In the last few years, the phrase Topical authority has emerged as a buzzword in the SEO industry.
Kinda like “investing in tech stocks.”
Everyone is talking about it, but nobody seems to know what it is or how to measure success.
Everyone thinks everyone else is doing it, so everyone claims they are doing it too.
So we decided to poll SEOs and content marketers themselves about topical authority in their content strategy.
Here are the top takeaways.
What type of SEO roles do they perform?
Most of our respondents were one-person teams represented by business owners, SEO consultants, bloggers, and affiliate marketers, accounting for 52% of answers.
The breakdown is below.
Unlike managerial positions, this data indicates that our audience was mainly comprised of professionals who are deeply engaged in SEO tasks.
One-person teams were followed by agency professionals, who made up almost one-third of the respondents.
The percentage of in-house specialists is 20%.
A leading 25% among solopreneurs and business owners indicates a healthy set of respondents who manage their SEO efforts as part of a broader set of responsibilities in running their businesses.
88% of SEOs believe topical authority to be very important
Almost all respondents agree that building topical authority is vital to their SEO strategy.
Similarly, 98% of SEOs rate the value of keyword clustering as being between medium and high in their content strategy.
80% of SEOs believe a tool that clusters keywords based on search engine results would be very valuable.
Almost 90% of respondents prefer a keyword tool to automate their keyword clustering based on input, GSC data or competitor data.
It’s clear that most SEOs don't rely on just one source of data and instead base their keyword
research on a combination of Google Search Console, competitor pages and doing their own research.
What do SEOs want?
Respondents ranked the ability to measure authority via a Topical Authority Score metric that tracks website authority within their niche at the top of their wishlist.
19% of SEOs also expressed a desire for a visual topical map that illustrates a website’s keyword clusters and new article ideas.
What are their main content challenges?
In our qualitative section, 76% of SEOs and content marketers identified an efficient content optimization workflow as their biggest challenge when it came to SEO.
35% of SEOs list content planning steps such as internal linking, quality content, and content organization as their main challenges.
These include identifying relevant content clusters while avoiding content cannibalization as their main concerns. Some problems listed are,
- Appropriate clustering and preventing cannibalization or waste of resources
- The time it takes to research content properly
- Making sure the content stacks up against the competition
26% of respondents also claimed keyword research to be an obstacle, citing difficulties in identifying niches and content gaps while finding relevant content.
In their own words, issues include
- How to cover my topical authority in my niche with all topics that have been covered over and over again by more relevant sources
- Finding what to write about or keywords that we haven't covered before
- Finding content gaps and new relevant topics that are relevant to our target audience without necessarily rewriting existing content
16% of the audience mentioned the originality of content as a concern in their content strategy. They listed issues like,
- Making them different enough and not always answering questions like "why is ...." or "what is...."
- Content starts to sound similar or repetitive
- Staying relevant: Trends change quickly
What do 253,000 search results say about topical authority?
We collaborated with data scientists at WLDM and ClickStream to research the impact of topical authority on search engine rankings.
The study examined 253,800 search engine results to conclude that page-level topical authority is the largest on-page ranking factor for a webpage’s Google ranking.
That factor is so strong that it is more important than the domain monthly traffic volume for the domain a webpage is on (for example, articles on Amazon.com rank higher than those published on small websites).
- Eric Van Buskirk, Search Engine Journal
The same study also revealed that Surfer’s “Content Score” metric is the best predictor of high search ranking compared to other single on-page factors.
You can find the article here. Check it out – it was Search Engine Journal’s most read piece for the month!
Is topical authority a ranking factor?
Although the term "topical authority" is often discussed in the SEO industry, it’s not a term that Google uses. In fact, the closest that Google mentions topical authority is in the context of its blog post on news topic authority.
In any case, it’s not always prudent to blindly follow the search engine’s claims. The term “topic authority” is simply a representation of how authoritative your website is considered in its niche, according to search engine algorithms.
This isn’t just a measure of your content but also links, E-EAT compliance, and perceived authority.
However, relevant, high-value content can be a significant factor, even in the absence of active link building.
Real-world case studies on topical authority have repeatedly demonstrated this. So yes, covering content in your niche in a systematic manner can help you rise to the top.
How to use this information?
Content research and planning take the most time. This is made worse by the fact that not every article you produce will rank well, or contribute to your website’s authority.
Instead, following a topically related content plan can help improve the impact of your content efforts. Building topical authority can help you rank for competitive terms in your niche while winning the credibility and trust of your potential customers.
You wouldn’t just assign an ad budget without knowing which ads work, would you?
Following a topical content strategy can help reveal your content's performance and identify your biggest movers, instead of running aimlessly on the content flywheel.
Think of a topical map as your compass, guiding your content journey.
Surfer’s Topic Explorer is a keyword tool that is dedicated to improving your website’s authority through suggested content that builds your topical authority in the eyes of Google.
In the example below, Surfer found 38 topics for a photography website.
The column on the left offers a peek into the topics, while you can see their respective supporting pages in the right panel.
Of course, you are also provided with keyword metrics to help you make a decision.
You can use Surfer in a number of ways. Plug in your Google Search Console data, or enter a keyword – and the tool will help generate a topically connected content plan for your website.
