How to Identify Entities in Your Content Using Schema Markup

In the age of semantic search, search engines no longer rely solely on keywords to understand content. Instead, they identify entities—distinct and unique things such as people, places, organizations, and concepts.

By structuring your content with clearly defined entities and their relationships, you create a Content Knowledge Graph that search engines can reference to understand context and deliver more relevant search results.

But how do you identify and define the entities within your content that you want your organization to be known for?

One of the most effective ways is through Schema Markup. By structuring your data using the Schema.org vocabulary and assigning unique resource identifiers (@id) to the entities in your content, you create machine-readable connections that help search engines accurately interpret and link relevant concepts.

Why Entities Matter in SEO

Entities enable search engines to move beyond basic keyword matching and toward a more contextual understanding of content.

Take the word “Apple,” for example. Without proper context, search engines may not know whether you’re referring to:

• A company (Apple Inc.)
• A fruit
• A place (like Apple, Oklahoma)

If entities aren’t clearly defined, search engines may misinterpret the content or miss important connections entirely.

Schema Markup provides the necessary structure and context to ensure that your entities are correctly understood.

How Schema Markup Identifies Entities

To define an entity using Schema Markup, you assign it a unique @id. This identifier functions as a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) that distinguishes the entity and makes it referenceable across your site and beyond.

Using @id to Define Unique Entities

Let’s say you have an author page for Mark van Berkel. You can define him as a unique entity like this:

Once the @id is assigned, you can enrich the entity with properties to provide more context.

Adding Properties to Describe an Entity

Schema Markup allows you to describe an entity using Schema.org properties, which define attributes and relationships between entities to enhance search engines’ understanding of the entity.

For instance, expanding on our previous example, Mark van Berkel’s author page states that he is the Co-founder and CTO of Schema App, and that he knows about semantic technology. We can use the Schema.org properties to further describe him as an entity.

If Mark is mentioned elsewhere on your site—say in a blog post or on a webinar page—you can reference this same @id to maintain consistency. Without it, search engines may treat each mention of “Mark van Berkel” as a separate entity, leading to fragmented understanding.

How to Establish Relationships Between Entities

Entities don’t exist in isolation—they are defined not only by their attributes, but by their relationships with other entities.

Schema Markup enables you to connect entities within your website content and across the web, creating a structured network of information.

Continuing our example, if Mark van Berkel writes a blog post, you can use the author property to link the article to the author entity:

By defining these relationships, search engines can accurately associate authors with their work—strengthening their perceived expertise and authority.

Why is it Important to Identify Entities Using @ids?

Using @id doesn’t just improve internal consistency—it also allows you to link your entities to external knowledge bases, expanding your presence in the broader web of data.

Linking to External Knowledge Graphs

Your website isn’t the only source for defining entities. Many authoritative databases, such as Wikidata, Wikipedia, and Google’s Knowledge Graph, also maintain entity identifiers.

By linking your @id to these authoritative sources using the sameAs property, you provide additional clarity and credibility to search engines.

For example, referencing Apple Inc. might look like this:

This helps search engines confidently associate your content with the correct entity in their Knowledge Graph.

How Schema App Helps You Define and Identify Entities

Manually identifying and linking entities at scale can be challenging. At Schema App, we simplify this process with our Highlighter and External Entity Linking (EEL) feature.

How Schema App’s Highlighter and External Entity Linking Works

• Schema App’s Highlighter allows you to deploy dynamic Schema Markup at scale, ensuring that every key entity has an @id.
• External Entity Linking (EEL) automatically identifies and links your entities to authoritative sources like Wikipedia, Wikidata, and Google’s Knowledge Graph.

By leveraging these tools, you can enhance entity recognition, strengthen your content’s authority, and improve search engine understanding.

Ready to Implement Entity Linking at Scale?

If you want to improve how search engines understand and connect your content, Schema App can help. Get in touch to learn how we can support your Schema Markup and Knowledge Graph strategy.