The Importance of Creating an SEO Topical Map for Your Website

In this guide, you’ll learn how to make a topical map for SEO. Unlike most other processes you’ll find online, this process factors in a topic’s relevance to your brand, business potential, and traffic potential. This means you won’t risk creating content for topics no one cares about or that won’t help grow your business.

1. Identify your site’s main topic

After making a copy of the SEO topical mapping template, ask yourself these questions to identify your main topic:

• What’s your site’s core focus (as precisely as possible)?
• What do you want to be known for or considered an expert in?
• What specific themes tie all your content together?
• What parameters limit the scope of your products or services?

Then add your topic in the spreadsheet template.

2. Determine relevant supporting and sub-topics

This step is about looking for relevant supporting and sub-topic ideas to cover different facets of your main topic. This is the basis of your topical map.

You can use a number of data sources to help gather ideas for your topics without leaving any unintentional gaps.

• Ahrefs: The AI keyword suggestion feature is a great place to start brainstorming related keywords to your main topic.
• ChatGPT: You could build out a topic map with over 400 ideas using a couple of simple prompts in the SOP and in a very quick timeframe.
• Google Search: Check out features like autocomplete, related searches, people also ask, knowledge panel and more for ideas on related topics.
• Wikipedia: Check out the table of contents for an idea of supporting themes related to your main topic. You can also extract more specific sub-topic ideas from the article’s text.
• Competitors: Using Ahrefs, you can spy on each competitor’s content plan and see how much organic traffic they get from different topics.

As you collect ideas, list each one in the Topics List tab. Add supporting topics in the blue cells up the top. Then, underneath, add up to 20 sub-topics related to each one.

3. Assess each topic’s brand relevance and business value

This step is what makes our topical mapping process different.

The biggest mistake most people make when building a topical map is gathering a massive list of ideas without verifying how helpful they will be to a business.

For this process to work, be selective. Don’t add anything and everything you find.

For each topic you add, consider its brand relevance and also its business potential.

TL;DR be selective.

4. Verify the traffic potential of each sub-topic

In addition to brand relevance and business potential, each topic must also have decent SEO traffic potential. If it doesn’t, you risk creating content no one cares about.

You can check each of your topic ideas in Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer. Either search them one by one for greater accuracy in your strategy or check them in bulk for a more efficient process.

Using the Clusters by Parent Topic feature, you can group any mega-list of keywords into sub-topics automatically.

In either scenario, you’ll need to add your keyword list into the Keyword Clusters tab of the spreadsheet.

You’ll also need to export the keyword metrics from Ahrefs and copy them into the Keyword List tab.

SEO topical maps are an essential tool in the world of digital marketing and search engine optimization. These maps help organizations strategically plan their content to align with their brand, target audience, and business goals. By understanding how to calculate the total volume and traffic potential of each topic, businesses can prioritize their content creation efforts effectively.

The process of creating an SEO topical map involves several key steps, including finalizing the topics to target, mapping existing pages and new URLs to each topic, and planning follow-up tasks in a project management tool. By following these steps, businesses can ensure that their content is well-organized, relevant, and optimized for search engines.

To finalize the topics to target, businesses should consider factors such as brand relevance, business potential, total volume, and traffic potential. By analyzing the metrics for each topic, businesses can identify which topics have the highest potential for success and which ones may need to be replaced or removed from the content plan.

Mapping existing pages and new URLs to each topic is another crucial step in the process. By categorizing current pages and proposed new pages under specific topics, businesses can see where there are gaps in their content and plan new content accordingly. This also helps ensure that all content is well-organized and easily accessible to users.

Planning follow-up tasks in a project management tool is essential for keeping content creation efforts on track. By prioritizing tasks based on metrics such as priority score and priority band, businesses can focus on creating content that aligns with their overall content strategy and goals.

Overall, SEO topical maps are a valuable tool for helping businesses improve their content strategy and drive more traffic to their website. By following a systematic approach to creating and implementing these maps, businesses can ensure that their content is well-organized, relevant, and optimized for search engines.

FAQs:

1. What is the importance of SEO topical maps in content planning?
SEO topical maps help businesses strategically plan their content to align with their brand, target audience, and business goals. By understanding how to calculate the total volume and traffic potential of each topic, businesses can prioritize their content creation efforts effectively.

2. How can businesses finalize the topics to target in an SEO topical map?
Businesses can finalize the topics to target by considering factors such as brand relevance, business potential, total volume, and traffic potential. By analyzing the metrics for each topic, businesses can identify which topics have the highest potential for success.

3. Why is it important to map existing pages and new URLs to each topic in an SEO topical map?
Mapping existing pages and new URLs to each topic helps businesses identify gaps in their content and plan new content accordingly. This ensures that all content is well-organized and easily accessible to users.

4. What are some follow-up tasks that businesses should plan in their project management tool after creating an SEO topical map?
Some follow-up tasks that businesses should plan include creating pillar pages for new supporting topics, creating resources and articles for new sub-topics, updating existing pages for more topical depth, and internally linking between all posts in a topic hub.

5. How can businesses ensure that their content is well-organized and optimized for search engines?
Businesses can ensure that their content is well-organized and optimized for search engines by following a systematic approach to creating and implementing SEO topical maps. By prioritizing tasks based on metrics such as priority score and priority band, businesses can focus on creating content that aligns with their overall content strategy and goals. the topic of the benefits of incorporating mindfulness practices into everyday life.

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