Businesses can now edit Google's Knowledge Graph

Businesses can now edit Google's Knowledge Graph. This is the information that Google displays to the right of search results for brands and businesses, which is based on rich data previously pulled from publicly available sources.

While this tends to affect larger companies, it's worth knowing as often changes of address, contact details and staff could take a while to filter through. But now you can be logged in to your Google account and become an 'official representative' of the company able to suggest changes. These will still need to be reviewed by someone at Google but it will be a much quicker process.

How to Edit Google Knowledge Graph Information:

There are a few conditions to allow you to become an official representative of your business.

• You need to be logged into your Google account
• The URL (website address) in the Knowledge Card displayed in search result should match the official website, Youtube channel or Google+ page.
• You'll need to have access to the Google Search Console for your website with the same Google login.
• You also need to have Google Web & App Activity turned on.

As an official of the company, you'll see a message which asks 'Is this info up-to-date', and the option to 'Suggest a Change' which will then give you the ability to make edits within the Knowledge Card. Your amendments will be reviewed by Google, and you'll receive an email to confirm your changes have been submitted - which will then need to be confirmed by other publicly available information on the web. So make sure that you've already updated your website, social media profiles and any other public sources of information on your company before making the Knowledge Graph edits.

It's important to have your Google Knowledge Graph information correct as it's such a prominent part of relevant search results, along with your Google My Business information. And with Knowledge Cards being increasingly used by Google for mobile information and results, it's worth checking if you're listed and that it's up-to-date.