When creating a site, there is much to take into account. You want to appeal to your target audience, while also ensuring that Google recognises you as an authority within your niche. This is where topical relevance comes in.
In this post, we will look at what topical relevance is in SEO and content, and how to build relevance and authority for your website. So that both your audience and search engines can find your content relevant and interesting. Keep reading to find out more about topical relevance.
Topical relevance meaning
Topical relevance refers to the relevance that a site has to a particular keyword. In SEO, it is the process that search engines use to determine the authority that a site has over a specific subject so that search engines can determine how to rank that site and its particular pages.
Topical relevance is ascertained through content, keyword and backlinks.
Topical relevance in SEO
Topical authority is very important for SEO, as it indicates relevance to search engines and allows your content to rank. An SEO specialist can use keywords, topic mining and content mapping in order to achieve authority on a certain topic, and can expand that authority.
With regards to SEO specifically, gaining backlinks from sites with topical relevance similar to what you’re targeting is extremely beneficial to show Google that you know what you’re talking about.
When backlinking, we talk about ‘authority links’ because we’re showing Google that we trust the page. This is why link building is so important, as having links directed to your own pages will have the same effect.
Content relevance
Content relevance is an excellent way to build authority, as it allows you to focus on a niche. A site should not have blog posts about anything and everything, as Google will not know what to rank your content for, and will know that your site is not an authority on any one subject. It will therefore be irrelevant.
A far better option is to focus on the needs a user or consumer will have about one subject, in particular, expanding slowly to reach other subjects.
For instance, when starting out as a site that writes about how to take care of plants, one might focus on a certain plant first, with five posts on just that one variety of plant. Then you might expand to write about another and then another. In time, Google may recognise your site as one with authority on the topic of plants.
Of course, this is just one SEO strategy, and backlinks and keyword usage would be just as important as topically focussed content. In addition to this, it is important to note that having multiple pages targeting the same keyword would also be detrimental to the authority of your site, as the pages would compete with each other for the same keyword. So while topics should be relevant to your site as a whole, and to one another, you should not write about the same thing twice.
How do you build relevance and authority for your website?
You build relevance and authority for your website through topical relevance across the board. From the subject matter of your content to your keyword usage and backlinking, focussed content will build relevance.
In addition to this, answer all the questions you can think of (or that keyword searching tools indicate) for one topic before moving on to the next. Also, do not try to tackle everything. After all, a post about how to clean your leather boots may be useful for a site that sells Italian shoes, but it is not useful for a site that writes about eCommerce marketing strategies, like us at Blend Commerce. Find your lane, and try to stay in it.Published: April 12, 2022
Last updated: August 06, 2024
