Content

Topical authority

Also called: topic clusters, content hubs

Topical authority is the depth and coherence of a site's coverage of a subject. Covering a topic comprehensively, and linking that coverage together, helps every page in the cluster.

The practical model is a hub page covering the subject broadly, surrounded by pages answering its sub-questions in depth, all linked in both directions. This works for two reasons: readers find the next thing they need without returning to search, and internal links distribute authority to the pages that would otherwise be orphans.

The failure mode is publishing breadth without depth — one shallow page per keyword across forty loosely related topics. Coverage that convinces is coverage that goes further than the competition on a narrow subject, then expands outward once that subject is genuinely owned.

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