How to Build Your Brand’s Topical Authority

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Hubspot, a marketing software company, consistently ranks on the first page of Google search results for their blogs and videos on marketing. But their keyword ranking is not as high as competitors. How do they get noticed despite not ranking for keywords? Hubspot uses a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy based on topical relevance, not just keywords.

SEO for topical relevance has been increasing ever since voice-assisted search and search engine algorithms changed how people browsed the web. Voice-assisted searches liberated people from the limits of typing on their phones, and the new algorithms no longer needed exact words to find related content. Instead, searches became longer and more natural, and the bots drummed up results based on learned context.

Challenges to building a topical relevance SEO strategy

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Creating an SEO strategy based on topical relevance is not breaking news, as changes in how people search have been around for several years.

But, from my experience in writing marketing content for a variety of clients, I’ve noticed topical relevance is still more of a theory and not a practice. People often craft new content based on the attributes of their products or services, not on building topical authority—answering all the questions that their audience is asking.

There are two reasons for this disconnect between creating and enacting a topical relevance strategy. The first is that marketing teams often don’t have as much control over their SEO strategies as they should. Input from subject matter experts, execs, and more can dilute a piece’s message.

The second reason is that marketing teams are often closer to the product than the audience. They attend meetings on new product updates and learn all about features, but they don’t use the product or talk with the people who use it.

Businesses can help solve these problems by giving content teams more authority and creating opportunities to interact with customer service and sales teams, who talk daily to customers and often get detailed descriptions of their pain points.

How to prioritize search intent in your SEO strategy

Organizational changes take time. So, what can you do now to make your content more discoverable? Try revising content using these questions:

• How does this piece answer the question(s) my audience is asking?
• How does this piece improve my audience’s day? Does it make their work easier, inspire and entertain them, or give them new insights for the next team meeting?
• Will my audience feel reading this content is time well spent?

Creating new content around search intent and topical relevance starts with brainstorming a list of questions people might ask about the topic. A brainstorming meeting or virtual chat is a simple way for content teams to involve customer service or sales team representatives who are closer to the target audience.

Begin with a main keyword your company works to rank for. Let’s say “houseplant” for a garden center. Brainstorm common search queries based on this keyword. Then, create blogs from the questions to direct searchers to your site.

Publishing a wide variety of unique blogs based on the same topic will help search engines know the garden center is the go-to place for questions on houseplants. 

Here’s what this exercise could look like:

Search query	Blog idea
Why are my plant’s leaves brown?	Houseplants 101: Plant care for new plant parents
How often do I need to water my cactus?	The ultimate houseplant watering guide
What plant is best for a bright room?	How to decide where to place your houseplant
What plant should I buy my grandma?	Holiday gift guide for plant lovers
Why isn’t my plant growing?	5 tips on keeping your houseplants healthy

The intent is to publish blogs with keywords your company wants to rank for but that also answer the searcher’s questions—all of them, not just the big ones. Then you will have topical authority on your keyword, not just a high ranking.

Topical relevance example in the B2B world

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One of our recent customers, a warehouse automation company, consistently publishes content to grow its topical authority. They publish long-form pieces like white papers or eBooks quarterly and then complement them with blogs that build on ideas from the main pieces. The result is a small library of content that answers various search queries on the same topic.    

The following figure shows how they used an eBook and four blogs to build topical authority on how a potential recession would impact the warehousing industry.

Crafting your SEO strategy around search intent and topical relevance, not just keywords, will help ensure your content brings more eyes to your page and satisfies your target audience. To get there, challenge each piece to determine whether it is worth your audience’s time and whether it answers their questions.  

Here’s a tactic to consider for the road. What if all content marketers and writers put a picture of an empty armchair next to our screens? We could look up from what we are working on and remember the why behind the work—the individual who will be reading the piece.

Publishing content specifically to make someone’s day better may be a way to make more compelling (and high-performing) pieces.

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Interested in taking your topical relevance SEO strategy from theory to reality? We’d love to help—let’s talk.