Keywords, Entities, & Topics: What is the Difference?

One of the most wonderful - and frustrating! - things about language and semantics is that it allows us to describe and differentiate similar concepts.  Specificity is wonderful because we can precisely and accurately communicate information. The frustration arises when words that mean different things are used interchangeably, and lose the power of their specificity.

This support document outlines three related but distinct concepts (keywords, entities, and topics) and how they are relevant to both SEO and knowledge graph initiatives.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Keywords
• Entities
• Topics

Keywords

Keywords are the phrases or words that users input into search engines with the hope of finding the information they're looking for. One SEO strategy is to start by doing keyword research, identifying queries you want to rank for, and creating content that includes those keywords. Oftentimes, this content will include variations of keywords that describe a particular concept, or entity. This has traditionally been a cornerstone of the SEO process.  

Synonyms for Keyword:

• Search Term
• Query

Entities

From the Schema App Glossary, an Entity is a thing or concept that is unique and distinguishable, with specific and well-defined attributes. At Schema App, entities are represented by URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers). In the context of SEO, authors aim to create content about a particular entity. The content might reference or mention other related entities that help provide context or differentiate it. Unlike Keyword based SEO, where you start with the specific words or terms a user will search, Entity SEO focuses on creating high quality content on a particular entity associated with the keywords or queries you expect your target audience to search for.  

Synonyms for Entity

• Thing
  
• Data Item
  
• Resource
• Node

Topics

Topics are a category used to group related entities together. Topics are often defined by subject matter and grouping is intended to make the data or content more useful to humans and machines alike. Topics can be public-facing (e.g. Collection Pages with a list of Articles on a given subject) or internal (e.g. Metadata tags that aren't visible on a webpage).

Synonyms for Topic

• Subject
• Focus
  
• Business Domain
• Area of Interest