Topical Authority
A site's depth of coverage and credibility on a specific subject area.
Topical authority is the comprehensive, interconnected coverage a site has on a given subject. A site with high topical authority ranks well across many related queries within that topic — not just the ones with exact keyword matches.
Context
Topical authority is built through pillar-and-cluster content: a broad pillar page covers the topic at a high level, and supporting cluster pages cover specific sub-topics in depth. All cluster pages link to the pillar; the pillar links to each cluster.
The key practice is coverage completeness. A site that covers 80% of a topic's natural sub-questions will outrank a site with a handful of deeper articles on only the high-volume queries, because Google recognizes the breadth as authority.
A SaaS company writing about 'customer retention' will not rank for the head term until it also has pages on churn analysis, cohort reporting, win-back campaigns, segmentation, NPS, and expansion revenue — all interlinked.
Topical authority doesn't require a massive content volume. 15 well-researched, interlinked pieces on a tight topic outrank 150 shallow pieces scattered across many topics.
Related terms
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More SEO terms
CTR (Click-Through Rate)
The percentage of people who clicked after seeing your link, ad, or snippet.
SERP (Search Engine Results Page)
The page Google shows after a search — far more than just ten blue links.
LCP (Largest Contentful Paint)
How fast the main content becomes visible on a page.
CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift)
How much the page jumps around during load.