Strategies for generating a knowledge panel for brand queries

[brianspatterson]

Hello, I'm looking for any new ideas or experiences that might help in generating a knowledge panel for a brand query.  I'm working with a company that has a strong brand, over 200K searches for the brand name alone each month, but they don't have a knowledge panel.  When you search the brand name, the right side of the search results is just blank white space.

Here are some of the things they do have, which tend to trigger a KP:

1. Well built-out Wikipedia page
2. Pages on Wikidata, Freebase, Crunchbase
3. Home page organization schema
4. Home page schema using sameas to connect the company to their social profiles, wikipedia page, and Freebase and Wikidata
5. Hundreds of mentions in national press outlets
6. Verified Twitter and Pinterest profiles (the same type of verification celebrities get)

Generally, this all (and maybe even a lot less than this), would trigger a KP when you searched the brand name, but it just doesn't.  No branded queries trigger a KP.  It's interesting, because even the three smaller companies that they've acquired had (and still have) knowledge panels when you search those brands.

So, I'm wondering if anyone has seen or worked through this behavior before?  Or, even if not, any thoughts or ideas that we can do to nudge Google towards a KP for a branded search?

Thanks!

[DmitriiK]

Hi there.

We had the same problem and got it solved recently. First of all, make sure that all schema is correct. Also make sure you have verified g+ account for that business (apparently it's important). Also see if knowledge graph comes up if you search for "brandname reviews". And call Google. In our case, they found some technical issues on their side, and while they were fixing it, they gave us some ideas to apply on our side to improve local listings presence.

Hope this helps.

[brianspatterson]

Hey Dmitrii, thanks for your answer.  Two quick questions for clarity:

1.  Did you get a brand or local KP to show up?  At the end, you said, "they gave us some ideas to apply on our side to improve local listings presence", which seems to imply a local panel rather than a brand panel.

2.  Who at Google did you speak to?  Was it the Google My Business reps?

Thanks!

[DmitriiK]

1. we got both - search for "Hyperlinks Media" or "Hyperlinks Media Houston"

2. Yes, it was Google My Business rep. We are GYBO partner, so, it was one of those guys, which, I believe, is the same as GMB rep.

[brianspatterson]

Cool, thanks for the quick reply!  I see a local KP in both instances (with location set outside of Houston), but they look great either way.