The concept of topical authority has gained prominence as a powerful strategy for improving website rankings. Also called topical authority, it refers to a website's ability to be recognized as a reference on a given topic.
Rather than focusing on isolated keywords, this approach aims to create interconnected content that covers all aspects of a topic, demonstrating expertise and relevance.
In this article, we will explain what topical authority is and how you can implement it in your SEO strategy .
What is topical authority?
Topical authority is the SEO concept that describes a website 's ability to become an authority on a given topic by comprehensively covering all related subtopics.
The idea is that by producing comprehensive and student data interconnected content on a specific topic, the website becomes recognized as an expert by search engines like Google. This authority is built by creating rich, relevant and optimized articles that answer all the questions the public may have about the topic.
A practical example would be a website that wants to become a reference in “storytelling”. To build its topical authority, it needs to cover everything from the basics, such as “what is storytelling”, to more specific topics, such as “storytelling techniques” or “storytelling for companies”. This way, Google begins to see the website as a complete and reliable source for that topic, increasing its chances of ranking.
Why is topical authority important for SEO?
Google prioritizes content that demonstrates relevance and expertise on a specific topic. This is because the search algorithm relies on semantic associations, trying to understand the context behind the content.
Sites with topical authority are more likely to appear in search results because they exhaustively cover the needs of those searching for that topic. After all, when a site has several interconnected contents, it makes navigation easier for both the user and Google, which can generate more natural backlinks and increase the domain authority.
In other words, by focusing on creating a topic cluster — a group of interconnected articles on the same topic — you increase your SEO authority. This happens because Google starts to see your site as a reference on the subject, rewarding it with better positions in the SERP (Google results page).