sameAs Schema for Brands: What Google Uses and How to Add It

The sameAs property in Organization structured data lists pages on other sites that identify your business, such as your social or review site profiles, or a Wikipedia or Wikidata entry. Google says Organization markup can help it disambiguate your organization in search results, and that it can make general use of sameAs. None of the Google pages cited here describe it as a ranking factor, and Google does not guarantee that any feature using structured data will show. Here is what Google and schema.org say, which profiles to list, and how to add the markup.

What sameAs means

Schema.org defines sameAs as the URL of a reference page that unambiguously indicates an item's identity, with examples such as the item's Wikipedia page, Wikidata entry or official website.

Google's Organization structured data guide describes it in plainer terms: "The URL of a page on another website with additional information about your organization, if applicable." Its examples are profile pages on social media or review sites, and you can list more than one.

The point is identity: schema.org describes a sameAs URL as one that unambiguously indicates the item's identity. Listing a profile in sameAs marks it, in markup search engines can read, as a reference page for the organization your website describes.

What Google says the markup does

The Organization guide says adding the markup to your home page can help Google better understand your organization's administrative details and "disambiguate your organization in search results." Some properties, it says, work behind the scenes, while others can influence visual elements, such as which logo shows in search results and your knowledge panel. Of the url property, it says: "This helps Google uniquely identify your organization."

Google's introduction to structured data adds that Google can make general use of the sameAs property and other schema.org structured data. It also notes that Google uses structured data "to gather information about the web and the world in general, such as information about the people, books, or companies that are included in the markup."

What the markup does not do is create a knowledge panel on demand. Google's help page on how the Knowledge Graph works says knowledge panels "are created automatically by Google Search Algorithm when there is enough information available on the open web."

Which profiles to list

Google's guide gives no ranked list of profiles. From here on, the advice is our own view, built on Google's and schema.org's documentation.

• Wikipedia and Wikidata, if your business has an entry. Schema.org names both as examples, and Google said when it launched the Knowledge Graph that the Graph drew on public sources including Wikipedia. Do not create an entry just to add it here. Both sites have their own rules on what qualifies.
• Official business profiles. Your Google Business Profile if you are a local business, plus registry or company database profiles that describe you accurately.
• Active social and community profiles. LinkedIn, X, Facebook, GitHub or similar, if they are yours, filled in and kept up to date.
• Established directories in your field. Only profiles that describe your business accurately. Our post on checking a directory before you submit covers how to judge them.

A short list of accurate, official profiles is better than every profile you have ever made. Leave out anything you do not control or have not updated in years.

What to put in the markup

Google says JSON-LD is "the easiest solution for website owners to implement and maintain at scale", and recommends it when your setup allows. Google's Organization structured data guide includes a full example you can copy. For a sameAs setup, the properties to fill in are:

• @type: Organization, or a more specific subtype that fits your business.
• name: your business name, the same one you use as your site name.
• url: your home page address.
• logo: the address of your logo image.
• description: one sentence on what your business does.
• sameAs: a list of the profile addresses you chose above, such as [your Wikipedia page], [your Wikidata item], [your LinkedIn company page] and [your X profile].
• @id (optional): your home page address followed by #organization. This gives other markup on your site a stable way to refer to the organization.

Google recommends the most specific subtype of Organization that fits. For a restaurant or physical store, that means a LocalBusiness subtype, with your address (street, city, region, postcode and country) and phone number alongside your profiles. In that case, list profiles such as [your Facebook page] and [your review site listing] in sameAs.

How to add it

• Make your details match first. Use the same business name everywhere. Google's guide asks you to use the same name in your markup as your site name. If your name, address or phone number differ between profiles, markup will not settle which one is right. Our post on how Google Business Profile feeds AI answers explains why the profile itself matters for local businesses.
• Put it on one page. Google recommends your home page or a single page about your organization, such as your about page. You do not need it on every page.
• Only mark up what is true and visible. Google's general guidance says not to add structured data about information that users cannot see on the page.
• Add it in the HTML or with JavaScript. Google says it can read JSON-LD that JavaScript code or embedded widgets inject into the page, and its guide to generating structured data with JavaScript covers Google Tag Manager. Placing it directly in the page means you can see it in the page source. If you inject it with JavaScript, Google's guide recommends testing the live URL rather than pasted code, because the code input has JavaScript limitations.
• Test it. Run the page through the Rich Results Test, then use the URL Inspection tool in Search Console to see how Google reads the live page.

What to expect

Google's guide is clear that it "does not guarantee that features that consume structured data will show up in search results." sameAs is a way to remove doubt about who you are, not something Google presents as a ranking boost. It works best alongside the things that build a brand's presence over time: consistent listings, real mentions and links from your field. Our post on entity-based link building covers that side.