Entity SEO is optimising for how search engines and AI models recognise your business as a distinct entity (a known thing with verified attributes), rather than just matching keywords on a page.
AI engines pick by entity clarity, not domain age. When ChatGPT or Perplexity decide which Brisbane plumber to name, they aren't running a keyword match, they're checking which businesses they have a confident model of. An entity, in Google's Knowledge Graph terminology, is a thing the engine has corroborated from multiple sources: a business with a verified address, a person with a documented role, a product with a known maker. If your business is one of those records, you get cited. If it isn't, you don't, no matter how many backlinks you have.
There are three pillars.
NAP consistency. Name, address, phone, identical across every place your business appears: your website, Google Business Profile, Bing Places, Facebook, LinkedIn, every directory. Inconsistencies (a "St" in one place, "Street" in another, an old suite number, a swapped phone) split your entity into two weaker records. NAP consistency is the cheapest entity work and the most often skipped.
Schema markup that names the entity explicitly. Organization or LocalBusiness JSON-LD on every page, with name, url, logo, address, telephone, and crucially a sameAs array linking to the business's LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Google Business Profile. That sameAs array is the machine-readable statement: "all these accounts are the same entity, here's the proof." Schema markup is the layer where you assert the identity; Google's structured-data documentation treats entity understanding as the second of the two reasons to ship schema at all.
A claimed and active Google Business Profile, built from corroborated signals: reviews, photos, posts, Q&A, hours, services. The knowledge panel that appears in branded searches is the public face of the entity Google has assembled.
A concrete one. A Brisbane plumber with consistent NAP across 12 directories, LocalBusiness schema, GBP claimed and active, sameAs links to LinkedIn and Facebook in Organization schema, that plumber is an entity Google trusts and ChatGPT can cite. A competitor with double the backlinks but inconsistent NAP and no schema isn't, the engine can't tell the two listings are the same business. UnderCurrent Automations builds the entity layer as the technical foundation for SEO & AI Visibility, because no amount of content fixes a business the engines can't confidently identify.