Topical Authority: How to Earn It, and Why It Matters In 2024

In the rainy season, drizzles come every now and then, much like the constant updates and changes in search engines. With each update, how your content is ranked and displayed can shift. To stay ahead in your niche, ensuring your website ranks well is crucial. This is where topical authority comes in—it is a key player in boosting your rankings. While it is not the only factor influencing your SEO, it is an essential part of your strategy. In this comprehensive guide, we will learn what topical authority is, why it matters for your website & how to earn it eventually.

What is Topical Authority?

In search engine optimization, topical authority means becoming the go-to expert on specific topics for your website. For example, if you run a bicycle repair service, you want to be seen as an expert in bicycle repair. This helps potential customers trust you to fix their bicycle issues.

Building this authority also helps search engines understand your website better, improving its ranking for relevant keywords. The E-E-A-T guidelines (Experience, Expertise, Authority, Trustworthiness) from Google to evaluate content help to achieve topical authority.

However, meeting Google’s standards can be challenging and time-consuming, but it is worth it. Higher rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs) will increase your visibility and traffic. This is why you need to avoid writing about topics you know little about. If your bicycle repair service suddenly posts about a growing eCommerce industry overview, it will confuse your readers.

If it happens somehow, people who see your website as an authority will wonder what is going on. It is simple, loud and clear that giving mixed signals to your audience will not benefit you. 

How Does Topical Authority SEO Work?

— Shopify & Amazon are ranking on top when searching for eCommerce business 

To be honest, no one really knows how it works. Google has not made any official comments on it either. However, our team has tested how different activities impact a website’s topical authority. Here are the essential findings: it is not just about your content quality, you also need to build links simultaneously. Without links, even many articles will not make a difference in SERPs. All you need to show is authority to Google. But how? Follow these steps:

✅ For Big Websites: Choose important topics that attract many visitors. For new websites, focus on simple words with low competition that are popular in your niche.

✅ Create Exceptional Content: Make sure your content is top-notch. Offer unique insights and expert opinions to set yourself apart from competitors. Always consider what users are searching for.

✅ Internal Linking: Include links within your content to help Google navigate your site and improve user experience.

✅ Build Quality Backlinks: Earn links from reputable websites naturally to enhance your SEO efforts. Building links is crucial for your strategy to succeed.

However, you may get confused between typical authority and domain authority. Let us make you understand the basic differences between these two.

The Key Differences Between Topical Authority and Domain Authority

A website’s authority comes from two key factors: Topical Authority and Domain Authority. But what is the difference between them?

Well, domain authority measures the strength of a website based on backlinks and organic rankings. Websites with high DA have many quality backlinks and rank well in search results, attracting lots of organic traffic.

On the other hand, topical authority measures how well a website is seen as an expert in a particular niche. High topical authority can be achieved by creating valuable, high-quality content that establishes credibility.

Let us take a look at the basic and important difference between domain authority and typical authority:

As you have understood what topical authority is and the basic differences it has from domain authority, let us jump into why it is so important in 2024.

Why Topical Authority is So Important?

Topical authority is important for both SEO and your audience. It strengthens your content marketing strategy, resulting in more user interactions like traffic and clicks.

Let us continue with our above-mentioned example, if you run a bicycle repair business, you aim to rank high for terms like ‘bicycle parts issues,’ ‘common bicycle repairing,’ and ‘how to repair bicycle gear and paddle.’

These are the terms potential customers will search for. Since you can not put everything in one article, topic clusters come in handy. They help you break down content into smaller sections, covering complex topics fully. This helps you gain topical authority, so your brand comes to mind when someone has a bicycle issue.

With knowing the importance of topical authority SEO in your website, you might interested to know how to build this authority so that SERPs prioritize you. Let us dive into the strategies to build topical authority.

How To Build Topical Authority in 2024: 5 Steps to Follow

With the competition and regular updates from Google, it is quite hard to get and maintain the topical authority SEO of your website in a specific niche. But nothing is impossible if you follow the basics properly. Here are the basic but most important steps you need to follow to achieve topical authority in your niche.

1. Do Proper Keyword Research on Your Niche

Many beginners in SEO make the mistake of fixating on the most competitive keywords. These keywords are incredibly difficult to rank for, especially if your website is new. Instead, it often pays off to focus on less competitive keywords. What would you do? Would you rather rank first for one highly competitive term or dominate twenty keywords with lower search volumes?

The choice is yours! But from our point of view, starting with less competitive keywords when you are new provides a strong base to establish authority. But ideally, you need both to get ranked and build topical authority for your website.

2. Prepare Content that Solves Issues

There are thousands of websites with contents but nothing serves the true purpose for the users or reader. You need to keep in mind while writing content that you are not writing to please search engines, rather need to focus on the topics that solve issues and queries of the reader. If you can do that, your rank will come eventually.

To write valuable content you need to understand the search intent of the users. What the user is looking for by typing those keywords in Google. Once you understand the user’s needs, preparing content that solves issues is a matter of time.

For example, when someone wants to buy a bicycle seat, they might search for ‘comfortable bicycle seats’ or ‘best bicycle seats for a comfortable ride.’ If they are seeking information, they might search for ‘pros and cons of a bicycle seat’ or ‘how to choose the best bicycle seat.’ Knowing what people are looking for helps you create content that meets their expectations.

3. Create Topic Clusters

A topic cluster consists of a set of articles all focusing on one main subject. Imagine you run a review site and want to specialize in bicycles. 

In this scenario, you can start with a pillar page called ‘The Best Bicycles.’ Then, you write more detailed articles like ‘Best Bicycle Under $150, ‘Best Bicycle Under $400,’ and ‘Best Bicycle for Kids.’ By linking these articles strategically, you create a central hub of bicycle reviews that you can keep expanding.

Let us have an example – in the below articles titled ‘Best Road Bikes 2024’ you will also find the best cheap road bikes, the race bike of the year, and the best gravel bikes. They have tried clustering their topic that could be the intent of the users.

However, this makes it easy for users to find all the bicycle information they need on your site. This way, you establish yourself as an expert on bicycles, making your brand a trusted source of bicycle-related insights that bring you the topical authority on this specific niche.

4. Optimize Website Metadata Properly

Improving your website’s metadata is another great way to build your topical authority. This includes titles, descriptions, linking, and creating sitemaps. By optimizing these details, you can really boost your SEO. However, it is important to choose the right keywords that fit your business and build brand authority.

5. Work On Getting Quality Backlinks

Link building is crucial for SEO without any doubt. You need authoritative and relevant links from trusted sources to get the topical authority, but the process is not entirely within your control.

For instance, if you run a small coffee shop website, backlinks from major outlets like Starbucks or Gloria Jean’s Coffees can significantly boost your credibility. On the other hand, links from unrelated sites like a real estate agency will not help much.

Interested in effective link-building strategies?

👉 HARO: Help A Reporter Out lets you earn backlinks from high-authority sites by sharing your expert insights.

👉 Skyscraper Technique: Create top-tier content on a topic to attract numerous backlinks, a tactic popularized by SEO expert Brian Dean.

👉 Guest Blogging: Write valuable posts for sites related to your niche to showcase your expertise and build authority.

These are vital aspects you need to cover to earn the topical authority for your site so that you will appear on top of Google SERPs.

Do Research And Get Results By Building Topical Authority

As you can see, building topical authority is not something to fear. It is simple – all you need to do is just spend some time researching the topic you want to write about. After that, identify the areas you want to focus on. As you get better at it, you will see positive changes—more visitors, improved leads, and higher rankings.
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