How to get an artist Google Panel when people search your name

You want to look the best you can as an artist and make it easy for potential fans to find you. This guide makes sure you show up how you want to when you’re searched on Google.

Google Knowledge panels are a great way for people to find out more about you as an artist and easily find you on Facebook, YouTube, Spotify and more. As it’s auto-generated you want to make sure it’s up to date and represents you well.

Firstly

You need to make sure your online presence is optimised. This means ensuring that your artist page on Facebook, your artist YouTube Channel and so on are all named and tagged after your artist name.

As Google creates your panel automatically it will put up the bare-bones of it based on what is clearly available online. Ensuring your online presence is optimised enhances what Google will be able to do straight up.

When you upload music online to services like Spotify then Google will often create your panel after the first couple of uploads. It will then create links to your Spotify artist page for easy access to your music.

Google won’t just create a Knowledge Panel because you exist, you will need to have somewhat of an entity online. This means getting your accounts verified, more Facebook likes, adding structured data to your website etc. will increase your chances of getting a panel.

Then

Google will create your Knowledge Panel for you when it feels your brand is ready but you want to look good for all your potential new fans. Fortunately Google now lets you take some control over your Panels.

You need to log in to, or create, a Google account. It’s best to have one that you use for your music in general to link for all of your music things.

You need to become an official representative to make any changes to your Knowledge Panel. To become an official representative make sure:

• The URL in the Knowledge Card matches the official website, YouTube channel or Google+ page.
• That you have the website attached to your search console account.
• That you are signed into your Google account that is tied to the website.
• That you have Web & App Activity is turned on.

Once Google knows you are an official representative for your brand you should be able to see a bar at the top of the panel saying “Is this info up-to-date?”.

If you can then select ‘Suggest a Change’ to edit parts of your panel and make sure that you are represented as best as you can be when people look for you on Google.

Google will review the change but assuming it’s accurate and doesn’t infringe on any of their terms you’re good to go with your best look!