Topical Authority
Topical Authority is a site's perceived expertise on a topic, built through comprehensive content coverage, internal linking, and consistent entity signals across multiple pages.
Hub-and-Spoke Model
The most effective structure for building topical authority is the hub-and-spoke model. A comprehensive "hub" page covers the topic broadly, while "spoke" pages dive deep into subtopics. Internal links connect spokes back to the hub and to each other, creating a topic cluster that signals comprehensive coverage to search engines.
How AI Engines Evaluate It
AI engines evaluate topical authority by analyzing the breadth and depth of entity coverage across a domain. A site that covers all entities in a semantic neighborhood with consistent schema stitching signals higher authority than one with fragmented or shallow coverage.
Related Terms
- Salience Pressure — Entity density pillar contributing to topical authority
- Voisinage Semantique — Mapping semantic neighborhoods for coverage gaps
- Knowledge Graph — Entity database that reflects topical authority