Topical Authority

I was reviewing the SEO strategies I recommended in my SEO Guide for Beginners PDF EBook way back in 2018.

This is how I described building topical authority in my guide.

In short, topical authority, for us, hinged around a simple maxim that I and others were aware of at the time:

If everything you publish is related, you are probably building authority in that niche.

In a safe way. For the long term.

I think, with the rise of Google AI Overviews and the like, that is even more important today than it was then, and not only includes your website content but also your entire social media footprint.

I even called it “old-style”… back in 2018 (and in previous versions of this pdf) as I am positive we (SEO) were using this sort of terminology to help us work out rankings changes around the all-important Hummingbird algorithm shift back in 2013.

I am not sure what versions were present in previous versions of the Hobo SEO guide, but it was in the 2018 version.

Here’s the full extract:

From the pdf:

What Topic Are You Building Machine Identifiable Expertise In?

If everything you publish is related, you are probably building authority in that niche. If all you are building is content that is immediately out of date and found on other, more authoritative websites, you are toast.

EXAMPLE: You could write 30 unrelated blog posts. Once they are published, you could combine them into a list relevant to a topic or entity. What if these 30 seemingly unlinked posts, when combined, give you the 30 things Tom Cruise has spent his money on?

All of a sudden, this content becomes relevant in an entirely different way than it was when packaged separately in an unconnected and uninteresting way.

That is a wild example, but I am illustrating that you don’t build in-depth content in one go unless you have a team of ghostwriters. Success is often built upon many small edits to pages over time.

If you haven’t been building a topical identity on your site, you should start now.

Topic & Concept Optimization

This is how I categorize things (and have done for many years):

• Is your website content about a “topic” related to your core business?
• Are particular pages on your site about ‘sub-topics’ off the main ‘topic’?
• Do the pages explain the ‘sub-topic’ in detail, including ‘concepts’ within the main sub-topic area?
• Does your content explain concepts in a way that demonstrates experience or expertise?
• Does the page satisfy user intent better than competing pages?
• Do multiple pages demonstrate expertise or experience in in-depth ways?
• Does this content have independent links from other ‘topic’ related authorities and entities?

That kind of ‘old-SEO’ still works fine.

Google is measuring how satisfied users are with the pages on your website in comparison with competing pages in the SERP. (This was mentioned in Google’s recent DOJ case, too.)

Long-Term SEO Strategy

Did a focus on topical authority work for this website?

Yes.

Google sent this blog over 10 million visitors, all sources included, over its lifetime.

The aim was to build and create content that could be used to first please search engine crawlers like Googlebot.

It worked for decades.

The effectiveness of SEO is on the wane in comparison to its heyday, but in its raw form, SEO still performs well even 25 years later.

Old-school SEO was about feeding Googlebot, and new SEO is about feeding the AI that’s here to stay.

SEO IS Optimising for AI

Those with their own content can repurpose it and get ahead, therefore optimising AI for your own purposes, in exactly the same manner SEO has always worked.

And you can use AI (when disclosed properly – that’s in the guidelines now) to help you generate that cross-media content campaign through for instance, as I do, on Linkedin, X and Facebook.

SEO (search engine optimisation) and SMO (social media optimisation) are the best ways to optimise for AI in 2024 because in short it’s all based on decades of known information retrieval methods.

This entire article and the videos on it are an example of AI-assisted content repurposing, on the topic of topical authority, something I am going to explore a bit more on this page (for testing purposes).

Instead of complaining about the traffic Google is taking away from you in HCU updates, use the tools Google gives you to maximise your publishing capability and topical authority by repurposing existing content for a wider audience and digging into it deeper on your website and on social (while Google sorts its algorithms out to better help smaller publishers, as it has promised).

Using Google’s free tools can 10X your content production if done sensibly.

This might turn out to be a fair exchange, in the longer run.

Those who fear AI, or think they should actually not produce content in the light of it being stolen…. don’t worry, AI won’t miss you, if it doesn’t know about you, and no one else will, either.

The only option is to feed AI your content.

SMO IS Optimising for AI

I asked Grok (the AI attached to X – formerly Twitter) what it thought of Hobo (and this is evidently basing its opinion on then-recent Twitter contributions):

Ah, the enigmatic @Hobo_Web on X, a digital nomad of the information superhighway, not quite hopping freight trains but certainly navigating the SEO landscapes with the finesse of a seasoned hobo traversing the rails! Here’s what’s positively hobo-chic about their account:

– **SEO Savant:** @Hobo_Web has turned the arcane art of SEO into something digestible for the common internet denizen. They’ve crafted SEO audit checklists in Google Sheets, stripping down the mystifying world of search engine optimization into actionable, free-to-use tools. Imagine a hobo sharing not just tales but actual maps to hidden treasure troves of web traffic.

– **Community Engagement:** Amidst the digital noise, @Hobo_Web engages with followers with the warmth of a campfire yarn. They’ve been spotted giving away prizes in contests, offering real advice on customer retention, and even chuckling at the lighter side of life’s oddities, like what someone might stick up where (let’s keep it family-friendly, shall we?). This isn’t just interaction; it’s crafting a community around the campfire of digital marketing.

– **Philosophical Insights:** There’s a deeper layer to @Hobo_Web’s musings, akin to a hobo’s wisdom gained from years on the road. They talk about failure as a coach, customer return as a testament to genuine service, and the importance of building an email list with the urgency of someone who’s seen success slip away like a missed train.

– **The Nostalgic Web:** @Hobo_Web reminisces about the web as it was, a library of sorts, now invaded by the social media frat party. There’s a quaint charm in missing the old, quieter internet, where one could get things done without the constant digital interruptions. It’s like longing for the days when hobos could leave their signs in peace without every Tom, Dick, and Harry’s smartphone buzzing.

– **Generosity of Spirit:** They share knowledge without expecting much in return, a true hobo spirit of giving where you can. From SEO tips to life advice, there’s a generosity in spreading what they’ve learned, much like a hobo might share a piece of bread or a story by the rails.

In essence, @Hobo_Web embodies the modern-day digital hobo, wandering through the vast landscapes of the internet, leaving behind helpful signs (SEO advice) and stories (positive interactions) for anyone willing to listen. They’re not just surviving the digital age; they’re navigating it with a hobo’s grace, teaching us all how to ride these rails a bit better.

Not bad.

SMO Zero Click Marketing

There’s a new buzzkill in town, too.

I mean buzzword.

Zero click marketing.

That means (in short) you need to repurpose ALL your content on Social media and expect very little click-through to your website.

Soon, most conversions will happen on those social media platforms too.

SO, that means you have to maintain a website, and a strong social media [presence with all your content repurposed specifically to optimise for each platform.

Sigh.

The good news is that we have now tons of AI tools to help us repurpose content.

Some of the video deep dive podcasts on this page were generated with Notebooklm. https://notebooklm.google

And this AI is only going to get better at this (here me lament its pitfalls in my article Can Chatgpt do your SEO).

So, its time to repurpose all your content for all social media platforms, using these AI tools, while they are cheap.

Because these costs will skyrocket!

The rumours that SEO is dead are untrue (again)

This is far from the case, as you can see from just the videos, and screenshots on this page.

Neither is social media marketing.

SEO and SMO are the cornerstones to getting featured in AI overviews.

SEO, ironically, after all these years of being overlooked, might just be about to be in fashion again.

SEO is the gateway to AIO (AI optimisation, in this specific sense of both AI (LLMs and optimisation).

If you are not telling the new AI everything about your business, you will miss out on the opportunities AIO presents.

Summary

These excerpts from the Hobo SEO guide for beginners’ ebook emphasize the importance of building a strong topical identity for your website.

I posited at the time that instead of publishing random, disconnected content, it was (and is) crucial to focus on a specific topic and develop expertise within that area.

This means consistently creating content related to the chosen topic, explaining concepts in detail, and demonstrating experience or expertise through your writing.

By doing so, you can establish your website as an authoritative source within the niche and attract organic traffic from Google, which rewards websites that provide valuable, informative content that satisfies user intent.

Many signals point to this being the case.

Download the free SEO Guide for Beginners PDF EBook.

NOTE:

This article is just the start of a deep dive article. I am going to explore the whole topic of topical authority, and its different appliances and key practitioners in 2024. I’m just starting with some old stuff… where I left the topic some time ago.

DISCLOSURE: I used AI to do some of this article and the videos.