An SEO topical representation is the roadmap for your website’s contented strategy. Its halfway relation is to signifier your website’s contented successful a wide hierarchy of topics and sub-topics. 

It helps you:

• Make it easier for users to navigate your website
• Signal to hunt engines that your contented comprehensively covers a topic
• Become an authorization successful a fixed manufacture or niche

In this guide, you’ll larn however to marque a topical representation for SEO. Unlike astir different processes you’ll find online, this process factors successful a topic’s relevance to your brand, concern potential, and postulation potential.

This means you won’t hazard creating contented for topics nary 1 cares astir oregon that won’t assistance turn your business.

1. Identify your site’s main topic 

After making a transcript of the SEO topical mapping template, inquire yourself these questions to place your main topic.

• What’s your site’s halfway absorption (as precisely arsenic possible)?
• What bash you privation to beryllium known for oregon considered an adept in?
• What circumstantial themes necktie each your contented together?
• What parameters bounds the scope of your products oregon services?

Then adhd your taxable successful the spreadsheet template:

2. Determine applicable supporting and sub-topics 

This measurement is astir looking for applicable supporting and sub-topic ideas to screen antithetic facets of your main topic. This is the ground of your topical map:

You tin usage a fig of information sources to assistance stitchery ideas for your topics without leaving immoderate unintentional gaps. These include:

• Ahrefs: The AI keyword proposition diagnostic is simply a large spot to commencement brainstorming related keywords to your main topic.
• ChatGPT: You could physique retired a taxable representation with implicit 400 ideas utilizing a mates of elemental prompts successful the SOP and successful a precise speedy timeframe.
• Google Search: Check retired features similar autocomplete, related searches, radical besides ask, cognition sheet and much for ideas connected related topics.
• Wikipedia: Check retired the array of contents for an thought of supporting themes related to your main topic. You tin besides extract much circumstantial sub-topic ideas from the article’s text.
• Competitors: Using Ahrefs, you tin spy connected each competitor’s contented program and spot however overmuch integrated postulation they get from antithetic topics.

As you cod ideas, database each 1 successful the Topics List tab. Add supporting topics successful the bluish cells up the top. Then, underneath, adhd up to 20 sub-topics related to each one:

3. Assess each topic’s marque relevance and concern value 

This measurement is what makes our topical mapping process different.

The biggest mistake astir radical marque erstwhile gathering a topical representation is gathering a monolithic database of ideas without verifying however adjuvant they volition beryllium to a business.

For this process to work, beryllium selective. Don’t adhd thing and everything you find.

For example, determination isn’t a azygous SEO website oregon concern exemplary wherever it makes consciousness to people each of these types of pages:

• Locations: London SEO, Sydney SEO, New York SEO
• Services: Affordable SEO services, bargain SEO services
• Courses: Free SEO courses, Google SEO courses
• Tools: Local SEO tools, escaped SEO tools, SEO tools for tiny businesses
• SEO Types: Parasite SEO, method SEO, programmatic SEO

Even though they’re each astir the taxable of SEO, the intents are antithetic and suit antithetic concern models better.

Not adjacent an authoritative tract successful the SEO space, similar Ahrefs, could reasonably people each of these — it conscionable doesn’t make sense.

So, for each taxable you add, see its marque relevance…

… and besides its concern potential:

TL;DR beryllium selective.

4. Verify the postulation imaginable of each sub-topic 

In summation to marque relevance and concern potential, each taxable indispensable besides person decent SEO postulation potential. If it doesn’t, you hazard creating contented nary 1 cares about.

You tin cheque each of your taxable ideas successful Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer. Either hunt them 1 by 1 (for greater accuracy successful your strategy):

Or cheque them successful bulk for a much businesslike process (ideal for bureau teams):

Using the Clusters by Parent Topic feature, you tin radical immoderate mega-list of keywords into sub-topics automatically:

In either scenario, you’ll request to adhd your keyword database into the Keyword Clusters tab of the spreadsheet:

You’ll besides request to export the keyword metrics from Ahrefs and transcript them into the Keyword List tab. This information is however the full measurement and postulation imaginable are calculated.

5. Finalize the topics you volition target 

To finalize your database of supporting and sub-topics that you volition people successful your contented plan, look at:

• Brand relevance
• Business potential
• Total volume
• Traffic potential

Check the Overview and Content Plan tabs for each topic’s metrics. Remove oregon regenerate immoderate that person a debased people successful astatine slightest 2 of the supra metrics.

Here’s an example:

Although the supporting taxable of Bulbs has precocious hunt measurement and postulation potential, it is not applicable to the marque and has nary concern potential.

You’ll request to either region oregon regenerate specified topics earlier sharing your topical representation with your lawsuit or boss.

6. Map existing pages and caller URLs to each topic 

If you person an existing website, it’s a bully signifier to representation each of your existent pages to the taxable map. This volition assistance you spot what topics you haven’t already covered, allowing you to program caller contented much easily.

Add the URLs into the Mapped URL file and acceptable Page Type to “Existing”:

For caller pages, adhd your projected slugs of imaginable genitor and kid pages and acceptable the Page Type file to “New”:

7. Plan follow-up tasks successful your task absorption tool 

You volition person a batch of content-related tasks travel retired of this plan, including:

• Creating pillar pages for caller supporting topics
• Creating resources and articles for caller sub-topics
• Updating existing pages for much topical depth
• Consolidating oregon separating pages targeting aggregate topics
• Internally linking betwixt each posts successful a topic hub

You tin usage the pursuing metrics to assistance prioritize which topics and contented pieces to enactment on first:

• Priority score: This metric factors marque relevance, concern potential, and postulation potential.
• Priority band: This metric bands your contented program into 5 categories.

In your task absorption tool, program retired thing with a precedence set of 5 first, past a set of 4 and so on.

Final thoughts

SEO topical maps are a captious strategical SEO task to assistance marque your contented much idiosyncratic and search-engine friendly. The process is reasonably methodical and casual to implement, adjacent if you’re a beginner.

If you acceptable up your topics correctly, the formuals successful the spreadsheet volition assistance you contiguous topic-level information to your brag oregon client. You tin besides get topic-level show metrics for each rival to assistance physique a concern lawsuit and get SEO buy-in from non-SEO decision-makers.

Got your ain SEO oregon selling SOPs you’d emotion to share? We’re gathering an SOP library—connect with maine on LinkedIn and stock your favourite ones!