In this article:
- What Are Entities, and Why Do They Matter?
- How Search Engines Learned to Think in Entities
- How to Optimise for Entities, Not Just Keywords
- Endnote
Search engines have always aimed to connect users with the most relevant information, but how they do that is evolving faster than ever. The era of keyword stuffing and mechanical ranking tricks is fading, replaced by a deeper, more human-like understanding of meaning and context. For freelancers, marketers, and content creators, this shift means new opportunities and new ways to stand out. Here’s what you need to know:
What Are Entities, and Why Do They Matter?
In the context of modern search, an entity is any uniquely identifiable thing, a person, brand, place, event, or concept. Instead of focusing on isolated keywords, search engines like Google now map how these entities connect to each other.
For example, if someone searches for the “best camera for travel,” Google isn’t just scanning for pages stuffed with those words. It’s understanding travel photography as a concept, camera brands as entities, and how these ideas relate. This is where AI SEO optimization comes into play: teaching algorithms to interpret meaning rather than just match terms. In essence, SEO is becoming less about chasing exact phrases and more about building a rich, interconnected web of information that search engines can trust.
How Search Engines Learned to Think in Entities
Search technology took a huge leap forward with the introduction of Google’s Knowledge Graph in 2012. The Knowledge Graph helped Google connect relationships between entities, understanding that “Paris” can mean both a city in France and a celebrity named Paris Hilton, depending on context. Since then, artificial intelligence and natural language processing have supercharged this process. Modern search algorithms can infer meaning, disambiguate context, and even predict what a user might want next.
When you publish content, Google evaluates who or what your content is about, how authoritative your site is on that topic, and how it links to other trusted sources. For freelancers offering SEO or content marketing services, understanding this entity-based shift can help you deliver smarter, longer-lasting results for clients.
How to Optimise for Entities, Not Just Keywords
To thrive in this new landscape, you don’t have to abandon keywords entirely, but you must think beyond them. Here are practical steps to future-proof your SEO approach:
- Define your core entities: Identify the main topics, people, or brands your content represents. Make sure these entities are clear throughout your site structure, titles, and metadata.
- Use structured data and schema markup: Add schema tags to highlight what your page is about, whether it’s a product, service, or person. This helps search engines recognise your entities with precision.
- Create connections between related topics: Build internal links that show relationships between your articles and core ideas. It helps search engines understand how your content fits into a broader knowledge graph.
- Write in natural, conversational language: AI models learn from human-like writing. Focus on clarity and meaning rather than repeating phrases. It makes your content more readable for both users and AI systems.
- Earn external validation: Backlinks from credible sources confirm that your content and entities are reliable. They help strengthen your site’s authority within a particular topic cluster.
Endnote
Entity-based SEO isn’t just another buzzword; it’s a fundamental evolution in how information is indexed and discovered online. For freelancers, this shift opens the door to offering more strategic services: entity audits, structured-data implementation, and AI-ready content creation. As artificial intelligence continues to reshape search, success will come from understanding how to align with both human intent and machine interpretation. Keywords still matter, but they’re no longer the whole story.
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