Easy SEO Tips to Build Topical Authority with Your Content

Topical authority is crucial for business owners aiming to enhance their online presence. 

It involves establishing your website as an expert in a specific area, which helps search engines rank your content higher. 

You can build trust with users and search engines by producing well-structured, relevant content.

Tools like Answer the Public, Ahrefs, and Ubersuggest assist in identifying key topics and keywords, while Google Sheets helps organise your content. 

Incorporating internal linking strengthens the structure of your site, boosting your topical authority and improving SEO results.

In this post, we’ll explore how you can use these tools and techniques to create a content strategy that boosts your authority and drives more traffic to your business website. 

Let’s dive in!

1. Understanding Topical Authority for Business Owners

Topical authority is about positioning your website as a trusted, go-to resource within your industry. It’s not just about creating content—it's about creating comprehensive, in-depth content that addresses multiple facets of a subject. 

The more you cover a topic thoroughly, the more search engines recognize your site as an expert source.

For example, a health and wellness coach might write a series of articles on various diet plans, exercise routines, and mental health tips. 

By covering these topics in detail, they become an authoritative voice in holistic well-being, attracting both readers and search engines.

Why does this matter? Search engines, like Google, prioritise sites that provide comprehensive and relevant content. 

When your website consistently delivers high-quality information on a specific topic, you increase your chances of ranking higher in search results, driving more organic traffic, and ultimately growing your business.

2. Topic Clusters and Content Silos

Topic Clusters are groups of related content centred around a primary theme. By creating multiple articles that cover different aspects of a subject, you give search engines and readers a more comprehensive understanding of that topic. 

For example, a local coffee shop could develop a cluster around the theme of coffee, with articles on brewing methods, the history of coffee origins, and sustainable sourcing. This holistic approach not only serves your audience but also signals to search engines that your site is a valuable resource on the topic.

Content Silos help structure your website by categorising content into distinct areas, making it easier for search engines to understand your site’s focus. 

For instance, a law firm could organise its content into silos such as family law, personal injury, and estate planning. By keeping related topics within specific categories, the firm reinforces its authority in each legal area, improving SEO performance and user navigation.

3. Using WordPress as a CMS to Build Organised, SEO-Friendly Content Silos

On WordPress, creating topic clusters and content silos involves strategically using the platform’s features like categories, tags, and internal linking. 

Categories function as your content silos, grouping related posts under broad themes, while tags allow you to further refine and link related content within each silo.

For instance, a law firm might create categories like "Family Law" and "Estate Planning" to organise its articles. 

Within each category, specific posts can be tagged with related keywords (e.g., "divorce advice" or "wills"). This not only helps search engines understand your site structure but also makes navigation easier for users.

The URL structure should reflect this organisation, using clean, descriptive URLs such as “/family-law/divorce-tips” instead of generic slugs. This helps reinforce the connection between content clusters.

WordPress’s internal linking capabilities allow you to easily link related posts within each cluster, ensuring readers and search engines can navigate through the content seamlessly. 

Using a CMS like WordPress simplifies these SEO practices, making it easier to build a well-organised site with strong topical authority.

Pro tip: Always add a blog folder and blog category to your website for the sake of structure, reporting, and SEO. 

4. Types of Content to Build Authority

List Posts are a powerful way to provide clear, actionable information in a format that’s easy for readers to digest. By breaking down complex topics into bite-sized pieces, list posts can quickly capture attention and deliver value. 

For example, a real estate agency might create a list post titled “Top 10 Tips for First-Time Homebuyers,” offering practical advice that positions them as an expert resource in the housing market.

How-To Guides are designed to solve specific problems by offering step-by-step instructions. These guides help readers take action while showcasing your expertise in the field. 

For instance, a construction company could write a guide on “How to Renovate Your Kitchen on a Budget,” providing homeowners with valuable insights and reinforcing the company's knowledge in renovation projects.

Ultimate Guides are comprehensive, long-form pieces that cover every aspect of a particular topic. These guides serve as in-depth resources that establish you as an authority on the subject. 

A digital marketing agency, for example, might publish “The Ultimate Guide to Social Media Marketing for Small Businesses,” giving readers a thorough understanding of the topic while demonstrating the agency’s expertise.

Using a variety of content types helps cater to different reader preferences and strengthens your overall topical authority.

5. Using Tools for Content Planning

Answer the Public is a powerful tool that helps uncover common questions and search queries in your industry. It visualises the questions people are asking online, which can guide your content creation. 

For example, a fitness studio owner might use Answer the Public to discover that users frequently ask and search for, “weight loss exercises at home” The studio can then create content directly answering that question, positioning itself as an authority on fitness topics.

Ahrefs or Ubersuggest are excellent for keyword research and identifying content gaps. These tools show you what keywords your competitors are ranking for, enabling you to develop content that fills gaps and addresses unmet user needs. 

An e-commerce business, for instance, could use Ahrefs to discover that its competitors rank well for “sustainable fashion,” prompting them to create content around this keyword to capture more traffic.

Google Sheets helps you organise all your keyword research, content ideas, and publishing schedules. By creating a content map, you can ensure that your clusters or silos are thoroughly planned and executed. 

This tool also allows you to track the progress of each piece, ensuring that nothing is overlooked in your content strategy.

6. URL Optimisation for Topical Authority

Optimising your URL structure is a key step in building topical authority. Here’s how you can approach it effectively:

1. Create Clean and Descriptive URLs

   • Your URL should clearly reflect the content of the page without being overly complex. Instead of using generic slugs like “/page1” or “/blog-post,” use descriptive URLs that give both users and search engines an immediate idea of what the page is about.

   • Example: A bakery posting a guide on cake-baking tips should use a URL like “/best-cake-baking-tips” rather than something generic.

2. Keep URLs Under 60 Characters

   • Aim for a URL length of 60 characters or less. This keeps the URL concise, easy to read, and helps prevent keyword stuffing. Overly long URLs can be confusing and make it harder for search engines to understand the page’s primary focus.

   • Example: Instead of “/best-cake-baking-tips-for-beginners-and-intermediate-levels,” simplify it to “/best-cake-baking-tips” to stay focused and within the ideal character limit.

3. Plan Your Content Silos and Categories

   • Before creating content, plan your content silos by grouping related topics under broader themes. These silos should be reflected in your URL structure.

   • For example, a law firm could have silos such as “Family Law” and “Estate Planning.” Within these silos, each article should have a URL that aligns with its category, such as “/family-law/divorce-guide” or “/estate-planning/wills-overview.”

4. Use a Consistent, Logical URL Structure

   • Make sure your URLs follow a logical and consistent pattern. This helps users and search engines navigate your site with ease. Start with the broad category (the silo), then narrow down to the specific content.

   • Example: For a travel agency, your content silo on destinations might use URLs like “/destinations/africa/cape-town-guide” or “/destinations/europe/paris-guide.”

5. Avoid Keyword Stuffing in URLs

   • While it’s important to include relevant keywords, stuffing too many into a URL can be counterproductive and harm your SEO. Instead, focus on a few key terms that best represent the content, keeping the URL short and relevant.

   • Example: Avoid something like “/cheap-affordable-best-cape-town-travel-guide,” and go for “/cape-town-travel-guide” instead.

By keeping URLs concise, aligned with content silos, and free from keyword stuffing, you ensure a structured, easy-to-navigate site that strengthens your topical authority. 

This approach also improves SEO by showing search engines what your content is about without overwhelming them with unnecessary keywords often associated with spammy content.

7. Internal Linking for Authority Building

Internal linking is a powerful tool for building topical authority by signalling the relationship between different pieces of content on your website. 

By linking relevant articles together, you guide users through your site, helping them discover more in-depth information while reinforcing the topical focus for search engines.

For example, a travel agency could link between articles like “Best Family Vacations in South Africa” and “Affordable Getaways for Couples.” This provides additional value to readers by directing them to related content and strengthens the site's internal structure. 

Each link helps Google understand the relevance and connection between these topics, increasing the overall authority of your site in the travel niche.

Effective internal linking also helps distribute page authority across your site, ensuring that your primary pages and all supporting articles gain SEO value. 

This means your pillar content, supported by related articles through internal links, stands a better chance of ranking higher, improving the user experience, and increasing overall visibility in search results.

Incorporating internal linking into your content strategy enhances navigation for users and search engines, ultimately building a stronger, more authoritative website.

8. Pillar Content and Supporting Articles

Pillar content acts as the central, comprehensive resource on a major topic, often taking the form of ultimate guides. These long-form, in-depth pieces provide a complete overview of a subject and serve as the foundation of your content strategy. 

Supporting articles, such as list posts and how-to guides, branch off from the pillar content, covering specific aspects in more detail and linking back to reinforce the main topic.

For example, a financial advisor might create an ultimate guide titled “Investment Strategies for Beginners.” This guide will cover everything from the basics of investing to more advanced strategies. 

Supporting content like a list post (“5 Simple Investment Tips for New Investors”) or a how-to guide (“How to Start Investing with $1,000”) would provide more focused information while linking back to the ultimate guide.

This structure enhances user experience by offering easy navigation between related content and also strengthens your topical authority. Search engines recognise the relationship between the pillar and supporting articles, helping your site rank higher for a broad range of related keywords. 

By using ultimate guides as pillars and branching out with list posts and how-to guides, you create a well-rounded, authoritative content ecosystem.

Conclusion

Building topical authority is essential for any business looking to enhance its online presence. By leveraging content clusters and silos, you can organise your website to cover key topics comprehensively, helping both search engines and users understand your site’s focus. 

Incorporating strategic content types like list posts, how-to guides, and ultimate guides further strengthens your authority, making your website a valuable resource in your industry.

Tools like Answer the Public and Ahrefs play a crucial role in discovering relevant topics, performing keyword research, and optimising your content to meet user needs. 

At the same time, URL optimisation and internal linking ensure your site is structured in a way that’s easy to navigate while reinforcing your topic’s depth and boosting your SEO performance.

For more tips on boosting your online presence, download my free eBook, SEO Marketing Foundations for Website & Business Owners in South Africa. Learn actionable SEO strategies to outrank competitors and grow your traffic today!

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