James Dooley: Knowledge panels for affiliate sites. Today I'm joined with Mike Love and I want to talk to you about schema, structured data, JSON-LD and now KGM IDs, which stands for knowledge graph machine ID and optimizing for the knowledge graph. It’s a pleasure having you, Mike. Can an affiliate site have a knowledge panel?

Mike Love: Yes, they can.

James Dooley: How does someone with an affiliate site get a knowledge panel created?

Mike Love: The usual route is brute forcing it. Over time, get enough press, maybe eventually a Wikipedia page, or enough people talking about you so Google creates one due to search demand and discussion volume. Another route is adding a small e-commerce shop to your affiliate site and going via Google Merchant Center. Some big sites sell t-shirts or branded gear and get a knowledge panel that way. Another way is getting a Google My Business and classing yourself as an internet marketing service or similar. Publishing books or journals can also help. There are multiple ways, like ranking a website.

James Dooley: Do you think it’s important for an affiliate site to have a knowledge panel?

Mike Love: I didn’t originally think it was that important. Affiliate marketers have focused on content and link building, some off-site socials, but often lazily. If someone searches air fryer reviews, they don’t check Facebook first. Many affiliate sites don’t get branded searches. But with the helpful content update, Google wants to rank real businesses. A real business would probably have a knowledge panel. So it makes sense to work towards getting one.

James Dooley: How important is it for the founder or author of an affiliate site to get a KGM ID and a knowledge panel?

Mike Love: Two reasons. An entity in Google’s knowledge graph must be connected to another entity. If the affiliate brand is unknown but you as a person have presence, connecting yourself as founder helps. Secondly, a Google patent on entities as experts shows Google wants real experts, especially for your money or your life queries. Just adding fake pen names or random doctors doesn’t work. There needs to be third-party corroboration. If you hire a doctor to review content, that doctor must mention you on their own channels or website. Press releases and third-party mentions help. Google doesn’t want to rank someone who just bought backlinks. E-commerce sites rank more because Google knows more about them, like legal names, business addresses, Trustpilot reviews. Bloggers often have no entries in the knowledge graph.

James Dooley: So there needs to be first-party, second-party and third-party corroboration. Not just you claiming authority.

Mike Love: Exactly.

James Dooley: Should affiliate sites have Trustpilot?

Mike Love: They can, but Trustpilot is expensive and can skew ratings if you don’t pay. Cheaper options like reviews.io exist. It’s harder for affiliate sites with lower margins to justify the cost compared to e-commerce sites.

James Dooley: What about Crunchbase, phone numbers, addresses, emails?

Mike Love: After the helpful content update, Google wants to rank real businesses. If you’re just a WordPress blog with a contact form, that’s weak. Real businesses have Crunchbase profiles. They have returns policies, terms and conditions, shipping details. You can buy a business address cheaply. You can get an ESIM for a few dollars a month for a phone number. Add that to schema and third-party mentions. It all helps.

James Dooley: How important is schema, especially for knowledge panels?

Mike Love: Schema reduces disambiguation. If your page isn’t written in formal Wikipedia style, Google can misinterpret things. Schema increases clarity and confidence in who you are and what you do. For knowledge panels, it’s the glue that holds it together. Google sees your Facebook, Crunchbase, Wikidata. Schema connects them and says this is who we are and here’s where to find us. It’s not just name and sameAs. You can include awards, people involved, services provided and more.

James Dooley: The quality threshold for affiliate sites has increased. It’s not enough to just publish content and build links. You need to build a real brand and aim for a knowledge panel. Attach a real name, address, phone number, email, returns policy and get that KGM ID for long-term trust. Mike, it’s been a pleasure.