How Google Actually Decides Who Ranks: Entities, Trust & the Knowledge Graph

Learn the foundational structure behind how Google, ChatGPT, TikTok, and every major algorithm decides who shows up first and why it all comes down to entities and trust.

In this course, I walk you through how I see the internet as a former search engine engineer. We cover what entities are, how they connect through the knowledge graph, why trust signals like reviews, engagement, and links are all forms of voting, and how content has to live on entity objects and get repurposed across channels to actually be visible to algorithms.

We go deep on real examples. Dan Liebrandt and Pest Control SEO, Tommy Melo, ServiceTitan, Marko and Coating Launch, Dr. Hugh Flax at Flax Dental in Atlanta, Keigan Carthy in roofing, DigiMarCon, and our new agency HVAC Growth. You can see exactly how this plays out in the real world across local service businesses and digital marketing agencies.

This is the framework that still works whether you’re optimizing for Google Search, Google Maps, ChatGPT, Perplexity, or whatever comes next. First principles don’t change.