Knowledge panel

A knowledge panel is the information box Google displays when it is confident enough about an entity to present its record directly, typically at the right of desktop results.

Knowledge panel is Google's own term. It is used across SEO, PR and reputation management, often as a proxy for whether a brand is considered established.

It is frequently confused with a Google Business Profile, which is a different product with a different origin.

A knowledge panel displays what Google already believes. A Google Business Profile is a listing you create and control. One is a readout, the other is an input.

A rich result decorates a page listing. A panel describes an entity, independently of any one page.

The book is emphatic that a panel is not a reward, a listing or an ad product: it is a display of the graph's record, shown only when confidence crosses a threshold, and you cannot apply for one, buy one or submit one. Its instruction follows directly. Chase the record, and the panel follows. Chase the panel, and you misunderstand the game.

Read about the book's argument.