What is this new feature on Google?

[jhinchcliffe]

Hey everyone,

I typed "Vancouver Colleges" into Google and this new feature came up which I have never seen. It displays popular schools.

Could someone tell me what this is called?

And how do I get our college on here?

Thank you!

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[intSchools]

This is Google's new 'frequently mentioned on the web..' feature. They have been testing it for about 8 months or so now. It is based on their knowledge graph which is their database of pretty much every existing thing - people, places, films, music etc.

To get on there you should probably have a descriptive Google+ page and have good schema mark up on your website. This will help Google understand the connection between your college and Vancouver.

[NaescentAdam]

If you run Firebug on it they call it the appbar in the class. I googled AppBar and didnt get any results about it. I wonder if it's carried over from Google+?

I ran the same thing in the uk and it comes up for "london universities" as well as colleges but neither allows schools.

I was trying to think of another group of entities similar in nature like government departments etc.. but had no joy. not seen anything like that before. I wonder if you can replicate it for other entities..?

If you click on each of the colleges it brings up the search results for their name and because they are recognised its brings up their profile on the right hand side with their wikipedia page showing and some address details that it pulls form eleswhere. I'd guess if you could get one of those you would get on the appbar (or whatever its called) too..

But that's all guess work.. maybe someone else has a proper idea!

Adam

[NaescentAdam]

Hey Dan,

That's cool, have you got a link to a decent article on the knowledge graph?

How hard is getting on the knowledge graph?

Adam

[intSchools]

Yes, there is a great article by Google on their knowledge graph. They also wrote a good article about the use of knowledge graph in search.

In terms on getting on there- I'm not too sure, I haven't seen any studies or done any experiments. It has worked for clients when setting up Google+ pages and making sure they are clear and linked to the website. It also seems to help to have good schema mark up. For example, if you are a famous person you should have a good use of person schema, have a Google+ page and also make sure your Wikipedia is up to date and clearly defined.

[NaescentAdam]

cool, thanks dan. Sorry for hijacking your question Stephanie..

[jhinchcliffe]

Haha no worries!

[NaescentAdam]

Then in that case using Dan's answer I found an example for you!!

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=theatres+in+london&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

might give you more ideas to copy..

[jhinchcliffe]

Someone on another site gave me this link http://www.google.ca/insidesearch/features/search/knowledge.html it explains just about everything. Thanks everyone for your help!

[NaescentAdam]

I just had a look at your site, if you are the Brighton College in the UK this might help.

I just looked at your site and you cater to 3-18 year olds. In Vancouver they are using colleges in the American way meaning Universities. If you google London Colleges you get the same result universities and further education. At the top of the bar you can see it says Universities Mentioned on the Web, I wonder if that will affect you getting in the list?

I'm trying to get myself on it too but for hotels, so this question jumped out at me. If you google London Colleges and pick Birkbeck, it doesnt have any schema on its site , same with a couple of others, so that might not be a priority. Also the lowest there had around  47/45 page/domain authority, which means its doable for you.

If you look at their Google+ page they only have +2 to their page, which is very low and only 21 reviews. Maybe you could encourage more reviews?

Anyway good luck,

Adam

[jhinchcliffe]

Hi Adam,

No we are not the Brighton College in the UK, we are the one in Vancouver, BC, so I think you have our business info mixed up lol. Our website is http://www.brightoncollege.comand our google plus is here https://plus.google.com/100116630212547145177/posts . We are a private career college so 3 - 18 is definitly not our target LOL!

We do need more reviews though, i am waiting for the verification card from Google because I just merged the google local and google places accounts. So i was planning on getting more reviews after its verified.

Thanks for your  advice! Feel free to add me as a friend here