Build topical authority to gain more traction in SERP

SEO topical authority is like being the smartest kid in class when the teacher asks a question about a specific topic.

Let's say the teacher asks about dinosaurs, and you know a lot about dinosaurs because you've read a lot of books and watched a lot of documentaries about them.

Because you know so much about dinosaurs, everyone in the class trusts that you're the expert and will listen to what you have to say.

In the same way, when people search for information about a specific topic on the internet, search engines like Google want to show them the most trustworthy and knowledgeable sources.

So, if a website has a lot of good information about a topic and has proven itself to be a reliable source of information over time, search engines will see it as having high topical authority on that topic.

This means that the website is more likely to show up at the top of search results when people search for information about that topic.

Okay, enough about dinosaurs. But really, why tell 1/5 of the story if you’re capable of more?

To start building topical authority with ContentGecko, try to visualise a structure for your domain. If you’ve got nothing then you can easily do it within ContentGecko.

Open app.contentgecko.io and proceed to the Hubs view. Let’s create your first content hubs. Repeat this step until you have created all your most important topics to cover.

Once done, you should see a view similar to this.

Mostly this is up to you. Choose the topics that are currently most relevant to the business goals that you need to achieve.

If you want to leverage data, then a good rule of thumb is to choose hubs that have a content coverage of more than 40% and are already ranking in between positions of 10-25.

By covering more subtopics and optimising some existing pages you will surely raise in ranks and gain more exposure in the SERP.

The blue line (Hub coverage: 51%) indicates how big of a percentage of keyword clusters have you covered within this content hub.

Click on the hub you’re interested in and let’s take a look at the “Content Gaps” tab.

Use the search bar to narrow down and find a sub-topic that interests you.

On the left, you can find existing pages to optimise and on the right content gaps to fill (these are keyword clusters that have high potential click rates and already get impressions within your domain).

Click on the one that piques your interest and open the detailed view to get more information.

While topical authority can be a valuable asset for improving your Google rankings, it is not a quick solution to all your SEO problems.

Achieving topical authority takes significant effort and patience, but it is worthwhile if you aim to rank for all the relevant keywords in your industry.

Remember this crucial point: cover all the topics your audience is interested in, and aim for the keywords that relate to your products or services to enhance your content even further.