Two websites both write about project management. One has a single "ultimate guide" that covers everything in 3,000 words. The other has 40 focused articles covering specific angles: project management for freelancers, for remote teams, for agencies, comparison guides, workflow tutorials, common mistakes. Which one does Google trust more? Which one does ChatGPT cite more often?
It's the second one, almost every time. That's topical authority at work.
So what exactly is topical authority?
Topical authority is the depth and breadth of expertise your website demonstrates on a particular subject. It's not about having one great page. It's about covering a topic so thoroughly that both search engines and AI models recognize your site as a go-to resource for that subject.
Think of it like building a reputation. If you write one insightful article about email marketing, that's interesting. If your site has 30 pieces covering every angle of email marketing, from deliverability to automation to segmentation to A/B testing, you've built topical authority. You're not just someone who wrote about email marketing once. You're the email marketing resource.
Search engines and AI models both use this signal, though in slightly different ways. Google evaluates topical authority through internal linking, content depth, and how comprehensively your site covers subtopics. AI models assess it through the consistency and specificity of information they find across your content during training or retrieval.
Why should you care?
Topical authority is one of the few strategies that works across both traditional search and AI recommendations simultaneously. This makes it an unusually efficient investment of your content efforts.
For Google, topical authority helps your individual pages rank higher. A page about "best email subject lines" on a site with broad email marketing coverage will typically outrank the same quality article on a site that doesn't specialize. Google understands that the specialized site is more likely to provide accurate, nuanced information.
For AI platforms, topical authority influences whether you get cited and recommended. When ChatGPT or Perplexity encounters a question about email marketing, it draws from the sources it trusts most on that topic. A site with deep, consistent coverage across the topic is more likely to be that trusted source.
This dual benefit is rare. Most SEO tactics don't directly translate to AI visibility. Topical authority does.
How to build topical authority
The process is methodical, not mysterious.
Map your topic thoroughly. Start with your core subject and list every question, subtopic, and angle a potential customer might want to know about. If you sell a CRM for freelancers, your topic map should include: what is a CRM, CRM for freelancers vs agencies, how to choose a CRM, CRM pricing comparisons, specific workflow guides, integration tutorials, and so on.
Create content that covers each subtopic with genuine depth. This doesn't mean writing 5,000-word essays on everything. Some subtopics need 800 words. Some need 2,000. The goal is that each piece fully answers the question it targets, with enough specificity that a reader (or an AI) walks away with a complete understanding.
Interlink strategically. Your content pieces should connect to each other naturally. This helps search engines understand the relationship between your pages and builds a topical cluster that reinforces your authority on the subject. It also helps AI models see the breadth of your coverage during crawling.
Update and expand over time. Topical authority isn't a one-time project. As your field evolves, your content needs to evolve with it. Outdated information erodes authority faster than no information at all.
Depth beats breadth
One common mistake is trying to build topical authority on too many subjects at once. A site that has five articles about email marketing, five about SEO, five about social media, and five about paid ads hasn't built authority on anything. It's just a content library with no center of gravity.
For solopreneurs and small businesses, this focus is actually an advantage. You can't outproduce a large media company, but you can absolutely out-depth them on your specific niche.
The honest truth
Building topical authority takes time. It's not a hack or a shortcut. You're looking at months of consistent content creation before the compounding effects kick in.
But the results are durable. Unlike paid ads that stop the moment you pause your budget, topical authority builds a moat around your visibility in both search and AI. The investment compounds rather than depletes.
