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Understanding topical authority
Posted by on January 11, 2026 at 9:45 pmI’ve been trying to shift how our SEO department works, and I’d appreciate some insight from people who’ve gone through similar changes. The way we currently operate feels like we’re applying various “SEO things” to clients and then hoping the results land. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t, and there isn’t always a clear strategic framework guiding why we expect the outcome we expect.
Recently I’ve been consuming a lot of content from Edward Sturm around topical authority. The concept resonates with me, but there are nuances I still struggle to understand. One straightforward way to build topical authority is by publishing blog content that comprehensively covers a topic. That part I get. But I’m not convinced this is the best or only way to build topical authority across all clients, and certainly not in a scalable agency environment. Recommending the same blog-content solution to every client feels shallow and often misaligned with what they actually need.
So my questions are:
How do you build topical authority without defaulting to blog content?
Are there other practical frameworks, deliverables, or tactics that help a client build depth around a topic beyond publishing educational articles?
How do you approach topical depth when a client doesn’t specialize in a single domain?
For example, we have e-commerce clients that sell dozens (or hundreds) of different product categories without a unifying theme. It’s hard to imagine building true topical authority across everything simultaneously. So is the strategy to narrow down and specialize certain categories? Or is topical authority simply not a realistic objective for this type of client?
Is topical authority even the right strategic lens for all clients?
I’m wondering if this model is more relevant for information-heavy verticals, editorial brands, or businesses with narrower product-market fit.
If anyone here has moved their agency or internal SEO team from a “do SEO and hope it works” mentality to a more strategic and structured “this is how we win” model, I would really appreciate hearing how you approached it. I’m especially interested in frameworks, decision criteria, and real examples of how you’ve operationalized topical strategies across different types of businesses.
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1 Reply
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I’ve been doing SEO for years and I’ve seen this same problem in agencies time and time again. The good news is that you’re asking the right questions.
The reality about topic authority:
The concept is sound, but it’s become just another “magic framework” that people apply without thinking. The truth is, topic authority is the result of doing your job well, not the strategy itself.
Alternatives to blog spam for building authority:
1. Product-led content – Comprehensive comparison guides, hybrid landing pages that educate while selling, category pages with integrated editorial content
2. Tools and utilities – Calculators, configurators, downloadable resources. They generate natural links and demonstrate real expertise
3. Data and research – Industry reports, benchmarks. This is gold for getting editorial links
4. Community/UGC – Forums, Q&A, in-depth reviews. Generate massive amounts of long-tail content without writing every word
Your multi-category ecommerce problem:
You basically have three options:
• Vertical specialization: Identify 2-3 categories with the best margins and build authority ONLY there. The rest: Basic SEO, don’t invest in elaborate content.
• Horizontal authority: Don’t specialize in products, specialize in the user’s problem (e.g., “gifts for X” crosses multiple categories).
• Forget about topical authority: For many ecommerce businesses, you win with fundamentals: converting product pages, impeccable structured data, UX that generates reviews, and quality link building.
The framework you really need:
For each client, ask yourself:
1. What are the 10 searches that generate the most revenue?
2. What type of content ranks for those searches? (product pages, editorial, comparisons…)
3. How much would it cost to compete effectively there?
Those numbers dictate your strategy. Not a generic framework.Regarding changing your department:
Real change doesn’t come from adopting a new framework (topic authority, E-E-A-T, whatever). It comes from:
• Measuring revenue from organic search, not vanity metrics
• Charging for strategy, not just deliverables (“ownership of these searches that generate $X”)
• Documenting the “why” behind every data-driven decision
• Specializing in specific customer types
Topic authority is relevant for SaaS, B2B, and editorial brands. For multi-category ecommerce, it’s often a costly distraction from what really moves the needle. -
It’s basically links from other site with your keywords as anchor text. Easiest way to get it is link exchanges and useful tools that people may link to.
All the SEO tools and website tools that I build are mostly for me but I keyword then properly and make them available to the public.
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In simple terms: You build topical authority by building content and relationships, earning clicks/backlinks and ranking for and getting clicks for topics. Then you have topical authority.
You dont have to have a blog.
But its really hard to develop authority on your own, as effectively authority comes from 3rd party acitivty (think votes, degrees, reviews, elections etc – all are people validated data/outcomes)
Things like support forums encourage UGC and accelerate the process. A lot of content that companies develop – like “Case Studies” and “Press Reoleases’ – on site – dont really rank or get clicks, neither does documentation.
Use Cases and problem solving do – and most companies push this via blogs but also things like technets etc
>Recently I’ve been consuming a lot of content from Edward Sturm around topical authority.
Definitely a good place to start
>
Is topical authority even the right strategic lens for all clients?If a client ranks for something, they have topical authority. TA is just a way of describing how Google ascribes keyword ranking scores to pages.
Obviously – the fastest way to develop this is via somehting like appearing on a big podcast like Edwards – actually a SaaS company was on it today. And getting lots of views, searches, links, being spread on social media etc resulting in searches
What are your thoughts on blogging and where you guys are currently?
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You can’t achieve topical authority for clients that are generalists. You need a niche to be an authority of.
I would say that it’s a part of an overall SEO strategy.
Also, you can’t force clients to operate in a well defined niche and some will be generalists, so you need a flexible and multichannel approach like brand or PR marketing.
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“Topical authority” is not a real thing the way you are thinking. Bear with me. It’s mostly made up by “influencers” trying to make you think they know something you don’t. I mean, it got you clicking on their videos, right?
You have relevancy. Relevancy means what is your website ABOUT. What is the topic? Are you writing about washing machines? Are you writing about dishwashers? That is relevancy. Your website is relevant for those terms. There are two ways to get relevancy. 1) text on your site. 2) backlinks with your keywords in the link.
Then you have authority. Authority means how TRUSTWORTHY is a site. All else being equal, higher authority ranks better. The reason some site outranks another site is 99% because it has more authority and the rest other things. You receive authority with backlinks. The better quality the site linking to you, the more authority you get from a link. This is the ONLY way to get authority. There is nothing you can do at all to YOUR SITE that will get you authority. Authority comes from backlinks alone.
So, you can think of topical authority as a mixture of these. Are you relevant? Then you will rank. Are you authoritative? Then you will rank better.
Grumpy SEO Guy episode 132 explains this concept quickly.
If you want a longer explanation let me know, there’s another episode that goes into more detail.
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