What Is the sameAs Property? What Schema.org and Google Say About Identity URLs

What Is the sameAs Property, in Schema.org's Words?

Schema.org's page for the property gives one definition and one expected value type. The definition reads: “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.” The expected value is a URL, and the property is used on Thing, schema.org's most generic type, which means every other type (Organization, Person, Product and so on) inherits it. We read the page on October 9, 2026; it was displaying schema.org version 30.1, dated September 16, 2026.

Schema.org's own example uses it on a film and its related items, linking each to a Wikidata entry. The author node from that example reads:

{
  "@type": "Person",
  "name": "Douglas Adams",
  "sameAs": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q42"
}

The word “same” is the point. The URL must be about the same thing the markup describes, so it says “the entity described here is the entity described there.” A page that is only related to you (a press article, a partner's site) does not meet the definition.

The sameAs Property at a Glance

Why Identity URLs Exist: Ambiguous Names

Names are ambiguous, and identity URLs are a way to resolve that. Google made the same point when it launched its Knowledge Graph in 2012: the goal was a model that “understands real-world entities and their relationships to one another: things, not strings.” Its example was that “Language can be ambiguous”, since [taj mahal] could mean the monument, the musician or a casino (Google, May 16, 2012). A company called Apex or Summit has the same problem at smaller scale.

The URLs sameAs points to are often identifiers in shared databases. Wikidata describes itself as “a free, collaborative, multilingual, secondary knowledge base” whose items are “uniquely identified by a Q followed by a number, such as Douglas Adams (Q42)” (Wikidata). Because the Q-number, not the label, identifies the item, the address does not depend on a company's current name or website (our reading), which makes it a stable thing to point at. Google's Organization guide says the purpose of organization markup is to “disambiguate your organization in search results.” Whether any given sameAs value helps Google do that is not documented.

How Google Uses the sameAs Property

Google documents sameAs in two places and publishes no ranking weight for it. In the Organization guide, Google says adding organization markup to your home page “can help Google better understand your organization's administrative details and disambiguate your organization in search results.” The property description reads: “The URL of a page on another website with additional information about your organization, if applicable. For example, a URL to your organization's profile page on a social media or review site. You can provide multiple sameAs URLs.” (Google, last updated September 8, 2026).

The second place is the general introduction to structured data, which says “In addition to the properties and objects documented here, Google can make general use of the sameAs property and other schema.org structured data. Some of these elements may be used to enable future Search features, if they are deemed useful.” Two limits follow. Google does not say what “general use” means, and it does not promise that any sameAs value will change what appears in results. Its guidelines also say Google “does not guarantee that your structured data will show up in search results” even when the markup is valid (Google).

What the sameAs Property Is Not

The sameAs property is a statement of identity, and it does not do the other things people expect of a link. It is not a backlink for ranking purposes, because it sits in markup that readers do not see and Google documents no link-equity role for it (see our explainer on what a backlink is). It is not a way to claim a knowledge panel: Google's Knowledge Panel help says panels are generated “automatically based on public information on the web” and that Google's “current policy doesn't manually create or delete Knowledge Panels” (Google). And it is not a place for related pages: a press article about you does not identify you.

It is also only as trustworthy as the page it points to. If the target belongs to a different company with a similar name, the markup states something false. For the confusion problem and its fixes, see how to fix entity confusion between similar companies.

Which URLs to Put in sameAs

Pick pages that satisfy schema.org's test: they unambiguously identify the same entity, and you can confirm that they do. The table is our reading of the definitions above, not a Google list.

When sameAs Is Worth Adding and When to Skip It

Add sameAs when you have at least one independent, accurate page that identifies the entity, and you can keep it current. Skip it, or limit it to the official website, when the profiles are abandoned, belong to someone else or describe a different entity. Three cases come up in PR work. In each, the same rule applies: only list a URL you have opened and confirmed, because a wrong identity statement is worse than a missing one.

• A company with a Wikidata item or Wikipedia article. These are the examples schema.org itself gives, so include them. If your own team created the item, check that its statements carry sources first.
• An executive with a personal profile. Put the executive's sameAs values in Person markup, and keep the company's profiles in Organization markup, so the two entities do not blur.
• A company with a common name. sameAs gives the clearest identity signal you control. Pair it with consistent names across your site and profiles; see what Google actually lets you control.

Because Google documents no direct effect, treat sameAs as housekeeping for accuracy. The test is simple: if a person landed on each URL, would they agree it is the same entity?

How to Add and Check the sameAs Property

Add sameAs inside the markup for the entity it describes, then validate. Google's Organization guide talks about adding organization markup to your home page, and our Organization schema guide and Person schema guide give full templates. A short example, with placeholder URLs:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "Example Corporation",
  "url": "https://www.example.com",
  "sameAs": [
    "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q00000000",
    "https://www.linkedin.com/company/example"
  ]
}

1. Collect URLs you control or can verify, and open each to confirm it describes your entity.
2. Add them as an array under sameAs, using the full https:// address of the profile.
3. Validate the page with Google's Rich Results Test, as the Organization guide advises, and fix errors.
4. Check consistency: the name, logo and description on each linked page should match your markup. Mismatches defeat the purpose.
5. Review twice a year. Profiles get renamed, deleted or taken over.

To look at what you have already published, open the page source and search for sameAs, or run the page through the Rich Results Test. Schema.org's site also links a Validate tool for checking markup against its vocabulary. A passing test shows the markup is valid. It does not show Google used the values. Google's guidelines also say not to mark up content that readers cannot see, which is another reason to keep markup consistent with what the page and linked profiles actually say.

sameAs vs Related Terms

Common Misconceptions About sameAs

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources and Methodology

This explainer is built from the schema.org property page and Google Search Central documentation, read on October 9, 2026. Definitions are quoted verbatim from those sources. The table of which URLs fit is our reading of schema.org's definition, not a Google list. We did not test whether adding sameAs changes any Google result, and we make no claim that it does.

1. official sameAs, Schema.org (version 30.1, September 16, 2026), read October 9, 2026.
2. official Organization (Organization) structured data, Google Search Central (last updated September 8, 2026).
3. official Introduction to structured data markup in Google Search, Google Search Central (last updated December 10, 2025).
4. official General structured data guidelines, Google Search Central (last updated July 10, 2026).
5. official Submit feedback on content about you, Knowledge Panel Help.
6. official Wikidata:Introduction, Wikidata.
7. official url, alternateName, identifier, disambiguatingDescription, Schema.org property pages (usage bands, Google - August 2026), read October 10, 2026.