Why competitors appear under “People also search for” in your company's panel

The “People also search for” row near the bottom of a company knowledge panel shows other organizations, and in our captures most were competitors or peers. Google says its systems build the section automatically from public information. It won't customize the list or add suggestions, and removes items only when they break its policies.¹

That leaves a company little say over who appears next to it. This guide explains what the row is, what six company panels showed on 9 November 2026, why rivals turn up, and how competitor ads on your brand name differ.

Two Google features called “People also search for”

The name covers two different things, and searchers often mix them up.

• The row inside a knowledge panel. A strip of other entities, usually organizations, each with an image and a name. Google's knowledge panel help covers it, and its 2012 Knowledge Graph launch post described it.^1,5
• Related searches on the results page. A list of search phrases. Google describes it among its “predictive” features, meant to help people “explore a different dimension of a topic.”⁴

Practitioner observation (not documented by Google): the results-page version often appears under a result after someone clicks it and comes back. Our interpretation: searches for “people also search for close” come from people trying to dismiss that box. We didn't capture it, and found no Google setting that turns it off.

The rest of this guide is about the first kind: the row in your company's panel.

What the captured panels showed

Observed on 2026-11-09: each of the six company panels we captured had this row near the bottom, with four organizations. Figure 1 shows where the row sits in HubSpot's panel.

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In HubSpot's panel, the row sits last, below the profiles, and shows each entry as a logo with a name. The table lists all six rows.

Most entries work in the same market: chipmakers under Nvidia, payments and commerce companies under Stripe, outdoor brands and a retailer under Patagonia. Others are looser. Meta's row named Alphabet and two of its businesses, and Khan Academy's included an engineering association and an academic publisher.

Rows can change. Google says panels update automatically as information on the web changes.⁷ The Nvidia example and the HubSpot example show the row in the context of each full panel.

Why competitors appear

Google doesn't publish how it picks or orders the entries. It describes the inputs only in general terms:

• The section is “based on public information on the web and automatically developed by our system.”¹
• The Knowledge Graph is “tuned based on what people search for, and what we find out on the web,” according to Google's 2012 launch post.⁵
• The same post said the facts Google shows are “informed by what other people have searched for.”⁵

Our interpretation: people researching a company often look up its rivals too, comparing chip suppliers, payment providers or CRM tools. If search behavior feeds the row, competitors are the entries you would expect to see.

Our interpretation: the row is not a verdict on who competes with whom, and it isn't limited to rivals. Meta's row, which mixed a holding company and its businesses, suggests it can reflect other associations people search for.

Can you remove a competitor from your panel?

Not because it is a competitor. Google's help says you can give feedback on the section, but “we can only remove items if they don't follow Google's policies.” It adds: “we can't customize it or add suggestions.”¹

Claiming your panel doesn't change that. The passage sits in Google's instructions for verified feedback, so it applies to companies that have claimed their panel too.¹ The field-by-field guide to editing a company knowledge panel covers what verified representatives can change elsewhere.

The policies that apply are Google Search's overall policies plus these Search features policies: advertisements, dangerous content, deceptive practices, harassing content, hateful content, manipulated media, medical topics, regulated goods, sexually explicit content, terrorist content, violence and gore, and vulgar language and profanity.² Knowledge Graph displays add two more, for incorrect information and non-representative information.²

Our interpretation: a competitor's name breaks none of these, so asking Google to drop a rival because it is a rival falls outside every documented ground. An entry that is hateful, harassing or plainly deceptive is a different case.

Our interpretation: an entry for a different organization that shares your name may fit the incorrect-information policy, though Google doesn't say how that policy applies to this row.

Reporting an entry that breaks a policy

Google says it reviews public reports and also removes policy-violating information by hand when it “comes to our attention.”² Anyone can report, not only verified representatives.²

1. Search the company's name and note the date, the exact search and the device, because panels update automatically.⁷
2. Match the entry to a named policy, such as harassing or deceptive content.² If none fits, Google's documented answer is that the item stays.¹
3. Select Feedback at the bottom of the panel on desktop, or use Feedback or the three-dot menu on mobile, and name the specific entry.²
4. For content you believe is unlawful, use Google's Report a legal removal issue form instead.¹

The belief that a claimed panel can be edited freely, including this row, appears in our list of company knowledge panel myths. The benefits guide counts competitors in the panel among a panel's limits.

Competitor ads on your brand name are a different thing

The panel row and search ads are separate systems. The row is generated from public information.¹ Ads that show when someone searches your company's name are bought through Google Ads, which has its own trademark policy.⁶

Google documents: Google Ads won't restrict “using trademarks as keywords,” so a competitor can bid on your brand name.⁶ After a trademark owner complains, Google will restrict the trademark's use “in an ad from a direct competitor,” or in a confusing, deceptive or misleading way.⁶

The trademark has to appear in the ad itself, not only on its landing page. Google accepts complaints only for the countries and industries where the owner has shown trademark rights.⁶

Inside the panel, “Advertisements” heads the list of policies Google applies to Knowledge Graph displays.² Its Search content policies describe that as content that “primarily advertises products or services.”³ Our interpretation: no Google page we read offers a paid route into the row; it is generated, not sold.

Getting into another company's list

Google documents no method, and this guide offers no tactics. Google says the section is developed automatically and that it can't add suggestions, which rules out asking for a place in a rival's row.¹

Observed on 2026-11-09: every entry in the six rows was shown with an image and a name, the way Knowledge Graph entities appear. Our interpretation: a company that Google doesn't recognize as an entity is unlikely to appear in anyone's row. What Google documents about that is in how a company gets a knowledge panel.

This is not legal advice.