This translation has not been editorially reviewed yet. The German version is authoritative. Deutsche Fassung
GEO / AI
What does sameAs do in the JSON-LD for AI visibility?
Language models and response machines map content to entities — a company, a person, a place. The more secure this assignment, the more likely a page is called as a source about that very entity. The sameAs field in structured data provides the bridge: it names other addresses by which the same entity is known — a Wikipedia or Wikidata entry, the company directory, the Google company profile, profiles in social networks. The GEO panel checks whether any JSON-LD node on the page has such a field.
Why a link counts more than a description
An organization can describe itself in detail in the JSON-LD, but remains a name without an anchor for a language model as long as nothing connects it with what the model already knows. Research on AI visibility shows that mentions and links with known sources are more closely related to citation than classical back-references. sameAs makes this link machine-readable: it says that the organization on this website is the same as in the company register, Google profile or Wikidata. The test area evaluates the existence of the field with six out of a hundred points; He does not check whether the mentioned addresses really belong to the entity – that remains a matter for the editors.
Which addresses are useful
The most valuable are entries in sources that treat language models as reliable: Wikidata and Wikipedia, if an entry exists, official registers such as the company register or an association register, the Google company profile, business directories with examination, and the own profiles in social networks. Any directory entries without checking are worth less. The field belongs to the node that describes the entity — Organization, LocalBusiness, or Person — not to WebPage or WebSite. It adopts a list of addresses; Three to six references are better than twenty. Anyone who does not have a Wikipedia profile leaves it out; An invented entry does more harm than a missing one.
- At the organization or person node of your JSON-LD, add a sameAs field with a list of your profiles: company directory or register, Google company profile, social networks, Wikidata if available.
- Check that each address is reachable and actually shows your organization.
- Maintain the list of changes — a abandoned profile belongs out.
- Place the field in the template so that it will ship equally on each page.
