Building Topical Authority in 2026: My Strategy

Topical authority is about being an expert on something instead of being smart on everything. You can build this reputation by creating content that goes deep instead of just scratching the surface.

For example, content organized into clusters drives about 30% more organic traffic and holds rankings 2.5x longer than random standalone posts.

In my experience, a new website with strong topical authority in a specific niche can outrank established sites with high domain authority for related search terms. I’ve seen this happen countless times, including on my own website.

Below is one example of how a page on my website about AI SEO tools outperforms industry leaders like Semrush, and this pattern holds across many other pages on my site.

The shift from random posts to a focus on SEO content topics completely changed my approach to content strategy, content creation, website niche, and eventually … site revenue!

In 2025 alone, my website made over $40,000 thanks to my focus on topics I know well and consistently sharing my experience on my website, LinkedIn, Reddit, and my newsletter. It has also helped me establish thought leadership on the web.

So, topical authority has a measurable impact on SEO if built the right way.

If you are wondering whether a website has an established topical authority, here’s how you can verify it.

P.S. This post includes a few affiliate links. If you decide to try any of these tools, I might earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Just being upfront about it! I’m only recommending tools I’ve used myself and truly believe in.

4 signs a site has topical authority

When you build topical authority:

1. Your website becomes a go-to resource in a particular niche. You’ll start seeing it pop up more often in search results for a particular topic. Niching down also supports Google’s E-E-A-T, which stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust, which is one of the ways Google evaluates content quality.

You can’t fake these signals. You have to earn them by consistently publishing content that reflects your deep expertise, solves user problems, and shows a first-hand understanding of your topic.

That’s exactly what topical authority is built on!

When your site covers your subject of expertise from every angle and links together related posts, you hit the benchmark Google looks for with E-E-A-T.

2. There’s an internal linking strategy in place that looks natural.

Everyone talks about how important internal linking is.

I had a chance to measure the impact of the internal linking implementation at my full-time job, where I deal with multiple local businesses. I can’t share the details due to an NDA, but there was a visible increase in impressions and an average ranking position right after implementing an internal linking strategy for cluster pages.

3. Your site starts ranking for related keywords you never targeted.

Once Google sees you as an expert in a specific area, your content tends to perform better across the whole niche. I’ve noticed this on my own website, and I’ve seen it happening with competitors too.

You probably saw the ranking volatility after the January 2026 Google updates. What surprised me was this: some websites with strong topical authority started ranking for keywords where their content clearly didn’t match the search intent.

For example, I’ve seen:

SEO tools posts ranking for AI SEO keywords
Product review pages ranking for competitor keywords that aren’t even mentioned in the article

It doesn’t fully make sense to me because the search intent behind those queries is clearly different.

But we’re living in a time when Google keeps adjusting its ranking systems. As site owners, our job is to build trustworthy websites that can survive all possible Googlequakes, even when rankings behave in unexpected ways.

4. Your website ranks in LLMs and AI Overviews. Websites doing great in traditional SEO, which requires topical authority, tend to perform well in AI-generated search as well!

If you wonder why I’m so confident saying this, here’s what Semrush research study reveals:

AI Mode and other LLMs pull data straight from Google’s top 10 results.
Perplexity.ai matches Google’s top 10 domains in over 91% of cases!
Roughly 92% of AI Mode answers show a sidebar with about 7 links. These links have a 51% domain overlap and 32% URL overlap with Google’s top 10 search results.

What SEO experts say about building topical authority

I asked my audience on LinkedIn about how they build topical authority for their own websites and their clients. It’s always so interesting to learn about what other SEO experts are doing.

To my surprise, I got quite a few comments under my post and DMs with super detailed responses. Below, I’m sharing a few quotes from SEO experts worth following and learning from.

Igor Buyseech, an international SEO speaker with over 17 years of experience and the founder of the Buyseech SEO agency, shared his approach to building topical authority with me.

Here’s what stood out for me in his approach:

The level of specificity Igor brings to defining the niche is something I wish I’d understood earlier in my SEO journey.

Too many site owners (including my past self) jump straight into keyword research without first understanding who they’re serving. His emphasis on gathering data from People Also Ask, Reddit discussions, and YouTube shows he’s looking at the full picture of what users actually want, not just what keyword tools suggest.

Georg Richard Aare, the co-founder of RankUp, shared his vision of how they approach building topical authority.

Here’s what stood out for me in his approach:

I think his way of mapping products to content works well for SaaS companies.

He starts by using AI to create an initial topical map, and then validates it with real keyword data. That part is key. From my experience, commercial keywords like “X vs Y” can work extremely well for lead generation in SaaS.

We also seem to align on topic prioritization, meaning we both focus on topics that can help a business achieve its goals faster.

Adrius Stockunas, the co-founder of Aiclicks.io, also shared his take on topical authority with me.

Here’s what stood out for me in his approach:

To me, Andrius’ three-layer framework (technical 20%, content 40%, external 40%) shows that building authority isn’t just about publishing more content in clusters. Instead, it’s about creating an online presence that search engines and LLMs can discover and trust.

My 6-step process for building topical authority

I’ve been working on my website since 2021, but it wasn’t until 2024 that I started seeing solid results in traffic and revenue.

This year, I rolled out a new website design and put together a solid SEO content strategy to hit my $100k annual goal. My site is now outperforming many industry leaders and aligns much better with what Google wants to see, so hitting that goal feels realistic.

However, a topical authority wasn’t something that happened overnight for my site. I needed a plan to fix my content mess and build authority.

Here’s the exact process I used to turn my random articles into a resource that Google actually trusts.

P.S. It took me four years, because I was learning everything on the go. You don’t have to make my mistakes.

1. Match your experience with what people are searching for

I can clearly see that the latest Google updates care about humans, their personality, and the expertise behind the content.

Therefore, the best thing you can do for your business that will work in the long term is focus on topics you have experience with and where you can share something others aren’t sharing yet.

That’s exactly what I did with my own website after multiple structural changes.

As an SEO content strategist and content writer, I’ve worked with many companies, including beehiiv and Digital Commerce Partners, helping them create expert content. I probably had over a dozen long-term contract clients and also grew my website to over 20,000 monthly visits with roughly 117 pages.

All this unique experience is in my content. That’s why, even after numerous Google algorithm updates and ranking volatility, my website still ranks in the top positions for my target SEO terms.

So, start by figuring out your area of expertise.

2. Research keywords

Keyword research can help you figure out what people are actually looking for related to your niche. I have an in-depth article about keyword research for SEO if you want to follow my process.

I recommend focusing on two main types of keywords:

Informational long-tail & medium-tail keywords: These keywords reflect users who are looking for answers or detailed information. They often have lower competition and help you attract a targeted audience interested in learning more about your niche. They work well, particularly for new sites with low authority.

Transactional and commercial medium-tail keywords: These keywords indicate an intent to buy or take action, which makes them valuable for driving conversions and sales.

These types of keywords show you exactly what people are searching for. And when you understand their intent, it’s much easier to create content that gives them the answers they’re looking for.

Here’s a simplified table outlining my decision-making process for selecting keywords. The keywords I target always align with my business goals and my audience’s interests.

1. Business goal	2. My audience	3. Content Cluster	4. Keyword ideas
Get more partnerships	SEO teams SEO contractors Small business owners	SEO tools	Semrush review AI SEO tools AI marketing tools Tool comparisons

If you just want to quickly take a look if your random keyword idea is relevant to your website, Semrush has an AI-powered Keyword Overview report that can estimate whether your keyword idea is relevant to your website.

In my example below, I pasted my website URL and typed a random keyword “AI SEO,” and Semrush showed me that this keyword is relevant to my website’s overall niche, and my website’s personalized keyword difficulty is 65%, which means this is a highly-competitive keyword.

I’ve written a detailed Semrush review if you’d like to see my full take on the tool.

3. Map out content clusters

I organized my content in the following way:

One comprehensive pillar page: Semrush review
Multiple cluster pages diving deep into specific subtopics: Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit, Semrush vs Ahrefs, Semrush vs SE Ranking, Semrush vs Search Atlas.
Hyperlinks connect all these articles together.

This structure helped both readers and search engines understand how my content pieces fit together.

If you don’t want to create content clusters manually, you can use keyword clustering tools, like Semrush Keyword Strategy Builder.

Here’s how you can create content clusters with Semrush:

You can start by entering your topic idea (like “AI SEO” in my case below).
Semrush analyzes thousands of related keywords and automatically groups them into logical clusters.
The tool suggests which keywords should be your main pillar pages and which should be supporting cluster content.
You get search volume, keyword difficulty, and intent data for each suggested topic
You can export the clusters and use them to plan your editorial calendar

4. Create content that actually helps people

To me, a high-quality content piece is one that answers users’ questions without having any fluff, so that users don’t have to return to the search again. This means that your content has to:

Answer specific questions people ask
Provide tips people can implement immediately
Include insights from your own experience
Back up claims with real data and examples

I published an extensive post on my SEO content writing process that you can read if you are interested in my approach to creating helpful content that ranks.

TL;DR for anyone who wants the short version:

Craft a unique angle for your content
Add an author bio for instant credibility
Specify clear criteria for product reviews
Share your real-life experiences
Drop expert insights to stand out
Update your content regularly
Back up your claims with proof and data
Link to credible sources for trust
Make your content easy to read and digest
Use CTAs to drive action
Include success stories to inspire and convert

5. Connect related pages with internal links

Internal linking is the backbone of my SEO content strategy.

I link every cluster article back to its pillar page. Related articles link to each other when it makes sense contextually. I aim for about 5-6 relevant internal links per post.

The idea is to make these links valuable to readers, not just to add them for SEO.

6. Keep content up to date

I regularly updated existing content with:

New industry developments
Fresh statistics and examples
Additional insights based on reader feedback
Stronger internal links between related pieces

For example, my SEO Tools post saw significant traffic improvements after I refreshed it with new data and tools. After updating the content, the page started ranking for additional keywords I hadn’t even targeted initially, which is exactly what happens when you maintain topical authority.

What I got wrong

Looking back at my topical authority journey, I made some pretty costly mistakes that slowed my progress and had a negative impact on my site. Since I learned these lessons the hard way, I want to save you the trouble.

Flat URL structure killed my topic relationships

When I created my website back in 2021, I had no clue what it was for. I mainly used it for my writing experiments. Therefore, I didn’t care about my website structure, which ended up flat.

Flat site structure means all pages are nested on the same level, which makes it hard for humans and search engines to understand the relationships between pages.

This flat structure gave search engines zero clues about how my content connected. Google couldn’t tell that my SEO tools articles were part of a bigger topic cluster, so it treated them as isolated pages.

What I should have done: Organize URLs hierarchically to show topic relationships.

Even though my site structure continues to be flat and I don’t want to harm my top pages’ performance with redirects, I’ve started grouping related pages together in categories:

Category page: https://behindrankings.com/category/ai-seo/

Related pages:

AI SEO tools
AI SEO statistics
AI and SEO trends
Etc.

Google quickly figured out what clusters I’m building and shows the correct page path in search engines.

Targeting bottom-funnel keywords only

Another mistake I made early on was focusing too heavily on bottom-funnel keywords at first. While these convert well, they don’t help build comprehensive topical authority.

I learned that you need a mix of informational and commercial content to truly establish expertise in your niche. Bottom-funnel keywords might bring in customers, but top and middle-funnel content is what builds your reputation as an authority.

Now I make sure to balance my content strategy across the entire funnel, which has helped me rank for a much wider range of related terms.

Ignoring off-site authority signals

My biggest mistake was thinking topical authority only happened on my website. At the very beginning, I spent 100% of my time creating content without building credibility elsewhere.

This limited my ability to signal industry authority to search engines.

Only then, with Google’s algorithm updates and a shift toward expert-created content, I realized the importance of external signals.

Nowadays, I’m actively posting on my personal LinkedIn and Reddit accounts, which link back to my website. I have an active newsletter, Behind Rankings, that I opened for indexing lately, as it contains valuable and unique content not found anywhere.

I’m also planning to repurpose my content to Self Made Millennials LinkedIn account to strengthen authority even more — all to signal Google and LLMs about trust and topical authority.

Building real topical authority takes time. There are no shortcuts to becoming a recognized expert in your field. But avoiding these mistakes will get you there faster.

FAQ

What is topical authority?

Topical authority is your website’s reputation for knowing its stuff in specific subject areas. It’s about being the expert on something.

You build this reputation by creating content that goes deep instead of just scratching the surface.

How long does it take to build topical authority?

Building topical authority can take 6-12 months if you consistently create helpful, well-optimized content.

In my case, it took about 4 years because I was learning on the go.

Do I need a lot of content to build topical authority?

Quality matters more than quantity!

You don’t need hundreds of articles, but you do need a comprehensive coverage of your topic.

I built strong topical authority with around 117 pages on my site, focusing on creating pillar content with 5-10 supporting cluster articles for each main topic.

Can a new website build topical authority?

Absolutely!

A new website can actually build topical authority faster than an established site if you focus from day one.

I suggest staringt with one core topic, creating an in-depth pillar page, and building out supporting cluster content.

Should I build topical authority for multiple topics at once?

No, I recommend focusing on one core topic at a time. Spreading your efforts too thin dilutes your authority and makes it harder to rank, especially if you have limited resources.

Once you’ve established authority in one area (you’re consistently ranking in the top 10 for your main keywords), then you can expand to related topics. This focused approach worked much better for me than trying to cover multiple topics simultaneously.