sameAs
sameAs is a schema.org property listing authoritative URLs that refer to the same entity — typically social, directory and professional profiles.
It is the explicit statement that the company described on your site is the same company as the one on LinkedIn, Crunchbase, a review platform or an industry register.
Those links are what let a system corroborate your claims against independent sources and merge scattered references into one confident entity.
Why it matters
It is a few lines of markup that converts existing profiles into a verification network. Almost no small business does it, and it is among the highest return-per-effort changes available.
An example
An architecture practice's Organization markup includes sameAs links to its LinkedIn company page, its listing on the national professional register, and its Companies House record. Each of those independently confirms the name, location and profession the website claims — so a system reading the site can verify it rather than take it on trust.
Common mistakes
- Listing profiles that do not exist or no longer resolve. A broken sameAs asserts a corroborating source and fails to produce one.
- Pointing at profiles whose details contradict the website.
Questions
- Which profiles should go in sameAs?
- Ones that are live, authoritative, and describe the same business consistently: professional networks, official registers, industry directories and major review platforms. A few accurate profiles are worth more than many inconsistent ones.
- Where does sameAs go?
- In the Organization or LocalBusiness structured data on your site, usually output sitewide or at least on the homepage, as a list of absolute URLs.