How to change the IG handle on Google knowledge Panel?

[Oliver Keates]

Hi

How do i change the IG handle on Google knowledge Panel? Somebody hacked a clients Instagram account and deleted it. How do i update the IG knowledge panel icon and change the IG account.

 

[StephanieNewton]

Hey Oliver,

Sorry to hear about your client's misfortune!

Frustratingly, you can't actually edit social links/badges through GMB. They are generated by Google when it trusts it's linking the right social media profile to the right business. This can be done through schema markup (additional info here, here and here). But it may be a bit of a waiting game until Google can trust that the two entities are linked.

Sterling Sky's Carrie Hill also suggests using social bages as images in posts, (given how difficult it can be to generate social icons in the KP itself). So that may be something to consider in the meantime.

 

[Annika Neudecker]

I'm guessing your client hasn't claimed their knowledge panel? You may want to check if Google is offering that option to you. Make sure you're signed in with an account that has access to your official website's Google Search Panel, then search for the client and look at the top of the knowledge panel for "Claim this knowledge panel". If that's present, you can go ahead and start the verification process. Once that's done your edits will have more sticking power and it should be easier to change the associated account. Just make sure to update all the IG links and schema on your website first because you will need to provide supporting URLs to prove that's the real account.

 

[EmilyW]

I'm guessing your client hasn't claimed their knowledge panel?

This is new to me that we may need to take this step of claiming. Do you have recommended reading or summary for this step? Thanks.

 

[pony]

This is new to me that we may need to take this step of claiming. Do you have recommended reading or summary for this step? Thanks.

Google’s New Verification Process Lets Users Edit Knowledge Panels

For the first time, Google is now letting individuals and organizations suggest edits to their own Knowledge Panels.

www.searchenginejournal.com

 

[EmilyW]

Google’s New Verification Process Lets Users Edit Knowledge Panels

For the first time, Google is now letting individuals and organizations suggest edits to their own Knowledge Panels.

www.searchenginejournal.com

Perfect, thank you!

 

[johnlavapie_SEO]

They are generated by Google when it trusts it's linking the right social media profile to the right business. This can be done through schema markup (additional info here, here and here).

Are there studies that after deprecation of the SameAs Social Profile markup, the schema still worked? I am in an understanding that this does not work anymore. And the best way (though it may take long) is to clearly link your profile from your website.

As for the Verification Process, has any able to edit your Social Profile from KP or GMB? I tried since the change above, but I can't seem to find where to edit them. Google said ELIGIBLE ENTITIES will be able to suggest social profiles - I wonder if this has not been implemented yet?

 

[StephanieNewton]

Are there studies that after deprecation of the SameAs Social Profile markup, the schema still worked? I am in an understanding that this does not work anymore. And the best way (though it may take long) is to clearly link your profile from your website.

As for the Verification Process, has any able to edit your Social Profile from KP or GMB? I tried since the change above, but I can't seem to find where to edit them. Google said ELIGIBLE ENTITIES will be able to suggest social profiles - I wonder if this has not been implemented yet?

Good spot! Do you know when the deprecation happened? Seems I'm behind on the times here

Re suggesting eligible entities, as far as I'm aware the guidelines "Eligible entities will be able to suggest the addition of new, or edit existing, social profiles. Profiles cannot be reordered" have been around for a while but I'm yet to find a way to do this successfully myself.

 

[Rich Owings]

Do you know when the deprecation happened?

June 2019

 

[StephanieNewton]

June 2019

I'm way behind then! Thanks, Rich.

 

[Rich Owings]

I hear you. My biggest challenge is keeping up with the deluge of SEO info each day!

 

[johnlavapie_SEO]

I researched for a little bit and will spit some interesting information I found:

Social profiles for local businesses - Google Business Profile Help

When people search for your business on Google, they may check links to your business’s social profiles included with your other business information in the Business Profile in Search. Google gather

support.google.com

When people search for your business on Google, they may see links to your business’s social profiles included with your other business information in the knowledge panel in Search. Google gathers business information from a variety of sources and may include it to give customers a more detailed overview of your business.

Social profile information is automatically added to listings for eligible businesses. There are many factors that influence whether these links will appear in your listing, including:

• Consistency. Use the same name to represent your business in both your listing and your social profiles.
• Authenticity. If available, verify your profile using the social media site’s verification process. This helps Google determine that the social profile is managed by an owner or authorized representative of the business. Note that not all sites have verification processes available to all of their users.

My understanding is to consistently use your GMB name as your social media account name. Also, if the site a verification process, make sure your account is verified.

Also, I saw from the sites below that some "experts" still suggest leaving the Schema SameAs to your websites. First, it will not hurt in any way. And second, it MAY still contribute to verify the right social media accounts.
How can I get my social profiles added to my Google My Business listing? - Google My Business Community

Getting Social Icons in Google's Knowledge Graph

Why you don't have all your social profiles in your Google Knowledge Panel? Google discovers these organically, not through Schema markup.

www.lockedownseo.com

Lastly, (however - they do not have studies - so take this with a grain of salt) Lockdown SEO they suggest the following:

1. Link to your social profiles from your website. Make sure you have icons that link to your social media pages in the header and/or footer of your site.
2. Gain a following. Google seems to list more social sites for companies that have larger follower counts. Establishing an audience on key social media accounts may cause Google to add those to your Google Maps/ Knowledge Panel more quickly.
3. Be active on your social accounts. If you have social media profiles where you are not very active, Google may not see those as valuable to customers. Google seems to add accounts to your Knowledge Panel where you are regularly active.
4. Build your brand. It is slow and steady work to build a strong brand, but Google usually has all the social links on larger brands, while smaller brands may only have a few social profiles. Keep working to grow your brand both online and offline.

My takeaway from this - I have to build EAT on each of my location's social media profile and hope for the best. I've experienced my KP's Social Icons appearing and disappearing. So I really still can't understand how they work.

If anyone has better ideas, please share!

 

[StephanieNewton]

Thanks for sharing, @raellovepie!

Those are good tips I think people should be doing anyway, but I have to say from personal experience — our site (BrightLocal) has social buttons in the footer and throughout the site and names are generally consistent (except for LinkedIn which I'm hoping to change soon!) We also have fairly good-sized followings but our Knowledge Panel still only shows one social profile and it's the wrong @, too!

So it really does baffle me how to successfully get social profiles into the KP. That said, I don't think it's the most important thing to have. Generally actions taken on GMB listings are website clicks/reviews/directions/phone call, etc.

Looking forward to hearing if anyone else has any more tips!

 

[StephanieNewton]

Hey guys,

Here's the response I got from GMB support when I asked how to get social badges in the KP:

"Hey there, Thanks for reaching out! It appears you are referring to the social profile links that show in the Knowledge Graph on search. This information is pulled automatically by our system using algorithms. We can't guarantee your social links will appear there, learn more: https://goo.gle/2wUPLHt Let us know if you've any questions. Regards, Nick"

Seems it really is a guessing game and all you can do is a) use consistent names across all profiles and website, and b) try to get profiles verified. But I imagine consistently posting and engaging must help too.

 

[johnlavapie_SEO]

Thanks @StephanieNewton,

Verifying the account and posting consistently is definitely all we can do for now.

But one challenge with this is with multiple location. In my experience, each social media accounts are only associated with a unique GMB account. Which means if FB1 shows to GMB1, FB1 won't show to GMB2. And FB1 won't show to GMB3. Correct me if I am wrong.

So to solve this issue, we create separate accounts per locations. But we have to plan the names of these accounts as each should have different names from each other. Now, that's another challenge as adding the town or city with their GMB names can be reported as spam or name change.

It's just sad they deprecated local schema sameas. But I also understand that they may have seen excessive penalties. And if they can't control spam, how can they control schema issues.