Between rising search engine competition and Google’s evolving algorithms, building authority online has never been more important. If you’ve been managing the SEO of your website for a while, you’re probably familiar with the concept of authority. But what you may not realize is that Google’s approach to authority—as well as its criteria for it—have shifted.
In the past, domain authority was priority number one. It looks at a website’s overall strength and relevance across all the domains and subject areas it covers. Today, topical authority has taken the spotlight. Websites with deep expertise in specific topics are more likely to rank than websites with broad, shallow content offerings. One study found that pages with high topical authority gain meaningful traffic (5,000 pageviews) almost 20 days faster than those with low topical authority.
Read on to learn how you can maximize your website’s authority in the areas most important to your business.
What is topical authority?
Topical authority refers to a metric SEO tools use to approximate how authoritative you are in relation to a specific topic. It helps search engines determine how to rank your site for relevant topics, specifically considering your credibility and content depth.
Think of it this way: If someone searches for information about sustainable packaging, Google wants to show results from websites that consistently publish expert-level content about sustainability, packaging materials, and environmental impact—not from a general business blog that occasionally mentions eco-friendly practices.
Topics vs. keywords
While keywords are the exact words and phrases a user might type into a search engine, topics are groups of semantically related keywords. The topic “nontoxic cookware” might include keywords like “nontoxic cookware,” “safe cookware,” “safest nonstick cookware,” or “cookware without pfas.” You identify these keyword clusters when you perform keyword research for your content strategy.
What topical authority means for your business
Previously, websites with high domain authority (which usually possess expansive content catalogues covering an array of topics) dominated search engine rankings. This made it difficult for smaller websites to get visibility in response to customers’ search queries, even if they were operated by content creators with a high level of expertise and experience in a given subject matter.
Today, topical authority creates room for more niche websites to outrank traditional juggernauts—whoever has the most authority on a topic wins. If your content creators have experience, expertise, and credibility, you can outperform larger brands by establishing topical authority in your niche through relevant content, internal links, and strategic topic clustering.
The rise of topical authority
In the early days of search, Google relied heavily on keyword density and backlinks to determine relevance. So if you searched “history of denim manufacturing in California,” Google would often return a high-domain-authority site that happened to mention that phrase. Today, you’re more likely to see a publication based in California with content about Levi’s invention of blue jeans (i.e., a site with topical authority on that particular niche).
It took several Google algorithm updates to get here. Here’s a brief history:
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2013 Hummingbird update. First, the Hummingbird update of 2013 introduced semantic search, which helped Google understand search intent instead of just keyword matching. It laid the groundwork for establishing topical authority by prioritizing how well content aligned with user needs. Within a couple of years, Google introduced the E-A-T framework of expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness as its primary criteria for website and content quality.
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2022 Helpful Content update. In 2022, Google announced the Helpful Content Update, which added a second “E” to that authority framework: experience. This additional criterion added first-hand, lived experience to the concept of authority, which paved the way for topical authority by prioritizing depth of knowledge on particular subjects and localized expertise.
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2023 topical authority announcement. In 2023, Google officially announced topic authority in the context of news, encouraging organizations to put a premium on creating in-depth content. The update emphasized that searchers might prefer specialized or local publications over general interest outlets for certain topics. Topical authority quickly became applied beyond the news context to any website publishing informational content online.
Topical authority and E-E-A-T
The E-E-A-T model is part of Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines, which help set the standard for how websites rank. E-E-A-T stands for:
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Experience. First-hand experience with a particular subject matter that lends credibility to your content.
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Expertise. Specific skill set and knowledge level around a certain topic, establishing you as an authority on a specific matter.
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Authoritativeness. Recognition or reputation among industry peers and within your field.
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Trustworthiness. Accuracy and transparency of your website, including proper data attribution, updated information, and appropriate backlinks.
As you measure topical authority for an entire site, Google looks at these factors on a per-topic basis. That means your site could have strong E-E-A-T for certain pages that speak to certain topics, and weak E-E-A-T for others. Just because some of your pages rank for their target keywords doesn’t mean the rest of your pages will. It depends on your authority in regard to the topic the page’s target keyword is a part of.
How to build topical authority
Building topical authority requires a strategic approach that demonstrates your expertise consistently over time. Follow these basic guidelines to build your site’s topical authority:
1. Select a topic
Before anything else, determine which topic you have the most expertise in, as well as the most firsthand experience with, to establish yourself as an authoritative source.
Say you own a nontoxic cookware brand. You already have extensive firsthand experience lab testing how different materials react to heat, plus deep expertise on what nonstick chemicals are toxic and which are generally safest to use on products.
With this in mind, you’d perform keyword research on terms connected to your subject matter. Start by verifying that there’s enough search volume for each to ensure it’s worth developing high-quality original content. To build topical authority about nontoxic cookware, for example, you might create expert-informed content evaluating different cookware materials for toxicity, targeting these keywords:
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Is ceramic cookware nontoxic
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Is stainless steel cookware nontoxic
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Is nonstick cookware safe
2. Write authoritative content
After you’ve selected your topics and topic clusters, it’s time to get to work creating high-quality content. For ecommerce companies, this typically involves a mix of detailed product pages and content marketing articles about your particular product or industry.
In the example of the nontoxic cookware brand, you might include detailed information on your product pages about your materials and testing procedures. Then, to answer the question “is [material] nontoxic,” you might conduct lab tests on each material, measuring for various aspects of toxicity under different heat conditions, and write about each of these tests in a blog post.
Conducting your own testing demonstrates your brand has firsthand experience with the topic, which creates a stronger topical authority signal than simply citing other studies, per the E-E-A-T framework.
3. Tout your credentials
Publish the credentials of everyone who contributes to your content with details about their background, such as relevant education, certifications, and personal experience with topics that are most relevant to your business. If you have editorial review procedures, publish those as well to show Google that your content is backed by a rigorous process.
4. Earn citations
After publishing your original research and lab testing results, you might share your content with journalists who cover consumer safety and home cooking. If they link to your content from their publications, those citations contribute to your influence and good reputation as a reputable source of information on the topic. They also support your link-building strategy with high-quality backlinks.
Topical authority FAQ
What is topical coverage?
Topical coverage is part of the content strategy for building topical authority. It involves creating and publishing content across topic clusters that tie into your main topic. It demonstrates you have substantial knowledge to share on a particular topic, which can positively impact your topical authority.
What is topical relevance?
Topical relevance measures how well the content of a website maps to its selected topic, thus positioning it more highly in search engine result pages.
What’s the difference between domain authority and topical authority?
Domain authority looks at a website’s overall strength and relevance across all the domains and subject areas it covers. Topical authority zeroes in on how authoritative a site is within a specific subject or niche, measuring depth rather than breadth.
