The Baseline Audit: What Google Currently Knows About You

You cannot improve what you have not measured. Before adding structured data, fixing listings, or optimizing your brand SERP, you need to know exactly what Google currently understands about you. This session gives you a systematic audit process.

The audit has one goal: document the gap between what is true about your entity and what Google believes is true. Every inconsistency, every missing signal, every incorrect fact is a specific problem you can fix. Without the audit, you are guessing.

Where Google Gets Entity Information

Google does not rely on a single source to build its understanding of an entity. It pulls from a network of sources, cross-references them, and assigns confidence scores based on how well those sources agree. The more sources that say the same thing, the higher Google's confidence.

Green-bordered sources are the ones you can directly control. Orange-bordered sources are ones you can influence. Gray-bordered sources are external and depend on your broader visibility.

The Five-Part Baseline Audit

The audit covers five areas. Each one examines a different layer of how Google builds entity understanding. Work through them in order.

Part 1: Knowledge Graph Check

Start with the most direct question: does Google already recognize you as an entity?

Use the Knowledge Graph Search API or the Kalicube Knowledge Graph Explorer. Search for your exact brand name. If you get a result, note:

• The MID (machine identifier)
• The entity type Google assigned (Person, Organization, LocalBusiness, etc.)
• The description Google uses
• The confidence score (resultScore)

If you get no result, that is your baseline: Google does not recognize you as a distinct entity yet.

Part 2: Brand SERP Analysis

Search your exact brand name on Google (use an incognito window to avoid personalization). Document everything on the first page:

• Which results are yours (website, social profiles, directory listings)?
• Which results are about someone or something else with the same name?
• Is there a Knowledge Panel on the right side?
• Are there any rich results (FAQ, sitelinks, People Also Ask)?
• What images appear in the image pack?

Your brand SERP is the single most important search results page for your entity. It is Google's public summary of what it knows about you.

Part 3: Structured Data Audit

Check what structured data currently exists on your website. Use Google's Rich Results Test or the Schema.org Validator. Test your homepage, about page, and contact page at minimum.

Record what schema types are present, what properties are filled in, and whether there are any errors or warnings.

Part 4: NAP Consistency Check

Search Google for your brand name combined with your city, phone number, and address. Note whether the information Google displays is consistent across all sources. Check your Google Business Profile, major directories (Yelp, Yellow Pages, industry-specific directories), and social media profiles.

Any variation in name format, address format, or phone number format is a signal problem. We will address NAP in depth in Module 1.

Part 5: Third-Party Presence

Check for your presence on authoritative third-party platforms:

• Wikidata: wikidata.org
• Wikipedia: search for your brand or personal name
• Crunchbase, LinkedIn company page, industry directories
• News articles mentioning your brand

The Audit Checklist

Documenting Your Baseline

Create a simple document (a spreadsheet works well) with one row per audit item. For each item, record three things:

1. Current state: What exists right now?
2. Desired state: What should it look like?
3. Gap: What needs to change?

This document becomes your working action list for the rest of the course. Every module addresses one or more of these gaps. By the end, every row should show current state matching desired state.

The chart above shows a typical gap between where businesses start and where they can be after systematic entity work. The orange bars represent common starting scores. The green bars represent achievable targets. Your specific numbers will vary, but the pattern is consistent: most businesses have large gaps in Knowledge Graph recognition, structured data, and third-party presence.

Further Reading

• Knowledge Graph API Explorer (Kalicube)
• Rich Results Test (Google)
• A Guide To Google's Knowledge Graph Search API For SEO (Search Engine Journal)
• Schema.org Validator (Schema.org)