Traditional keyword research remains useful because it reveals language and demand. AEO requires an additional layer: clarity about the organisations, people, products, services, places and topics that the system is being asked to evaluate.
Entity SEO is the discipline of reducing ambiguity and establishing meaningful relationships across the organisation’s digital footprint.
What Is an Entity?
An entity is a distinct thing that can be identified and related to other things. For an agency client, important entities may include the company, founders, experts, products, services, sectors, technologies, partners and locations.
The agency should focus on strategically important entities rather than attempting to mark up every noun.
The Entity Inventory
This becomes a source of truth for website, PR, social and structured-data work.
Information Architecture as Positioning
The organisation of a website communicates what the business considers important. A clear architecture distinguishes products from services, sectors from capabilities and evidence from generic information.
Changing architecture is therefore partly a positioning decision, not merely an SEO exercise.
Person Entities
Experts should have accurate biographies, defined topic areas and visible contributions. Their profiles should connect to authored or reviewed content, media appearances, qualifications and relevant commercial areas.
The agency should avoid attaching senior names to content they did not meaningfully contribute to.
Product and Service Entities
Products and services need consistent names, definitions, use cases, audiences and relationships. Internal jargon should be reconciled with customer language without creating contradictory labels.
Where a product changes name, the public footprint should be governed carefully to preserve continuity.
Locations and Markets
Local and international businesses need consistent location, service-area and market information. Addresses, languages, currencies, regional products and local profiles should support one another.
Entity clarity becomes more difficult as organisations expand, merge or operate through several brands.
Entity Gap Analysis
Compare the entities and relationships visible for the client with those visible for competitors. Gaps may include missing experts, unclear methodologies, weak sector connections or absent customer proof.
The goal is not to copy the competitor architecture but to identify where the client’s real position is underrepresented.