by /
Owning your own personal knowledge panel is one of the most high authority things you can do online.
When you have one, Google is essentially saying “This guy is well known and the information is accurate”.
My knowledge panel is the first to appear when you search for “Dennis Yu” on Google.
You might notice that this is separate from our agency site at BlitzMetrics. Why is that?
Because me as a person is a separate entity than my company. A lot of business owners make the mistake of putting their personal brand on a company site.
This is a mistake because you as a person are different from the company. You might coach soccer, or run marathons, or have written a book. Things that are distinctly different from the company you run.
Google has an incentive to provide the most accurate information from well known figures in different industries. And so it’s your duty to provide Google with all the credibility it needs to make you a knowledge panel.
In a webinar I did with the GMB Pros, we discussed how leveraging high authority content elevates your
Here’s how to do that:
Leveraging Connections Gives You Higher Authority
Take my friend Roger Wakefield for example. He’s been a plumber for 30 years and is the most famous plumber on the planet with almost 600,000 YouTube subscribers.
If I wanted to introduce a solution to help plumbers, it would only make sense for us to co-create content.
The impact of that message would be disproportionately more effective coming from Roger than me. Because if you’re a plumber, what are the chances you know Dennis Yu?
Probably very low. But plumbers know Roger Wakefield – and so the message is amplified more than I can possibly do on my own.
This is part of what we teach in the Topic Wheel.
Notice how I have videos and collaborations with everyone circled. By leveraging the authority of others, you’re able to find footing in other topics, which in turn boost your credibility with Google.
For example, there’s no universe where collaborating with Ryan Deiss on entrepreneurship projects doesn’t make me more credible with entrepreneurs.
And there’s no universe where Ryan Deiss collaborating with me doesn’t make him more credible with digital marketing.
But there’s a catch:
Bad Actors Like Gavin Lira Can’t Run From Us
A few months ago we sent Gavin Lira clients for his PR firm.
After he did a poor job, we posted an article called Empathy Firm: Gavin Lira and Grant Lira Boast How They Run a Fake PR Agency.
We also then promoted the article to him and his followers spending $1/day on Facebook.
As a result, the article ranks 4th when you search his name. This was so effective in fact that Google even included me in his knowledge panel!
Personal Connections Are Different Than Business Connections
Consider that most customers buy services those they know, like, and trust.
There are thousands of examples of entrepreneurs with million dollar businesses struggling with personal branding.
Take my friend Nilson Silva for example.
A real American success story who’s still developing his knowledge panel on Google.
Even with his personal brand site – he can be elevated by sharing real content and stories.
To continue for this example – he has thousands of videos and images throughout his career begging to be repurposed and used.
By following Google’s E-E-A-T standards of experience, expertise, authority, and trust – we can confirm that Nilson of all people deserves his own knowledge panel, to say the least.
Or take my friend Caleb Guilliams, who’s become known in certain circles as the “life insurance guy”.
Just a few years ago his online presence barely existed.
Even though he doesn’t have a personal brand site, he uses his website Better Wealth for SEO power and still manages to rank.
The reason?
He has such an abundance of experience, expertise, authority, and trust that Google almost has no choice but to do so.
We’re not reinventing the wheel.
We’re simply providing Google with authoritative content which people want to learn about.
It’s So Easy To Win With Good Content
All you need is a decent piece of content that ideally starts in a video format, you link to it from a couple places, and then you run Dollar a Day against it!
Here’s another example of how powerful this can be:
My friend Caleb Guilliams who owns BetterWealth is one of the best known life insurance advisors.
As a result he’s well known in “NAIFA”, which is the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors.
By running Dollar a Day on Twitter targeting NAIFA members, we can get results that are insanely good.
That’s an 18% click rate – amazing. Only on a few specific campaigns do you get numbers like that, and we’re doing it barely spending anything.
The reason why that’s possible is because of the close relevance for Caleb’s audience.
The people who’re being advertised to know who Caleb is and so they click, which benefits us since the message is coming from Caleb.
How The Geo Category Grid Works
If you’re a pest control company in Portland, OR like our friends at EcoCare Pest Control there are 2 terms you want to rank in.
Portland and pest control.
And if there’s one category you do not want to network with, it is your competition with other pest control companies in Portland.
A way we can give local service businesses an SEO boost is by:
#1: Having other local companies in Portland, OR linking to them.
#2: Having other pest control companies in other parts of the country linking to them.
(Graph of the Geo Categories of different businesses in different cities)
In this way we’re telling Google that these local service companies are credible and have authority, since others directly related to their area or category are linking to you.
To be clear: this is not a bot network spinning up random articles for the sake of boosting SEO.
Rather, this is real genuine connections happening which benefit both parties mutually.
A Solid Network Is The Key
Whether you’re a local service company wanting to grow or an individual who wants a knowledge panel, the quickest way to get there is by leveraging networks.
Of others in your own category, or others in categories you want to be in.
All this SEO stuff at the end of the day is proof of credibility.
The more you can show that the better your local service business, website, and social proof will be in the eyes of Google.
Dennis Yu
Dennis Yu is co-author of the #1 best-selling book on Amazon in social media, The Definitive Guide to TikTok Ads. He has spent a billion dollars on Facebook ads across his agencies and agencies he advises. Mr. Yu is the "million jobs" guy-- on a mission to create one million jobs via hands-on social media training, partnering with universities and professional organizations.You can find him quoted in major publications and on television such as CNN, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, NPR, and LA Times. Clients have included Nike, Red Bull, the Golden State Warriors, Ashley Furniture, Quiznos-- down to local service businesses like real estate agents and dentists. He's spoken at over 750 conferences in 20 countries, having flown over 6 million miles in the last 30 years to train up young adults and business owners. He speaks for free as long as the organization believes in the job-creation mission and covers business class travel.You can find him hiking tall mountains, eating chicken wings, and taking Kaqun oxygen baths-- likely in a city near you.