When Google AI (Perplexity or Gemini) gives your brand it's own knowlege panel, it signifies one of the strongest trust signals for authority ranking. 

The thing is, you can't pay for a knowlege panel the way you would for pay per click ads or local service ads. 

A brand's knowlege panel is earned through building up reviews, responding promptly and professionally, getting brand citations on reputable sources such as local news platforms, podcasts, online magazines, industry specific sites. 

With it, you dominate the conversation. Without it? Your customers ears belong to someone else. 

Google Knowledge Panels come in two main forms, each designed to display quick, authoritative information right on the search results page.

1. Branded or Personal Knowledge Panels

These panels appear for well known companies, public figures, or established brands. When someone searches for a notable entity, Google shows an information box that highlights key details such as profiles, links, and background information.

2. Local Knowledge Panels

Local Knowledge Panels display business information for users searching within a specific geographic area. These panels include details like hours, address, reviews, and contact information; but they only appear for searchers in the business’s local region.

Google ultimately decides which people, places, and things qualify for a Knowledge Panel. 

In general, these panels are reserved for entities with a strong online footprint and enough public significance for Google to confidently verify who or what they are. 

Here are some common examples of entities that often receive Knowledge Panels:

• Individuals: Such as authors, celebrities, scientists, influencers, and notable historical figures.
• Locations: Including countries, cities, landmarks, parks, and museums.
• Institutions: Schools, universities, major businesses, nonprofits, and other well established organizations.
• Objects & Concepts: Movies, books, music artists, products, and widely recognized topics or ideas.

The best and easiest way to earn a knowledge panel for your brand within an AI conversation on Google or Chat GPT and to quickly generate leads through AI is to build authority as an industry expert. Your aim is to become THE answer, not just a good choice. 

To build trust, you need to earn citations. This mean, industry magazines who already have that trust need to defer to your business for advice, tips and tricks. 

If you want to see if your business is mentioned by AI tools such as ChatGPT and GOOGLE's Gemini or Perplexity, the easiest way is to simply to an AI Audit of your brand. 

Ask each AI platform:

• Who is (your brand)
• What is (your brand)
• What does (your brand) do
• Who does (your brand) serve
• Where does (your brand) serve

Asking these questions will give you a clear picture as to how AI shows your brand to a consumer, who and what sites are referencing you, (and who isn't), and what information is displayed. (In some cases, AI makes inferrences about brands based upon outdated information such as old addresses and contact information and sometimes stating you offer services you haven't provided in years.) 

This is an opportunity for you to see the truth and take action to ensure the first impressions consumers have are accurate and everywhere.

AI tools, like Google Gemini, Perplexity and Chat GPT's goal is to try to understand what a searcher or user MEANS when they search and WHO is the BEST answer. 

46% of all searches result in no click at all, that means users are now getting all answers to their questions without ever clicking on a businesses website. 

That search traffic doesn't disappear completely. It get's rerouted. 

For every search, like a roofer near me, AI quietly runs 20 plus sub searches before providing an answer. 

They are asking questions that they believe the user may ask next. Questions like, 

• How to fix a leaky roof
• How much does it cost to fix a roof leak
• What is cool roofing
• How much can cool roof save me on my heating and air conditioning bill
• Ashphalt Shingles or Metal Roof
• Can you color match my shingles
• What is an ice damn
• Roofers near me

While backlinks are useful, they don't hold nearly as much weight as trusted industry sites like GAF, Pink Panther and Timberland or local news stations, like Fox2Now, St. Louis Magazine's ALIST or RiverFrontTImes.  Those are what is known as citations. 

A brand citation is when a trusted industry source, such as an industry specific website, podcast, blog or online magazine references your brand's content. 

The easiest way to get brand citations is by providing expert insights on every aspect of your services and products. 

Have a page on your painting services is great. Maybe you talk about colorschemes that are trending, best colors to for fall, best colors to make small spaces feel more open, colors that sell your home fast... etc.  

Do you also have subpages that go beyond what you do and paint you as the industry expert in all things interior painting?

Do you offer expert tips on how to prepare a room to be painted? How to tape it, prime it, etc? Which rollers and paint brushes are best to use? Do you showcase how to create different textures using paint for a wall paper effect? What about offering advice on how to get cat urine and smoke smells out of a room using paint? And if someone had previous water damage and mold? What advice do you offer?

In the Q1 and 2 of next year, AI isn't just looking at surface level keywords. They are looking at the entire conversation. Answering these questions will help you gain important brand citations for your business as well as generate leads for your company through AI marketing strategies.