Like traditional search engines, AI search engines love topic hubs.
When citing websites, they don’t just look for keywords, they look for topical authority. Experts within niches that cover the subject deeply.
Because of this, developing topical authority is a key ranking factor for AI chatbots and AI overviews. These help AI engines determine which websites are worth citing to users.
What is Topical Authority
Topical authority refers to the extent of your domain expertise in a subject area perceived by algorithms.
In practical terms, it means covering a topic with extreme comprehensiveness. This doesn’t mean writing a single article, but a network of articles, aka, cluster topics.
How Does AI Define Topical Authority
AI search engines use topical authority to determine what sources to cite to a user. They seek answers from websites with a track record of providing in-depth coverage and fact-checked information to users on a specific topic.
For example, let’s say you sell motorcycles and want to become a go-to source for Ducati motorcycles. Writing content around Ducati motorcycles following proper E-E-A-T and AI content structure guidelines will increase your topical authority in this area.
Topical Authority Vs Keyword Variation
| Aspect | Topical Depth | Keyword Variation |
| Definition | In-depth, comprehensive coverage of a subject and its subtopics | Use of synonyms and related phrases to cover different ways users search |
| AI Evaluation | Looks for content clusters and entity relationships showing subject expertise | Seeks semantic relevance and natural language variations |
| Authority Signal | Demonstrates expertise by covering all angles of a topic | Shows understanding of user intent and language diversity |
| Example | A medical website covering “heart health” with articles on cholesterol, blood pressure, and exercise, all interlinked. | A finance blog using terms like “retirement savings,” “401(k) plans,” and “pension strategies” to address “retirement planning.” |
How Content Clusters Work
Content clusters play an essential role in creating topical authority. These content clusters (also known as content hubs or topic clusters) have three parts to them:
- Pillar Page: The main topic, usually a very long piece of content covering something comprehensively. For example, “AI Search Engines”.
- Cluster Pages: Generally, there are a few cluster pages that “support” the pillar page with extra content. Therefore, if the pillar page is “AI Search Engines”, you may have cluster pages like “How to rank on AI search engines”, “What are AI search engines”, etc.
- Internal Linking: You can’t just make pillar pages and cluster pages. They must internally link to each other. This helps connect the pages together and improves the user and crawler experience.
It’s this very SEO architecture that helps search engines see whether a website has authority in a topic. This is also the same for AI search engines.
Crawlers don’t just look at individual pages. They look at entire websites. Therefore, by creating clusters, you create semantic relevance, allowing crawlers to fully understand what your website is all about.
Steps to Build Your Topical Authority for AI Search
When wanting to build topical authority, it all starts with planning. Here are the key steps:
Step 1: Identify Core Topics
First, start by choosing a subject or number of subjects that match your business’s expertise and audience needs. For now, make these broad. I, for example, would focus on “How to rank on Google” or “How to rank on AI search engines”.
Step 2: Research Related Queries
After you have a core topic, find related queries based on it. You can use the standard SERPs, SEO tools or even AI.
When doing this, use search intent mapping to your advantage. Guide them from informational-based keywords to transactional keywords, etc., to push users (and your content) further up the funnel.
For example, with the core topic “How to rank on AI search engines”, some queries could be:
- How to structure content for AI search engines?
- How do AI search engines cite sources?
- What is AEO?
- Is optimising for AI search engines the same as traditional search engines?
- How to perform E-E-A-T for AI
- Etc…
As you can see, “How to rank on AI search engines” will be the core topic, and the other queries will then be the cluster pages.
Step 3: Create a Pillar Page
You’ll then want to create the content for your pillar page. Make it long-form and cover the primary topic from many angles. This will be the “hub” for your clusters. Therefore, cover your clusters briefly and then use them as “extra” resources to read.
Let’s go back to our example, “How to rank on AI search engines”. I may have a section about “How AI Search Engines Cite Sources”, I’ll explain it in the pillar post and then link to the cluster page “How AI Search Engines Cite Sources” for the reader (or crawlers) to gain more information.
Step 4: Develop Cluster Pages
Once the pillar page is developed, you need to focus on the cluster pages. Don’t plagiarise any content from your pillar page. Make it unique and as a way for users (and crawlers) to learn more about a specific area of your pillar page.
Step 5: Apply Structured Data
When creating your pillar and cluster pages, use structured data. For example, Article or BlogPosting schema. This not only helps crawlers understand your content type, but it also supports entity optimisation.
By doing this, it makes AI systems link your content better to subjects, people and organisations. And, as a rule of thumb, the easier you make it for the AI engine, the more likely it is that it’ll cite your content.
Step 6: Interlink Strategically
On the pillar page, link to each individual cluster page with descriptive anchor text. With the cluster pages, always link back to the pillar page and link to any other relevant clusters (it doesn’t need to be all of them).
For example, for the pillar page “How to rank on AI search engines”, you’d interlink all cluster pages. However, for the cluster page “How AI Search Engines Cite Sources”, you’d only internal link the pillar page and any other relevant cluster pages, such as “What is RAG” and not “How to perform SEO”.
How AI Ranks and Cites Content Based on Topic Coverage
Being cited with AI-generated answers is the new number one position on the SERPs. These are the most trusted and relevant sources, so they get cited by AI search engines.
AI Gathers Information from Related Topical Content
LLMs like ChatGPT don’t rely on extracting keyword matches. Instead, they use advanced information retrieval techniques.
As a result, they retrieve and analyse semantically related passages from multiple pages on the web. Therefore, if your website covers a topic from multiple angles, it’s more likely to get recognised by AI search.
AI Recalls Specific Passages with Supporting Context
Unlike traditional search, AI works at a passage level. This means it can sometimes only extract a specific paragraph or sentence from a page.
However, despite only using a tiny part of the content, it considers the entire context around the passage to determine whether it fulfils the user’s search and intent.
Clear and Consistent Signals Strengthen Topic Authority
Clarity of topical authority also plays an important role. If your website sends a strong signal that a certain topic is a serious area of expertise, then you’ll likely be seen as an expert. This, in turn, will result in high topical authority within that area of conversation.
Boosting Cluster Performance with Structured Data & Links
Creating the actual pillar and cluster content is important, without question. However, it doesn’t mean much if the AI system doesn’t understand how the content connects. That’s why you need to focus on structured data and internal links.
Use Schema to Improve AI Readability
Using a schema helps non-human entities understand what content is on a page. This is very important for clusters as multiple pages will need to work together to cover a broader topic.
Some useful schemas you could include are Article, BlogPosting, FAQPage, BreadCrumbList, and WebPage. This will help the non-human entity understand what the page is about, for example, a blog or an article.
Build Smart Internal Links Across the Cluster
Internal linking is what ties clusters together. Without it, they’re just individual pages. We don’t want this.
Therefore, on your pillar page, link to all the cluster pages using clear, keyword-rich anchor text. On the cluster pages, link back to the cluster page and any other cluster topics that are relevant.
By doing this internal linking, you give AI a chance to understand the relationship between pages. It also helps distribute page authority throughout the cluster.
Optimise Anchor Text and Page Hierarchy
We have briefly touched on this. However, it needs to be discussed more. Anchor text matters a lot. It’s used to understand the relevance and context of the linked page. Therefore, make it clear, concise, and descriptive.
Also, remember page hierarchy. The pillar page should act as the hub. The supporting cluster pages should be underneath this page. By doing this, AI can easily map out the full topic and your site’s expertise.
Final Word
Building topical authority does take time. It isn’t something that happens overnight. However, focus on this, and your AI visibility will increase massively.
When your site is the go-to source for your audience, and, most importantly, AI citations, the traffic and brand awareness it can bring will be substantial.
Now, you should go out there and research some pillar post ideas that suit your audience’s intent and business. From here, slowly build out some supporting pages and watch the traffic flow.
