What the Knowledge Panel is
Google describes knowledge panels as information boxes that appear when you search for people, places, organizations or things in its Knowledge Graph. They give a quick summary of an entity: for a company, typically its logo, a short description, key facts and links to its site and social profiles.
On a desktop the panel sits to the right of the results. On a phone it sits at the top, directly under the search box, which makes it the first thing a mobile searcher sees.
Knowledge panels and Business Profiles
For a local business, the box people see when they search its name is usually its Google Business Profile. Google says Business Profiles look similar to knowledge panels and are specific to businesses that serve customers at a location or in a service area. The name, category, address, phone, hours, photos, rating and website in that box come from the profile the owner manages.
Larger brands, people and organizations get a knowledge panel built by Google from sources across the web, sometimes with data from partners. Google updates panels automatically as that information changes.
When Google shows a panel
A panel appears when a search points at one specific entity, most often a search for a business or brand by name. Broad searches such as “plumber near me” point at a category, so Google shows the Local Pack and a list of options.
So the two answer different questions. The Pack decides whether you are found when someone looks for what you sell; the panel or profile decides what they see when they look for you by name.
How to influence what the panel shows
- For a local business, edit the Business Profile. Changes to name, hours, photos and the other fields flow into the box people see.
- For a knowledge panel, Google lets the entity it describes, or an official representative, claim the panel through verification and suggest changes. Anyone can use the feedback link on a panel to suggest an edit for review.
- Across the web, keep the facts about you consistent on your own site, your social profiles and reference sites, since Google builds panels from what it finds there.
Google decides what to show; these steps give it accurate material to work from.
What a panel does to clicks
A panel answers many searches on the spot. In Sistrix’s study of mobile results, the first organic result on searches with a knowledge panel got about 16.7% of clicks, against 28.5% on average. When the panel is about you, that is visibility for your brand; when you rely on the organic listing below it, expect fewer clicks.