sameAs schema is one of the smallest properties in schema.org and one of the most misused. It takes a list of URLs, so it invites people to add as many as they can find. The definition asks for something much narrower, and reading it closely is most of what you need to get it right.
This guide covers what sameAs means, where it belongs, a sameAs schema example for an organisation and an author, and the links that should stay out. If you are new to structured data, our primer on schema markup covers the basics first.
What sameAs means in schema
The schema.org definition of sameAs is short: “URL of a reference Web page that unambiguously indicates the item’s identity. E.g. the URL of the item’s Wikipedia page, Wikidata entry, or official website.”
Two words in that definition do the work. “Reference” means a page whose purpose is to identify the thing, not a page that happens to mention it. “Unambiguously” means the page could not plausibly be about some other entity with a similar name. A news article that quotes your founder is neither. Your company’s own official profile on a social platform is both.
The expected type is a URL. schema.org’s own example uses sameAs to link entities to their Wikidata entries, which is the clearest illustration of intent: a stable, structured page that exists to say which entity this is.
| Link type | Fits the definition? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia page about the entity | Yes | Named in the definition as an example |
| Wikidata entry | Yes | Named in the definition; used in schema.org’s example |
| Official website | Yes | Named in the definition as an example |
| Official profiles you control | Usually | They identify the entity, provided they genuinely represent it |
| Articles or reviews that mention you | No | Not a reference page; they are about something else |
| Profiles of a different entity with a similar name | No | Not unambiguous; they indicate a different identity |
Where sameAs belongs: organisation and person markup
In practice, sameAs earns its keep on Organization and Person markup. That is where identity is the question. Organisation schema sameAs lists the official profiles of the business: the social accounts it runs, its reference entries where they exist, and other pages that stand for the company itself.
Person markup works the same way for authors. Google’s article structured data guidance suggests using url or sameAs to point to pages that identify an author, which helps distinguish two writers with the same name. Our guide to article schema covers how author markup fits into the wider Article block.
The reason this matters is entity resolution. Search engines try to work out which real-world thing a page is about. A clean set of sameAs links connects your markup to pages that already identify you, which is the structured side of the work described in our guide to entity SEO.
A sameAs schema example
Here is a minimal Organization block in JSON-LD. Every URL in the sameAs array should be a page the organisation controls or a reference entry about it specifically.
The identifiers above are placeholders; use your real profile URLs. For an author, the same property sits inside a Person object, usually nested as the author of an Article:
Keep the list consistent with what the site shows. If the footer links to three official profiles, the markup should list the same three, not a different set generated by a plugin’s default settings.
A note on reference entries. The definition names Wikipedia and Wikidata because they are pages built to identify things, but you should only list an entry that already exists and is genuinely about you. Do not create one purely to fill the array; those projects have their own notability rules, and an entry that is removed leaves you with a dead link in your markup. If no reference entry exists, a short list of official profiles is a perfectly good sameAs.
Declare the organisation once, ideally on the home page or a site-wide template, and keep that one block authoritative. Several plugins each emitting their own Organization object with different sameAs lists is a common way for a site to describe itself inconsistently without anyone noticing.
What to leave out of sameAs
The rule is simple: only link profiles that genuinely represent the entity. Most problems come from breaking it in one of a few predictable ways.
- Mentions and coverage. Press articles, reviews and directory listings are about you, but they are not reference pages that indicate your identity.
- Abandoned profiles. An account nobody has used in years still identifies you, but if it is out of date it can describe the business wrongly. Fix it or drop it.
- Someone else’s page. A reference entry for a company or person with a similar name is actively harmful, because it tells search engines you are a different entity.
- Internal pages. Your own about page is better expressed through
urland the page itself than repeated as sameAs.
How to check your sameAs markup
Run the page through the Rich Results Test or the schema.org validator and read the detected Organization or Person item. Then open every URL in the sameAs list. Each one should load, belong to the entity, and describe it accurately. That manual pass catches most of the real problems, because validators confirm syntax, not identity.
Repeat the check when you add or close a profile, rebrand, or change the plugin that generates the markup. sameAs lists drift quietly; a closed account or a changed handle leaves a dead or wrong link that nobody notices for months.
One limitation to be clear about. sameAs is a hint that helps search engines connect your markup to pages that identify you; it is not a switch. Adding it does not create a knowledge panel, and no validator will tell you how much weight it carries. It works alongside consistent information across the web, which our guide to the knowledge panel covers. Treat a short, accurate, maintained sameAs list as part of describing your entity correctly, and judge it by whether every link is right rather than by how many there are. A list of four correct profiles does more than a list of twenty that includes a stranger with the same name.
Frequently asked questions
What is sameAs in schema?
It is a property whose value is the URL of a reference web page that unambiguously indicates the item’s identity, such as its Wikipedia page, Wikidata entry or official website.
Where should I use sameAs?
Mainly on Organization and Person markup, to list official profiles and reference entries that genuinely represent the entity.
Should I add every page that mentions my brand?
No. Articles, reviews and directory listings mention you but do not identify you. Keep sameAs to official profiles and reference entries.
Does sameAs create a knowledge panel?
No. It helps search engines connect your markup to pages that identify you, but it does not guarantee any search feature.
The takeaway List only official profiles and reference entries that unambiguously identify the entity, keep them in line with what the site shows, and check every link when anything changes.
