What is Topical Authority?
Show your website content can be trusted
Imagine you're on Google or ChatGPT doing some research on a specific topic. Let's suppose you have a boggy backyard and want to work out the best way to fix this permanently. You find an article (or AI generates a response) that talks about different types of drains etc and how these could be used to fix your problem. Now before you go outside and start digging up your yard, don't you want to first make sure that the answers you have are from a reputable, trustworthy source? In other words, you want to know the answer has come from someone with experience and expertise on this topic that you can trust. In other words, you want to know that the content source (website) has Topical Authority.
Do Search Engines and AI Agents care about Topical Authority?
So we care about Topical Authority, but what about Google and ChatGPT. The answer is of course they do. For them to be successful, they need us to keep using them, and the best way to ensure this is to provide us with the answers we want. So if we want to know that the content is credible, they need to make sure that what they deliver is.
Is EEAT the same as Topical Authority?
EEAT is an acronym that Google uses when reviewing websites to evaluate their quality and whether they should be ranking where they are. It stands for:
- Experience - how much experience does the content author have on the topic?
- Expertise - what expertise (skills and knowledge) does the author have on the topic?
- Authoritativeness - is the author regarded by the industry as an expert on the topic?
- Trustworthiness - can the author be trusted to give reliable information?
So the best way to look at it is that Topical Authority contains the strategy/framework we use to build trust in our content, whilst EEAT is how we can measure it.
How do you build Topical Authority?
Great, well-structured content
The starting point for building Topical Authority is having great content, that is unique and original, answers your questions, and is well-structured for ease of access and readability. The best way to achieve this is with Topic Clusters (also known as Hub and Spoke).
Topic clusters are where you have a main topic page linking to relevant sub-topic pages. A simple example would be having a page for “hot water installations” linked to relevant pages, such as:
- Different types of hot water systems
- Pros and cons of each hot water system type
- What size hot water system do you need
- Installation cost guide
Expert authors with experience
Having great content is one thing, but now you need to show that the content has been written by an experienced expert. The best way to do this is to have an expansive “About Us” page and “Key Team Member” pages that show all your credentials, associations and experience. Then link your content to the team member page to show they authored it.
Video explainers, how-tos and expert commentary
The best way to create unique content and link your content to expert authors is with video. There are thousands of pages about “hot water installation”, and they all have similar content. But if you embed a video of a key team member talking about important considerations when getting a hot water system installed, suddenly your page is unique. No other page has the same content. Not to mention, you can now link the page content to the team member as an expert author.
Latest Projects
Showing all the projects your business/team have completed around a topic clearly shows your expertise and experience. Though, it is important that these projects are up-to-date and not just showing a few projects from 4 years ago when the website was first built.
Is Topical Authority, all you need to be found in Search and AI
The short answer is no, it is simply one part of the puzzle. You should also work on:
- Building your Brand Authority
- Improving your website performance and accessibility
If you’re interested in how we do this for our clients, read about our SEO Framework called SmartyrSEO.