Helpful summary
Overview: We explained topic authority as a vital SEO content strategy, highlighting its role in effective ranking and faster SEO results through content clusters around relevant topics.
Why you can trust us: Our successful collaboration with Valheim Server Hosting demonstrates our proficiency. Within five months, we enabled them to rank on the first page of Google for key searches and earn over $35,000, starting their SEO strategy from scratch.
Why this is important: Establishing topic authority can help increase traffic, user engagement, and revenue leading to higher search rankings and a stronger brand reputation.
Action points: To increase topic authority, we recommend consistently publishing in-depth content on core topics, interlinking blog posts, updating old content, and engaging in collaborations with reputable outlets and bloggers in complementary areas.
Further research: Focus on producing high-quality, comprehensive content, conducting regular audits, and collaborating with established media, as guided by Embarque.io's SEO services.
Want to know more about topic authority?
Topical authority is a powerful SEO content strategy that can help you rank effectively over time. By creating creating content clusters around relevant topics, you can reduce the time it takes to rank for relevant topics, reach your target customers via search, and basically get results from SEO much faster.
It’s an enduring strategy that can help you rank for key topics in days. At Embarque, we’ll look at what topic authority is, its importance, and how to improve your topic authority over time.
Why listen to us about topic authority?
At Embarque, our experience with building topic authority is evident in our work with clients like VEED, Riverside, Flick, and MentorCruise.
For example, Valheim Server Hosting saw its site rank on the first page of Google for key queries, leading to an additional $35,000 in revenue. Our approach involves creating content clusters around relevant topics, resulting in quicker ranking and increased traffic.
By focusing on comprehensive coverage of specific subjects, our clients have established themselves as authoritative sources, attracting high-quality backlinks and boosting their SERP positions. Through regular content audits, semantic search optimization, and a strong internal linking strategy, we've helped clients like Valheim Server Hosting gather significant backlinks and enhance their brand reputation.
What is topic authority?
Topic authority refers to the assessment of how effectively a website caters to a specific subject matter. This takes into consideration the content present on the site, specifically analyzing the extent of coverage on a given topic and the performance of related pages, both presently and historically.
Websites that consistently publish substantial volumes of expert-level content, exhibiting high performance in a particular topic, tend to possess greater authority on that subject compared to their competitors.
This authority signifies to search engines and users that the website serves as a comprehensive and reliable source for learning about the subject matter. By extensively covering every aspect of a topic, websites can expect to receive improved rankings from Google as a form of recognition.
Take 4 day week, for example:
4 Day Week effectively attracts users by curating content related to job descriptions, interview questions, and salaries associated with a four-day workweek. By catering to this specific audience interested in finding employment opportunities that offer a reduced workweek, the website establishes its relevance and value.
As users discover the valuable information provided by 4dayweek.io, they are likely to become returning visitors and share the website with others who share an interest in a four-day workweek.
Why is topic authority Important?
1. To appear more often in the top positions in search results
Topical authority plays a crucial role in SEO because search engines, such as Google, strive to deliver the most relevant and informative search results to users. Consequently, websites with high authority on specific topics will frequently appear at the top of search results. To establish topic authority, a website must offer high-quality, comprehensive, and informative content.
Additionally, it is essential to obtain high-quality backlinks from websites with greater authority in the same niche. By measurably building authority for a particular topic, a website can enhance its presence in SERPs and attract more organic traffic from users interested in that topic. This, in turn, strengthens the brand’s reputation and increases the likelihood of conversions and sales
2. To gain more relevant links and traffic
When you are recognized as an authority on a subject, you will naturally attract more relevant links by being on the first page of search for relevant topics. These links will drive more referral traffic to your website, and consequently, boost your position in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
For instance, 4dayweek.io has already amassed 13.2 million backlinks, indicating that it has garnered considerable attention and interest from other websites.
3. To give local readers the right information
Google has identified a common challenge that users face when searching for authoritative content on specialized topics. For instance, when users seek specific commentary on world economics, they often come across general information instead.
Ideally, users should be able to access high-level information from publications or authors who are experts in the field. Google utilizes this feature to provide users with more relevant and localized results. This approach not only helps prioritize local news but also ensures that readers receive accurate and comprehensive information.
For example, if elections are taking place in a user’s area and they want to learn about the campaigns, parties, leaders, etc., Google will prioritize local news specifically tailored to that region. Additionally, “Topic Authority” is crucial, meaning that the news must be original, location-specific, and offer an in-depth analysis of the situation
4. To improve brand reputation
A higher website ranking results in an increase in brand reputation, leading to greater credibility and more user interaction. It should come as no surprise that more reputable sources attract more user traffic.
Therefore, use topical authority to enhance your brand image and take advantage of the opportunities it brings.
How to build and improve topic authority
Define your core topics
A pillar page should be comprehensive, covering a wide range of information and including relevant keywords and industry terminology. Regarding 4dayworkweek.oi, its core topics are “interviews,” “salaries,” “leave policies,” “remote work,” and the “four-day work week.”
Make sure your core topics are mentioned on all your pages
Mentioning your core topics across different pages helps Google understand the relationship across these different pages. It also allows you to build internal links in order to pass the traffic from one page to another.
Have a robust internal linking strategy
Internal links are important because they help search engines find, index, and understand all the pages on your site. When used effectively, they can direct page authority to important pages and are essential for any website aiming to improve its SERP ranking.
Google’s search engine has significantly evolved since the early days of search engine optimization, making it increasingly difficult to manipulate the system. It is no longer possible to cheat your way into a high rank.
You must genuinely put in the effort. By focusing on enhancing elements like your internal linking strategy, you can greatly enhance your SEO metrics without resorting to manipulative tactics
Implement semantic search best practices
Semantic search is the future of search engine rankings. Instead of relying on keywords, search engines aim to understand the intent and contextual meaning of content. The goal is to mimic human language comprehension. Implementing semantic search principles can greatly impact performance.
OnCrawl reported a 1,100% increase in organic traffic within five months for Interingilizce.com by following best practices such as:
- logically creating internal links
- using keyword synonyms and phrases from linked pages in anchor text, building a content network for each subtopic
- having an entity and semantically organized content repository, creating a topical map that shows linkages between queries (either manually or with tools like inLinks or Soolve.com) using contextual vectors that indicate the angle of an article
- categorizing URLs by saving related content in the same folder and maintaining URL hierarchy
Perform a Content Audit
Performing a content audit is an essential step to evaluate and optimize your existing website content. By reviewing and analyzing your current content, you can measure its performance and ensure that it aligns with your goals. Here's a step-by-step guide to conducting a content audit:
- Compile a list: Create a spreadsheet or a document listing all your content titles and their corresponding URLs.
- Categorize by funnel stages: Classify each piece of content according to the stage of the buyer's journey it serves, such as Awareness, Consideration, and Decision. This helps you understand the distribution and balance of content across the funnel.
- Measure effectiveness: Assess the performance of each content piece based on various metrics like search rankings, website traffic, bounce rate, conversion rate, engagement metrics, and any other relevant indicators. This analysis provides insights into the content's impact and effectiveness.
- Align with buyer personas: Consider your target buyer personas and match your content to their profiles. Evaluate whether each content piece addresses the needs, pain points, and interests of the intended audience. Identify any content that doesn't align with a buyer persona or fails to meet expectations in terms of performance.
- Determine rework or removal: Identify content that doesn't resonate with your target audience or fails to achieve desired outcomes. This content may need to be reworked or removed from your website. Focus on enhancing the quality, relevance, and value of underperforming content to improve its effectiveness.
Additionally, it's worth mentioning that Embarque offers services such as structural SEO content audits and recommendations to enhance various metrics and increase search traffic. These services can include evaluating your internal linking structure, which plays a crucial role in optimizing your website's visibility and user experience.
Create blog posts
If done strategically, blogging is a great way to enhance your authority on your core topics. Firstly, you must determine the specific subjects you want to be recognized for and publish numerous blog posts that address every possible query a searcher may have. Once you have accumulated a significant amount of content, it is essential to interlink these blog posts.
Embarque offers SEO content writing services that can support your blogging efforts. Our SEO articles are thoroughly researched, align with your brand, and effectively convert your target customers.
By utilizing their services, you can receive a content calendar that aids in planning and creating content. This can ultimately help you become a recognized authority in your chosen topics and improve your search engine rankings for relevant keywords.
Update Content Regularly to Maintain Freshness
Get old content to rank on Google's first page in as fast as 24 hours after republication, like we've done for our many clients, including MentorCruise!
Ensure that you have a process in place to regularly monitor and refresh old content. Focusing solely on new content while disregarding your existing content can have a negative impact on your rankings and traffic. For instance, it is recommended to conduct a content audit once or twice a year to assess which content pieces should be retained, updated, removed, or consolidated..
Source High-Quality Backlinks
One way to establish topical authority is by acquiring high-quality backlinks from other websites that are considered experts in your industry.
Backlinks are links from other sites that direct to pages on your own site. When you receive backlinks from authoritative websites, it enhances your reputation and signals search engines that you offer valuable content.
Avoid Keyword Cannibalization
When selecting keywords for your topic, it is important to ensure that they do not have overlapping search engine results pages (SERPs). This means that you should avoid keyword cannibalization, which occurs when two different pages on the same website target related keywords that yield the same search results.
Consequently, these pages compete for the top positions in SERPs. Instead, it is advisable to have one page targeting both keywords and achieving a high ranking.
For instance, suppose you want to focus on the keyword “employee onboarding.” If you already have a page targeting “employee onboarding process,” it may initially seem advantageous to target both of these keywords for a website aiming to establish expertise in HR topics.
However, it is crucial to examine the SERPs for each of these keywords: .
The level of overlap in the SERPs is significant, as Google ranks the same six pages within the top 10 results for these two keywords.
In the case of this website, it would be more beneficial not to create a new page specifically targeting the keyword "employee onboarding." By optimizing their existing employee onboarding process page appropriately, it has the potential to rank well for that keyword as well.
When aiming to establish topic authority and cover similar keywords effectively, you need to identify a primary keyword for each topic. The primary keyword represents the main keyword you intend to target for ranking purposes, while secondary terms and semantic variations are grouped under it.
To streamline your content planning process, you can select primary keywords for each silo topic you are working on and incorporate them into your content planner.
Collaboration
Cross-promotion is an effective way for blogs and reputable news outlets to collaborate. Blogs can share links to articles from these news outlets on their social media channels or website, driving traffic to the outlet while providing their readers with valuable, high-quality content.
Co-publishing content is another opportunity for collaboration. Blogs can partner with journalists or reporters from established media houses to create joint projects such as investigative reports or live events like webinars or conferences. This collaboration allows for the pooling of expertise and resources, resulting in compelling content that caters to specific niches.
Collaborations between bloggers specializing in different areas but with overlapping topics can also be valuable. For example, a technology blogger could partner with a healthcare blogger when discussing how artificial intelligence has influenced Covid-19 treatment methods. This collaboration brings diverse perspectives and expertise together, enriching the content and providing a more comprehensive view for readers.
Share it with your (relevant) audience
There’s no need to wait for your page one ranking before you get eyes on your article or page. Share it with your audience, utilize social media, and present content to your subscribers through email. Consider repurposing content and creating videos.
Best places to promote your blog post after it’s published
- Quora
- Medium
Conclusion
Building and improving topic authority requires a strategic approach that involves creating high-quality content, conducting regular content audits, and leveraging collaborations. By focusing on specific core topics, consistently publishing comprehensive and valuable content, interlinking blog posts, and keeping old content updated, websites can establish themselves as authorities in their respective fields.
Collaborations with reputable news outlets, co-publishing content with established media houses, and partnering with bloggers specializing in complementary areas can enhance credibility, reach, and the overall value provided to the audience. These collaborative efforts broaden the perspective, expertise, and resources available, resulting in compelling content that resonates with the target audience.
To support your journey in building and improving topic authority, Embarque offers SEO content writing services. With well-researched and tailored articles that align with your brand and target customers, Embarque can help you develop a content calendar and strategies to become a recognized authority in your industry and rank higher for relevant keywords.