Just like a spider’s web, the visual manifestation of the World Wide Web or the Internet, a Knowledge Graph is Google’s attempt to understand facts about people, places and things and how these entities are all connected. It was first launched in May 2012.

Knowledge Graph information appears to the right of Google’s regular results, rather than disrupt those familiar links.  It only shows up when Google deems them relevant.

So why is it important?

Ever wonder how Google was going to figure out the “intent” behind someone’s search terms.  The Google Knowledge Graph is a part of their understanding of what kind of information a person is really trying to find.  It was launched to help Google provide answers rather than just links.

With every site that it spiders Google is compiling a graph of terms, their alternates and synonyms. It’s learning that “Denver SEO company” is the same thing as “SEO company Denver”, “SEO company in Denver” and even “Internet marketing company in Denver”.  We’re starting to see it happen fully in some industries, but it hasn’t made its way across the board yet.

This entirely changes the way we have to approach content, keyword strategy and establishing locality now.  It is in its infancy and learning as time passes.  We will likely be seeing a lot more from the Knowledge Graph in the near future.