A Google knowledge panel is the information box that appears beside the search results when you search for a well-known person, organisation or thing that sits in Google’s Knowledge Graph. You can not apply for one. Google creates it automatically, and you can only claim and correct it once it exists.
Most Australian small businesses do not have one, and do not need one. What they usually have is a Google Business Profile, which looks similar but is a local listing you create and verify yourself. On 24 September 2026 we searched 120 Australian businesses by name, including 80 that ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude or Google AI Mode had recommended. Not one showed an entity knowledge panel. 95 of them (79%) showed a Business Profile panel instead.
Key findings
- 0 of 120 Australian businesses got an entity knowledge panel when we searched their name. 95 (79%) got a local Business Profile panel and 25 (21%) got no panel at all.
- For comparison, 8 of 12 well-known Australian brands (Canva, Atlassian, Slater and Gordon and others) did get an entity panel.
- Businesses that two or more AI assistants recommended were no more likely to have a panel (78%) than businesses no assistant named (83%).
- Only 4 of the 120 (3%) had a Wikidata item. Three of those four were large national firms that AI assistants named at least twice.
- 82% of the homepages we read had Organization or LocalBusiness schema, but the number of sameAs profile links did not predict anything we measured (correlation 0.07 with panel profiles, minus 0.02 with AI mentions).
This matters because a lot of “entity SEO” advice sells the knowledge panel as the key to AI visibility. Our numbers say that for a local business in Australia, it is not the thing to chase first. The work that does count, a clear and consistent business identity across the web, is what our GEO services are built around, and it is the same work that eventually earns a panel for the businesses that grow big enough to get one.
What is a Google knowledge panel?
Google describes knowledge panels as “information boxes that appear on Google when you search for entities (people, places, organizations, things) that are in the Knowledge Graph” (from its About knowledge panels help page). The Knowledge Graph is Google’s database of things it understands as distinct entities, with facts about each one and links between them. Canva is an entity. So is Maurice Blackburn the law firm, and so is Maurice Blackburn the lawyer and politician it is named after. Google’s job is to know which one you mean.
The same help page says knowledge panels “are automatically generated” and that the information “comes from various sources across the web”, including data partners and “verified entities who have suggested edits”. There is no form to request one. On its feedback page, Google says plainly that “our current policy doesn’t manually create or delete Knowledge Panels.”
A company entity panel typically shows a short description (often from Wikipedia), founding date, headquarters, CEO or founder, and social profiles. Our search for “Slater and Gordon” showed exactly that.
Knowledge panel vs Google Business Profile: the difference that trips people up
Business owners mix these two up all the time, and it is easy to see why: both sit on the right of the desktop results when you search a business name. Google itself notes that Business Profiles “look similar to knowledge panels, but are specific to businesses that serve customers at a particular location or within a designated service area.”
| Entity knowledge panel | Google Business Profile | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A summary of an entity in the Knowledge Graph | A local listing for a business that serves customers at a place or in an area |
| Who creates it | Google, automatically | You (or Google from public data, then you claim it) |
| Can you request one? | No | Yes, anyone with an eligible business |
| How you verify | “Claim this knowledge panel”, then sign in to an official profile such as YouTube, Search Console, Twitter or Facebook | Google Business Profile verification, by a method Google chooses (video is one) |
| Typical content | Description, founded, headquarters, founder, CEO, profiles | Address, phone, hours, reviews, photos, category, “From the business” description |
| Who gets one | Well-known people, brands and organisations | Almost any local business |
| What we saw in our sample | 0 of 120 | 95 of 120 |
One quick way to tell which one you are looking at: a Business Profile panel has a street address, opening hours and Google reviews, and its subtitle reads like “Custom home builder in Osborne Park, Western Australia”. An entity panel usually has none of those, and its subtitle reads like “Law firm” or “Software company”. If you have a Business Profile and want to improve it, our guide to Google Business Profile optimisation covers what the top three map results do differently.
What we found when we searched 120 Australian businesses by name
We took the businesses from our shared study, in which we asked five AI assistants for shortlists across 24 buying questions (law, builders, marketing agencies and trades in six Australian cities). From those, we drew a random 40 that two or more assistants had named, 40 that exactly one had named, and 40 that appeared only in Google’s map pack or organic results and were named by no assistant. Then we searched each name on Google, desktop, from Australia.
Not one entity knowledge panel
Every panel we found was a local Business Profile panel. None had a Wikipedia description, none showed a founder or headquarters row, and 75 of the 95 carried the business’s own “From the business” description. Several of the 25 businesses with no panel had a common name or many locations, and Google showed a map pack or an AI Overview in its place. Metricon Homes, which has a Wikipedia article and a Wikidata item, got no panel for “Metricon Homes” and only a map pack when we added “Sydney”.
The split by group was close to flat. If knowledge panels were the reason AI assistants recommend a business, we would expect the “named by two or more” group to stand out. It did not.
| Named by 2+ AI assistants | Named by 1 | Named by none | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Businesses | 40 | 40 | 40 |
| Any panel on a name search | 31 (78%) | 31 (78%) | 33 (83%) |
| Entity knowledge panel | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Panel shows social profiles | 31 of 31 | 28 of 31 | 31 of 33 |
| Homepage has Organization or LocalBusiness schema | 30 of 37 (81%) | 34 of 40 (85%) | 29 of 37 (78%) |
| Homepage lists at least one sameAs link | 22 of 37 (59%) | 21 of 40 (53%) | 19 of 37 (51%) |
| Homepage lists 3 or more sameAs links | 16 of 37 (43%) | 17 of 40 (43%) | 13 of 37 (35%) |
| Has a Wikidata item | 3 (8%) | 0 | 1 (3%) |
| Was in the Google map pack for its study question | 5 | 1 | 26 |
One thing to keep in mind: the “named by none” group includes 26 map pack businesses, which tend to have well-kept Business Profiles.
What the well-known brands got
To check that our method could spot an entity panel at all, we searched 12 well-known Australian names. Eight showed an entity panel: Slater and Gordon, Shine Justice, Canva, Bunnings Warehouse, Atlassian, Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, Clayton Utz and Jim’s Group. One (Hickinbotham Group) showed a local panel and three (Commonwealth Bank, Simonds Homes, Lander and Rogers) showed none.
The details show how picky the Knowledge Graph is about names:
- “Maurice Blackburn” showed no panel. “Maurice Blackburn Lawyers” showed a full entity panel with a Wikipedia description and CEO. “Maurice Blackburn Brisbane” showed the local Brisbane office.
- “Shine Lawyers” showed no panel, and with “Brisbane” added it showed the Brisbane office. “Shine Justice”, the listed company name, showed an entity panel with share market details. Shine’s homepage is the only one of our 114 that links its Wikipedia and Wikidata pages in its schema, and even that did not bring the entity panel up for the everyday brand name.
- “Jim’s Group” brought up an entity panel for Jim’s Mowing, a related but different entity.
So even businesses in the Knowledge Graph only get the entity panel for the exact name Google has on file. Google says “Google’s automated systems determine the appearance and disappearance of these panels based on the relevance of info to a user’s query.”
Does a knowledge panel help you get named by AI assistants?
On this sample, no measurable link showed up. Panel rates were within five points across the three groups, and the gap ran the wrong way. The one signal that leaned towards the AI-named group was Wikidata, and that is a small number: three of the 40 most-named businesses had an item, against one of the other 80. Those three (Shine Lawyers, Maurice Blackburn and Metricon) are also large national firms with Wikipedia articles and long histories. Size explains their AI mentions at least as well as their Wikidata entry does.
This fits what we saw across the wider study. AI assistants mostly built their shortlists from business websites, review sites and industry directories, not from knowledge panels. ChatGPT, for example, searched sites like Doyle’s Guide, the Law Society and HIA before naming anyone. We covered how each assistant picks its sources in our ChatGPT vs Gemini vs Perplexity comparison, and the practical steps in how to get recommended by ChatGPT.
One caveat: Gemini and Google AI Mode can draw on the Knowledge Graph directly, so for businesses that are in it, those facts may shape what they say. Our finding is narrower. For local Australian businesses, having a panel was not what separated the recommended from the ignored.
What feeds a knowledge panel and the Knowledge Graph
Wikipedia and Wikidata
Six of the eight entity panels in our comparison set used a Wikipedia description. Wikidata, the free structured database behind Wikipedia, is widely used as a source of entity facts. Wikidata has its own notability rules: an item needs a link to a Wikimedia page, or must refer to “a clearly identifiable conceptual or material entity that can be described using serious and publicly available references”. Items with no independent references can be deleted, and Wikipedia has its own notability rules too. One firm in our sample had a Wikidata item with no Wikipedia article, and its name search showed no panel at all.
Your own website’s structured data
Google’s Organization structured data documentation says the markup “can help Google better understand your organization’s administrative details and disambiguate your organization in search results”, and that some properties “can influence visual elements in Search results (such as which logo is shown in Search results and your knowledge panel).” It describes sameAs as “the URL of a page on another website with additional information about your organization”, such as a social media or review profile.
In our sample, 93 of the 114 homepages had Organization or LocalBusiness markup, and 62 listed at least one sameAs link. Facebook was the most common (55 sites), then Instagram and LinkedIn (41 each) and YouTube (27). But 42 of the 93 panels we could compare showed social profiles even though the homepage listed no sameAs links at all, so Google clearly finds those profiles another way, most likely from the Business Profile and from crawling. Schema is worth doing properly, and our schema markup guide shows the exact Organization and LocalBusiness code, but it is a tidy-up, not a trigger.
Consistent facts across the web
The same name, address, phone and description on your site, Business Profile, directories and association listings make it easy for Google or an AI assistant to decide that all those pages describe one business. In our study of 500 Australian homepages, most sites left out basic facts such as licence numbers and years in business, which is exactly the kind of detail that ties an entity together.
How to claim a Google knowledge panel, step by step
If a panel already exists for you or your business, Google’s Get verified on Google page sets out the steps. We checked each one against the live help page on 24 September 2026:
- Create a Google Account if you do not have one.
- Search Google for yourself or the entity you represent and find the knowledge panel.
- At the bottom of the panel, click “Claim this knowledge panel”. Google notes you might find this in the “About” section, and on mobile it sits under the menu.
- Review the information, then sign in to one of the official sites or profiles Google lists. The help page names YouTube, Search Console, Twitter and Facebook.
- If Google can not match you to an official site, it will ask you for more information to verify you.
Once verified, Google says it can “make some corrections directly, like links to social profiles” and “reviews feedback from verified users within a few days”. Two limits: “Not all knowledge panels are claimable as of now”, and title changes are only considered when feedback “includes substantial evidence”.
If you are a local business
The panel a local business most likely sees is its Business Profile, which you claim through Google Business Profile, not the knowledge panel process. Google’s Verify your business on Google page explains that “verification methods are automatically determined by Google and can’t be changed”, and that the options depend on your business type, public information, region and hours. Getting that profile verified and complete does far more for a builder, law firm or tradie than chasing an entity panel.
If you want to hear it from Google directly, this short session from Google Search Central walks through claiming a knowledge panel and what verified owners can change.
How to get a Google knowledge panel: what a small business can actually do
There is no switch to flip. What you can do is make your business easy to identify as one clear entity and earn independent coverage. That is what people mean by entity SEO, and it helps AI assistants describe you accurately whether or not a panel ever appears.
| Step | What to do | Why it helps |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Pick one exact business name | Use the same spelling on your site, Business Profile, ABN record, LinkedIn and directories | Our comparison brands only got a panel for the exact name Google had on file |
| 2. Verify your Business Profile | Claim, verify and complete it, with the right primary category | This is the panel 79% of our sample actually showed |
| 3. Add Organization or LocalBusiness schema | Name, url, logo, address, phone and sameAs links to profiles you control | Google says it helps it “disambiguate your organization” |
| 4. Publish the plain facts | Year founded, licence or practising details, who owns the business, areas served | Gives Google and AI assistants the same facts to match |
| 5. Earn independent mentions | Industry awards, association listings, local news, podcast interviews | The Knowledge Graph leans on sources you did not write |
| 6. Only then think about Wikidata | Create an item only if serious, public, independent references exist | Items without references tend to be removed |
| 7. Claim the panel if one appears | Use “Claim this knowledge panel” and verify with an official profile | Lets you correct facts and choose a featured image |
Be wary of anyone who promises a knowledge panel for a fee. Given Google’s own statement that it does not create panels manually, what is on offer tends to be paid press release placements or Wikipedia and Wikidata entries written to order. Both can disappear, and neither did anything for AI mentions in our sample. If you run a small business and want the broader picture of where your time is best spent, our guide to SEO for small business sets out the order we would work in.
How we did this research
On 24 September 2026 we took the businesses from our shared study of 24 buying-intent questions (law, builders, marketing agencies and trades across six Australian cities). Each question ran once through ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude (the API versions with web search switched on, not the consumer apps) and Google AI Mode, alongside the Google map pack and organic results. We left out the freelance SEO consultant question because its answers were mostly individual people.
- Sample: a seeded random draw of 40 businesses named by two or more assistants, 40 named by exactly one, and 40 named by none (26 map pack plus 14 organic results). 120 in total.
- Name search: one Google search per business, desktop, Australia. We added the city to 58 generic names. Where a distinctive name showed no panel, we searched again with the city (14 businesses; 11 then showed one). We classed a panel as an entity panel if it showed organisation facts or a Wikipedia description, and as a Business Profile panel if it showed an address, hours or reviews.
- Homepages: we fetched each homepage and read the JSON-LD in the raw HTML. 114 of 117 known sites were readable. Markup added only by JavaScript would be missed.
- Wikidata: a name search, counted as a match only when the item’s official website matched the business or the name matched and the item was described as Australian.
- Comparison set: 12 well-known Australian brands searched the same way.
Limits: each search ran once, from one location, on one day, and panels are sensitive to exact wording. AI answers also vary between runs (only 24% citation overlap between identical runs in our repeat-run study), so the “named by” groups are a snapshot. With 40 businesses per group, differences of a few points are noise.
Frequently asked questions
How do I get a knowledge panel on Google?
You can not request one. Google creates knowledge panels automatically for entities in its Knowledge Graph, usually well-known people, brands and organisations with independent coverage such as a Wikipedia article. If one already exists, you can claim it and verify with an official profile such as YouTube or Search Console.
What does it mean to claim a Google knowledge panel?
Claiming means proving to Google that you are the person or official representative behind the panel. Your suggested edits then get priority review, and Google can make some corrections directly, such as social profile links. Claiming does not create a panel that does not already exist.
Is a knowledge panel the same as a Google Business Profile?
No. A Business Profile is a local listing that almost any business serving customers at a place or in an area can create and verify. A knowledge panel is generated by Google for entities in its Knowledge Graph. Of the 120 Australian businesses we searched, 95 showed a Business Profile panel and none showed an entity panel.
What happened to Google knowledge panels?
They still appear: 8 of 12 well-known Australian brands in our comparison set showed one. They are fussy about the exact name, though. “Maurice Blackburn Lawyers” showed an entity panel on the same day that “Maurice Blackburn” showed none.
Can a small business get a Google knowledge panel?
It is possible but uncommon. None of the 120 local businesses in our sample had an entity panel, including well-established firms. A verified Business Profile, consistent facts across the web and Organization schema will do more for you, and they also help AI assistants describe you correctly.
Does schema markup create a knowledge panel?
Not on its own. Google says Organization markup helps it understand and disambiguate your organisation and can influence details such as your logo. 82% of the homepages we read had Organization or LocalBusiness schema and none had an entity panel, so treat schema as housekeeping, not a trigger.
If you want to know how Google, ChatGPT and the other assistants currently read your business, and which of these identity fixes would make the most difference, our team can check it for you. Start with our GEO agency page to see how we build entity and authority signals for Australian businesses, or read more about our wider AI SEO services.
