google's database of facts about people, places and things: the record that knowledge panels display. Its facts come from public sources, licensed data and content owners.² In May 2020 Google put it at over 500 billion facts about five billion entities, a historical figure.⁵ See how Google builds a company's panel.

Entity

One distinct thing the Knowledge Graph holds facts about: a person, place, organization or thing.¹ In SEO, “entity” means the same: your company as a thing Google recognizes, not just words that match a search. See how entities become panels.

kgmid (Knowledge Graph machine ID)

The ID of an entity in Google's Knowledge Graph. Google's Cloud documentation calls it a machine ID, or MID, and gives Google's own, /m/045c7b, as an example.¹⁸ “kgmid” is common shorthand; Wikidata lists it as another name for the ID and notes that a panel's full share-link address carries it in a kgmid= parameter.²⁴ See how to find your company's kgmid.

Freebase

A data-sharing project that ran from 2007 to 2015; Google has shut down its API.²⁰ Wikidata describes the /m/ IDs it issued as no longer created but still in use, including by Google's Knowledge Graph.²⁵ See identifier formats.

Knowledge Graph Search API

Google's read-only API for finding entities in the Knowledge Graph; it uses schema.org types and returns JSON-LD. Google says it isn't suitable for production-critical use.¹⁶ See how to query it.

resultScore

A number in Knowledge Graph Search API results. Google's only definition of it is “an indicator of how well the entity matched the request constraints.”¹⁷ It isn't documented as a measure of authority or of the chance of a panel. See what resultScore means.

Cloud Enterprise Knowledge Graph

A pre-GA (preview) Google Cloud product that reconciles an organization's own records against knowledge graph entities. Google says data sent to it doesn't reach the Knowledge Graph Search API and isn't made public.^18,19 See why it isn't a way in.

Structured data

Code that describes a page's content in a standard format. Google uses it to understand pages and to gather information about the world, “such as information about the people, books, or companies” in the markup.⁷ See Organization schema for companies.

Schema.org

The shared vocabulary that most of Google's Search structured data uses,⁷ run as a collaborative community project founded by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Yandex.²² Organization and sameAs are schema.org terms. See how companies use it.

JSON-LD

A format for writing structured data in a script block within a page's HTML. Google generally recommends it as the easiest format to implement and maintain at scale.⁷ See an annotated example.

Organization markup (Organization schema)

Structured data, usually on the home or About page, that states a company's name, logo, website, profiles and identifiers. Google says it helps tell your organization apart from others; no property is required, and Google doesn't promise that any feature will show.⁶ See Organization schema for a company knowledge panel.

sameAs

An Organization markup property that lists your organization's pages on other websites, such as social media or review-site profiles; you can list several.⁶ See listing your profiles with sameAs.

alternateName and legalName

Organization markup properties for other names: alternateName for another name the organization goes by, legalName for its registered legal name. Google asks that name and alternateName match your site name.⁶ See rebrands and name changes.

Entity home

Practitioner shorthand, not a Google term, for the page that best describes an organization, usually its home or About page. Google recommends that kind of page for Organization markup.⁶ See where Organization markup goes.

Disambiguation

Telling apart entities that share a name, such as two companies called the same thing. Google says Organization markup helps it disambiguate your organization in search results.⁶ See duplicate and mixed-up company panels.

Licensed data

Facts Google obtains under license; it names sports scores, stock prices and weather forecasts as examples.² Google says it may also work with data partners that supply authoritative data on topics such as movies or music.¹ See where panel facts come from.

Wikidata

A free, collaborative, multilingual knowledge base that supports Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects; editors and bots enter and maintain its data.²³ See Wikipedia and Wikidata for companies.

Google Knowledge Graph ID (Wikidata P2671)

Wikidata's property for Knowledge Graph IDs that start with /g/; IDs that start with /m/ belong in its Freebase ID property.²⁴ Values are entered by Wikidata editors, so check one before relying on it. See checking Wikidata's IDs.

Notability (Wikipedia)

Wikipedia's test for whether a subject gets its own article. For companies, the guideline says no organization is inherently notable; it needs significant coverage in reliable, independent, secondary sources.²⁶ See Wikipedia's rules for companies.

Conflict of interest and paid editing

Wikipedia's rules for edits made in your own or a client's interest. Conflict-of-interest editing is “strongly discouraged,” paid editing must be disclosed, and affected editors can propose changes on the article's talk page instead.²⁷ See what companies may do on Wikipedia.

Claiming and correcting: who can change what

Who can ask for a change, and what Google will consider.

Claiming (getting verified)

Proving to Google that you represent the entity in a panel, which Google calls getting verified.⁵ You click “Claim this knowledge panel” and sign in to an official site or profile it lists, such as YouTube, Search Console, X (still “Twitter” in Google's help) or Facebook.³ See how to claim a company panel.

Verified representative

Someone who has claimed a panel as its subject or as an “official representative” of the entity.¹ Their feedback can be prioritized, and Google can make some corrections directly, such as links to social profiles.⁴ See claiming and keeping access.

Self-authoritative

Google's word for entities in panels that can give it direct feedback. Some panel information may come from verified entities who suggested edits to their own panels.¹ See suggesting edits as a company.

Owner

The primary user on a verified panel account. An owner has a manager's permissions, and only the current owner can transfer ownership.³ See panel roles.

Manager

A user who can suggest changes to a panel and add or remove users.³ See what each user role can do.

Contributor

A user who can suggest changes to a panel; adding or removing users takes a manager.³ See who should hold each role.

Search Console

Google's free service for monitoring and troubleshooting a website's presence in Google Search.²¹ It's one of the sign-in options for claiming a panel.³ See claiming with Search Console.

Suggest edits

The option a verified representative uses to propose a change: signed in, with Web and App Activity on, one item per submission, plus publicly accessible URLs as support. Google says it reviews these within a few days, sometimes longer.⁴ See editing a company knowledge panel.

Feedback

The link at the bottom of a panel, or in the three-dot menu on mobile, through which anyone can report a problem with a panel or other Knowledge Graph information.² See corrections without a claim.

Account Recovery

Google's process for when someone you can't identify has claimed your panel. Google's support team contacts the current owners or managers by email; if none responds within 3 business days, the panel can be claimed again.³ See if someone else manages your panel.

Incorrect information policy

Google's policy for removing Knowledge Graph information that's “demonstrably false or outdated.” The evidence can be legal documents, expert consensus or reputable primary sources, and Google may decline to act on facts that are reasonably disputed.² See correcting company facts.

Non-representative information policy

Google's policy for changing a name, title, description or image when strong evidence shows its systems didn't make “the most representative selection.”² See changing a title or image.

Legal removal

Google's route for requesting removal from a knowledge panel: the “Report a legal removal issue” form, with the panel's specific URL and why it should be taken down.² Separately, Google's policy is not to create or delete panels by hand.⁴ See unwanted and duplicate panels.

Share link (panel URL)

The address of one specific panel. You copy it from the Share icon beside the panel's name, or from More, then Share; Google asks for it in removal requests.² See finding your panel's link.

Duplicate or mixed-up panel

Two panels for one organization, or one panel that blends it with another entity of the same or a similar name. Google sends mixed-up panels, and panels showing the wrong websites or profiles, to its support team.³ See fixing duplicate company panels.