If you are trying to rank a website, you will understand the impact that Google updates can make. Sometimes, the impact is good – other times, the impact is not favorable. The one thing that is constant is your need to drive traffic to your site. You want a strategy that not only helps you grow organic traffic consistently – but you also want a strategy that is likely to withstand any unexpected blows. You need to establish irrefutable topical authority, which is the final goal of topical mapping. A topical map is your ultimate road map to becoming a well-recognized authority in your niche.
Topical Mapping – Why Does It Matter?
Topical mapping is essential for designing the content strategy and your content. If you have been struggling to rank your content or wondering why your competitors always seem to outrank you, then we are here to tell you the top secret you need to know.
In SEO, a topical map is your roadmap to becoming a well-recognized authority in your niche. The thing is that websites with strong authority are more likely to withstand Google’s core updates and are less vulnerable to changes in the algorithm. If you are wondering why, then you should know that Google trusts them.
Correlation between High Search Rankings and Topical Authority
Research has proven the existence of a strong correlation between high search rankings and topical authority. You might want to think of it in the following aspect: Google wants to see well-researched, high-quality articles across your entire topic, which means that having one or two well-written articles won’t get you anywhere.
Google’s job is to deliver the best, most relevant content to users. When your site covers a topic well, it signals to Google that you are more than a casual blogger – you are a trusted source. As you keep publishing more high-value content, search engines learn to trust your credibility and prefer you over other sites that may be competing for the same keywords.
Benefits of Topical Content Map
There are several benefits of a well-executed topical content map for your website’s SEO:
Boost User Navigation and Engagement
With topical mapping, your potential visitors are going to spend more time exploring your site as they will find the site well-organized, which is also what makes it easy to navigate. A topical map will present a clan and logical structure for your website users, and they will get their required information quickly.
Boost Site’s SEO Value
Topical mapping equips your website with a solid and essentially structured foundation, which will increase your chances of getting noticed by Google crawlers. Thus, topical mapping will enhance the visibility, relevance, and ranking of your website in Google.
Boost Site’s Content Optimization
With the help of topical mapping, you will be able to assess potential gaps in your content, which can also help you avoid posting duplicate content. The ultimate goal will be to create and pose more comprehensive and niche-relevant content around your primary topic. Thus, topical mapping will serve as a road map for the stages of planning and creating content while ensuring a holistic and detailed coverage of the main topic.
Boost Topical Authority
A topical content map can help you establish topical authority as your content will be well-linked and detailed on a specific topic. Thus, you will increase your chances of getting recognized by Google as an authority in your niche.
Establish Efficient Site Management
If you own a large website with many pages, then topical mapping is in your best interest. With a topical map, you will be able to visualize the structure of your website and make updates and revisions much more manageable. Thus, you will ensure the congruity of your content.
How Do You Generate A Topical Content Map?
You can establish the following SEO Topical Mapping SOP to start building an impactful topical content map.
Identify the Main and Sub Topics
To start building your topical map, you will need a list of subtopics for your website. For instance, if your website is about nutrition, you may want to list the different kinds of diets. So, nutrition would be your website’s main topic, and the different diets would be subtopics. They may include the keto diet, the paleo diet, the carnivore diet, and so on.
Next, you need to come up with different keyword variations for each of these topics that address them in detail for every kind of reader. This will take some level of research on online forums, books, Google, and basically anywhere else where you can find some relevant information.
For instance, Quora and Reddit are goldmines to find relevant questions that your audience cares about. However, you should also not overlook Google’s autocomplete, the “People Also Ask” section, and related searches that are at the bottom of Google’s search results.
For instance, you may come up with “What is a paleo diet?” “How to do a paleo diet,” or “Is a paleo diet healthy?” etc. You should repeat this process for each subtopic, and you will end up with hundreds of keywords. But – this doesn’t mean that you need to write hundreds of articles for each keyword.
Some keywords belong in one article, while other keywords need their separate pages.
Use A Keyword Clustering Tool
When it comes to creating a topical map for SEO, you can leverage a keyword clustering tool to speed up the process, which can save you hours of research and sorting. A topic explorer tool is exclusively designed to help you create a comprehensive topical map for your website. You should start by connecting your Google Search Console to the tool, which will then browse the web and analyze tons of data to present you with related topics and keywords.
However, depending on which tool you use, the tool will give you more than a list of keywords – it shows you how these keywords are related and groups them into similar content clusters. For instance, for one specific keyword, the tool might suggest dozens of cluster keywords. The tool might also include your existing pages in the content map so you can see which clusters they belong to.
Pro Tip for Clusters
A pro tip that you can benefit from is to focus on the clusters where you already have high authority but you might be missing some content. These are high-value topics that can push your site’s authority to the next level. Using a keyword cluster tool will give you a visual cue where you can see where you are strong and where you might need to improve your content. Once you have covered your main clusters, you should include other keywords in your content strategy. Over time, you will see that you are growing authority across different topics.
So, instead of randomly producing content, you will be strategically creating articles that support each other and boost your authority.
Organize the Sub-Topics
Organize the Sub-Topics You must group the related sub-topics into groups to keep everything organized. No matter what subtopics you have, they can be classified into a broader category. So, once you have established the themes of the sub-topics and grouped them together in clusters, place them all together in the form of a coherent topical map where the main topic is the center, and the sub-topics are the other “planets” that are orbiting around the main planet, which is the main topic.
Now, these sub-topics or clusters will establish the basis of the roadmap for your website’s sections, including category pages and a series of blog posts. By categorizing your subtopics into relevant categories, you will give your website a logical structure, which will make it easier for your users to find and consume the content they are interested in.
Determine the Hierarchy of the Sub-Topics
Now that you have categorized and organized the sub-topics, your next step is to establish the hierarchy among these subtopics. By doing so, you will ensure that your selection of comprehensive subtopics comprises more strength in the topical map structure. The point is to establish a clear path for users to explore deeper and more detailed niche subjects.
The hierarchy will resemble a pyramid-like structure for your website content, where the broad content will be positioned at the top. As the users will navigate deeper into the pyramid, they will get across more specific and narrow content. Specific subtopics will naturally carry more weight – depending on their breadth and depth. You might want to see them as the “Primary Subtopics.” As you get deeper into the pyramid, you will come across secondary and tertiary subtopics.
Pro-Tip for Determining Hierarchy
When it comes to determining the hierarchy of the subtopics, you must ensure that the hierarchy makes logical sense and is set up in a way that helps with user navigation. The goal should be to make it easier for Google and users to explore your website and understand your content. Google crawler will assess the knowledge and depth of commandment that your site has on the given primary topic.
Establish A Visual Representation
Topical mapping isn’t only for planning and organizing your website content. Ideally, it should also serve as a great visual aid that you should use within your website for your users. By creating a visual representation of the topical map, you will achieve the following milestones:
- Boost user experience
- Boost user engagement
- Boost user retention
If you look at it, you will find that a visual representation is also a unique way to sand out and deliver value to your target audience. You can leverage your topical map and convert it into a user-facing sitemap to help users effectively understand the structure of your website and find the content that they are looking for.
Nurture Your Topical Map Frequently
One of the effective ways to nurture your topical map is to review and revise it frequently. The underlying reason is the trending keywords might cool down, and new ones might take their place instead. Likewise, Google and other search engines perform regular algorithm updates and shift their SEO landscape. Now, if your topical map is outdated, your SEO efforts will go off the road.
On that note, it is crucial for you to tend to your topical map and update it regularly to make sure that it is fresh, relevant, and headed towards success.
Final Thoughts
Topical mapping is crucial for search engines and user navigation to understand your website better. With a well-defined topical map, you can establish a user-friendly website structure, which can help you achieve an increase in website traffic, a boost in SEO performance, and higher website rankings. With topical mapping, you will effectively organize and structure your web content around specific topics while establishing a clear hierarchy of information.
You can save time by availing yourself of digital marketing services as we will conduct comprehensive keyword research for you and identify topic clusters. Our professional experts will analyze your competitors and optimize your content to boost the topical authority of your website within your specific niche.
FAQs
What is topical authority in SEO?
Topical authority in SEO is where a website’s goal is to become the go-to authority on one or more topics. By building a topical authority, search engines improve the chances of website content ranking better for specific keywords.
How can I create topical maps?
You can create topical maps by starting with a broad topic that you want to become an authority on. Assess the topics and subtopics. Plan the content and use internal links to connect the subtopics with pillar pages.
How can I create topical authority?
You can create topical authority by being consistent in creating and linking high-quality content that is specific to your subject. The more in-depth and informative the content is, the more Google and Internet users will see you as an expert on your subject matter.
