A lot of people still talk about SEO mostly in terms of keywords.
But modern search engines don’t really think in keywords — they think in entities.
An entity is a clearly identifiable thing:
• a person
• a brand
• a product
• a place
• a concept
For example:
“Apple” (word)
“Apple Inc.” (entity)
“iPhone 15” (entity)
Search engines don’t try to rank words — they try to understand what something is and how it relates to other things.
That’s where entities come in.
Instead of asking:
“Does this page contain the keyword enough times?”
Google is asking:
• What is this page about?
• What type of thing is it describing?
• Is it a product, a service, a guide, a brand?
• How does it relate to other known entities?
This is why:
• exact-match keywords matter less
• synonyms work better
• topical depth beats repetition
• and vague sites struggle to rank
A practical example:
If your site is about “online puzzles”, you don’t just mention the phrase.
You describe related entities:
• puzzle game
• browser-based gameplay
• difficulty levels
• puzzle pieces
• daily puzzles
• categories
• relaxation / focus
Now Google doesn’t just see text — it sees a topic graph.
One underrated place to reinforce entities is the footer or About section.
A simple sentence like:
“This is a free online jigsaw puzzle platform you can play in your browser”
does more for semantic clarity than ten keyword-stuffed paragraphs.
Another key idea:
Entities should be stable.
Don’t describe what your product might be someday.
Describe what it is now.
You can extend the entity later without breaking consistency.
For me, thinking in entities instead of keywords completely changed how I structure:
• pages
• categories
• internal links
• and even copywriting
Curious how others here approach entity-based SEO:
Do you actively design around entities, or do you still mostly work with keywords + links?
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