Since Google brought semantic search algorithms to life, mastering SEO rankings no longer solely revolves around incorporating relevant keywords and a few backlinks. Several additional ranking practices have emerged, with topical mapping standing out as one of the most effective strategies.
This comprehensive guide covers everything you need to know about topical maps, including:
- Key elements of a topical map;
- Topical relevance and its importance for your SEO strategy;
- How to craft an effective topical map;
- Common mistakes to avoid.
What is a Topical Map?
A topical map, put simply, is a strategically designed content cluster that represents the topics, subtopics, and related keywords covered on a website.
Its purpose is to illustrate how the website content is structured, helping search engines understand which topics are related and connected, thus reflecting the logical flow of the overall content theme.
Plus, a topical map also improves user navigation of a website and helps them easily find the information they are looking for. This is exactly what helps your website rank.
As Ahrefs’ statistics show, the average top-ranking page also ranks within the top 10 search results for not only the main topic it targets but also for nearly 1,000 other related keywords. This indicates that having a topical map is essential for improving your website’s ranking in search engine results pages.
Additionally, websites from any niche can benefit from the structured approach to content that topical maps provide, making topical maps a common and important strategy that any content team should leverage for SEO success.
Take the Gymshark website as an example. Gymshark creates a category hub for each specific topic, such as Fitness, Health, Products and Styles, etc.
By clicking on the “Fitness” tab, the website directs users to fitness-related subtopics, such as bodybuilding, arm workouts, and leg workouts. Further clicking on “Bodybuilding” reveals a collection of relevant content centered around the theme of building one’s body.
While the concept of topical maps is not difficult to grasp, creating them can be a complex and time-consuming process.
For this reason, many businesses choose to partner with SEO specialists and link-building services like GrowthOG to guide them through the process and amplify their SEO efforts. Check out our case studies!
Why to Create a Topical Map and Its Impact on SEO Strategy
Did you know that Google recently updated its SEO Starter Guide, and how you organize your site is at the top of the list of the most important SEO aspects?
In particular, Google stated “When you’re setting up or redoing your site, it can be good to organize it in a logical way because it can help search engines and users understand how your pages relate to the rest of your site.”
The search engine also suggests that organizing topically related pages into directories can positively impact how Google crawls and indexes your website.
On top of that, a well-executed topical map can enhance your site’s SEO in several ways:
Improved keyword targeting
A topical map allows you to target specific keywords and phrases that are relevant to your business. By grouping your website content into topics, you can create a more focused and relevant website, which can help you draw organic traffic and achieve higher search rankings.
Increased internal linking
Topical mapping naturally encourages internal linking between related pages on your website, which strengthens their connection and site architecture. This helps distribute PageRank and spread link juice throughout your site, which can improve your overall SEO performance.
Internal linking done right between GrowthOG articles
Better user experience
Internal links in a topical map help users navigate and explore your website and find the information they are seeking without a fuss. This can lead to a lower bounce rate and longer time on site, both are positive signals to search engines.
Enhanced content organization
A topical map can help you organize your content in a logical and hierarchical way. This lets you see the “big picture” of your content, which greatly aids in content planning, creating, and avoiding content duplication. From there, you can maintain relevant and comprehensive content that revolves around your thematic topics.
Topical relevance
By producing well-linked and insightful content that showcases your expertise on a particular topic, you establish your site as an expert in your niche.
Since Google prioritizes content that demonstrates topical relevance and authority, it will be more likely to recognize your site as a credible source in that field.
Pro Tip: Content doesn’t rank itself, and having an ideal topical map doesn’t guarantee your search engine rankings. Give it a boost by working with a link building provider like GrowthOG to earn high quality backlinks for your primary pages.
Key Components of a Topical Map
Key components of a topical map include primary topics, subtopics, and relevant keywords. Let’s break them down one by one.
Primary topics
They are overarching themes that encompass the key areas of focus in your topical map strategy. They act as the broad subject categories that form the foundation of your entire topical map.
Typically, the best way to identify primary topics is through strategic keyword research, user intent analysis, and business goals. These topics should align with your focus areas where you aim to establish the site’s authority and generate organic traffic.
Subtopics
Subtopics are specific aspects of core topics that enable a deeper exploration of particular areas within the broader subjects. They should be chosen based on long-tail keywords and specialized user searches.
Relevant keywords
These are groups of keywords closely related to specific subtopics. They comprehensively cover different nuances of a subtopic, each connected to each other by internal linking structures, forming a content cluster.
By covering related keywords, you strengthen your topical relevance by exclusively addressing potential user inquiries tied to a main topic.
Understanding Topical Authority
Topical authority refers to an SEO concept where search engines perceive your website as a trustworthy and authoritative source on one or more specific topics.
The higher your topical authority, the greater the chance that your pages or website will be placed among the top 1-5 results on search engine result pages (SERPs) for search terms related to your niche.
For example, when you search for a link-building topic, websites like SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Backlinko will rank higher in search results than other blog posts from unknown sources.
Why is this the case? Because they have high domain authority and traffic? Yes, but that’s not the whole story. These websites have also established a consistently strong topical authority in the link-building niche.
With its SEO advantages, no wonder that more than 90% of SEO practitioners and content marketers agree that topical authority plays a crucial role in their content strategy.
How search engines evaluate topical authority
Search engines prioritize topical authority because it effectively caters to users’ needs. To assess topical relevance, search engines analyze specific signals, including the quality and depth of site’s content.
The continuous evolution of Google’s algorithms, such as Panda, Penguin, BERT, and Helpful Content Updates, demonstrates their focus on semantic search and delivering in-depth content to users.
According to Google’s topical authority guidelines, a website that successfully establishes topical authority should provide comprehensive coverage of topics they are knowledgeable about, and their content should prioritize helpfulness and user-centricity.
Additionally, search engines also consider how well pages are connected to a website through internal linking, as well as the number and value of backlinks specifically related to that topic.
Does building topical authority seem like a lot to handle? Partner with GrowthOG and let us take care of everything for you!
Our experienced link-building specialists excel in such campaigns. We will consult you on keyword research, identify the most suitable topics to target, optimize your internal linking structure, and, most importantly, earn relevant and impactful backlinks that will boost your SEO efforts.
Building topical authority through content creation
Since topical authority can be earned through high-quality, in-depth content, creating such content is vital for building it. Remember, search engines like Google value content that meets these criteria: Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trust (E-E-A-T).
Consider this: a technical SEO guide from an SEO expert will carry more weight than a post from a beginner because it will cover more than just the basics.
It will include additional trust-worthy tips, industry insights, tried and tested tactics, and the latest data. Google and other search engines love this type of content and rank it higher because they know users will benefit from it.
Additionally, content should be strategically organized into a logical hierarchy, starting with broad topics and then moving on to specific articles. This helps search engines understand your site’s structure and expertise.
Don’t neglect to conduct regular content audits and updates. These are necessary to maintain the relevance and effectiveness of your topical content map.
How to Craft an Effective Topical Map
An effective topical map for SEO boils down to one thing: creating high-quality, people-first content in an organized manner. Does that sound easy to understand?
Great, let’s roll up our sleeves and create yours!
Step 1: Identifying core topics and subtopics
This step lays the first cornerstone of your topical map. Research your niches and identify core topics that align with your business goals and target audience.
Use tools like Google Trends to keep your finger on the pulse of emerging trends and see what your audience is shifting toward.
Additionally, you can analyze competitor topical maps to identify gaps and opportunities. Semrush or Ahrefs Content Gap analysis tools are powerful resources that can assist you in this process.
Once you have obtained a list of core topics, you need to break them down into subtopics that explore specific areas of interest. The Google Knowledge Panel, People Also Ask, and Related Searches are goldmines of subtopics for your content.
Scroll down to the bottom of the page and you’ll see more related queries which can be great keyword ideas.
Answer the Public is another useful tool you can use. Input a topic and the tool will pull out a lot of relevant keywords around it. The best thing about this tool is that it groups keyword ideas into questions like why, what, and how, making it easier for you to form content clusters.
It’s common that you may find many different variations of the same keyword. Figure out which one has a unique user intent. Does your audience look for informative guides, services, or products? This will help you plan the right content strategies accordingly.
Next, it’s time to sort the high-impact long-tail keywords from the list. Based on their search volume and level of competition, you can decide which ones to prioritize and place higher in the content hierarchy.
As for the less impactful keywords, store them in a file – you may need them when you refine your content strategies and update your topical map later.
SEO tools like Google Keyword Planner and LowFruits can assist you with keyword analysis, presenting detailed insight into search volume, competition level, and related queries.
Alternatively, with our extensive resources and experience, Growth OG can handle keyword research and provide you with competitive keyword lists that outrank your competitors.
Step 2: Structuring your topical map for maximum impact
This involves organizing your core topics and subtopics in a logical hierarchy, ensuring that each layer supports the overarching theme.
This logical structure not only aids in content creation but also enhances the user experience by providing a clear path to guide readers through related topics seamlessly. Furthermore, it signals Google about your site’s level of expertise on the topic.
The ideal structure should have broad content at the top, followed by more specific and granular content. This organization is beneficial for your internal linking strategy and strengthens the semantic relationships between your pages.
Prioritize topics that have SEO value and align with your business and services. Additionally, consider topics that your competitors haven’t covered before.
Or while they may not be entirely new, providing fresh and interesting data or perspectives can set your content apart.
Step 3: Visualizing the topical map
To easily view and edit your topical map, you should transform your structured topical map into a visual format, such as a mind map or flowchart.
This visual representation will help you and your team quickly grasp the relationships between topics and subtopics, making it easier to identify any content gaps.
Step 4: Integrating topical maps into your content strategy
After completing your topical map, the next step is to plan your content creation. Use the topical map as a guide to create blog posts, articles, and other content types that align with your identified topics.
Strategic planning of your editorial schedule is also crucial for building your topical relevance. This includes strategically posting pillar content, supporting articles, and updating old blog posts to maximize SEO effectiveness.
Step 5: Monitoring and updating your topical maps
Consider your topical maps as a tree. Planting it once and expecting it to be evergreen and fruitful isn’t enough. You need to nurture it, water it, prune branches to shape it, and add fertilizer.
Similarly, you should regularly monitor the performance of your content, the relevance of your topical map along with user engagement metrics.
Are there pages with high bounce rates or low click through rates? Are there any keywords losing their search volume that you should remove and add new ones? Identify opportunities for improvement and brainstorm ideas to address them.
In today’s competitive landscape, trends and audience interests constantly change, be ready to update your map to reflect these shifts, ensuring your content stays fresh and engaging. Utilize tools like Google Search Console to track key metrics and adjust your strategy accordingly.
With the advent of advanced technologies, you can leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to simplify the topical mapping process. These AI-driven tools can predict emerging trends and offer insights into user engagement metrics, user behaviors, and content analytics, making it easier to maintain a fresh and conversion-driven map.
Common Mistakes to Avoid While Creating a Topical Map
An effective topical map leaves no room for the following mistakes.
Creating low quality content
Crafting generic content without conducting thorough keyword research and a lack of content optimization provides little to no value to readers, resulting in high bounce rates and poor user experience.
Bear in mind that high quality content is still king, not only in the race to achieve topical relevance from search engines but also in diversifying your backlink profile, boosting targeted traffic, and earning you higher rankings on search engine result pages.
Overlapping topics
Topics that are too similar or have significant overlap can lead to confusion and redundancy. Overlapping topics can waste the time and resources of your content team as they create and edit content pieces. To prevent this, you should:
- Clearly define your content goals;
- Segment your target audience;
- Map your content to your business goals and user journey;
- Cross-check related topics.
Keyword cannibalization
Keyword cannibalization happens when multiple pages on a website compete for the same keyword, leading to diluted rankings and confusion.
This weakens your page authority and harms your SEO performance because search engines find it difficult to identify which page should be ranked for a given search query.
Commonly, keyword cannibalization is likely to occur when your topical map is left unchecked. This can be a roadblock that can hinder your SEO strategy.
To actively pinpoint the issue, you need to keep track of your content performance through regular content audits. SEMrush’s Cannibalization Report poses as a perfect tool to scan your site’s cannibalization health and spot cannibalized keywords.
Missing backlinks
If the goal of a topical map for SEO is to help websites rank higher, backlinks are the backbone that drives this process. Without backlinks, search engines have a much harder time discovering and ranking your website.
Recognizing the significance of backlinks in SEO, GrowthOG presents a reliable, results-driven link-building solution. We assist you in acquiring high-quality backlinks that closely align with your marketing strategy and budget. Explore our pricing plans for more details.
Ignoring competition
Failing to keep an eye on your competitors’ strategies could leave you drop behind in search engine rankings.
By conducting a thorough competitor analysis, you’ll uncover potential keywords or gain valuable insights into high-performing content strategies within your niche. This allows you to refine and update your topical maps accordingly for maximum SEO impact.
Ahrefs Site Explorer for competitor analysis
Over to You
Aiming to reinforce site architecture and assist user navigation, topical maps significantly improve website visibility and organic traffic.
An effective topical map is a game changer in gaining topical relevance from Google and establishing your site as an authority in your industry.
Structure your map into a clear hierarchy so that search engines can easily crawl, index, and rank your content effectively.
Win authority and rank in the top 5 with the help of GrowthOG! Our experienced link-building specialists and robust content team excel in leveraging this strategic approach to content strategy, helping you acquire quality backlinks to amplify your SEO efforts. Book a call now!