In SEO, a topical map is a plan for the subjects and subtopics your site should cover around one main topic. It helps you build more comprehensive coverage of your niche instead of choosing content ideas one keyword at a time.
Creating a topical map can take some time, sure. But the payoff is a site that feels less pieced together. Your content starts reinforcing the same area of expertise, which can make it easier for both search engines and readers to understand what your site is genuinely useful for.
In this post, we’ll look at what a topical map should include, how it differs from a content map, and how to create one for your site.
What Should a Topical Map Include?
Generally, a topical map should include the main subject you want to build topical authority around, the major subtopics that fall under it, and the more specific questions or ideas you could cover within each subtopic.
For example, let’s say your main topic is content marketing. Your topical map might branch into areas like:
- Content strategy
- SEO content
- Distribution
- Measurement
- Content creation
From there, each subtopic can break down further into individual content opportunities, some of which may eventually form topic clusters around closely related ideas.
The map should be detailed enough to show you what the topic actually includes, but not so detailed that it turns into a giant keyword dump. You’re trying to create a useful structure to help plan content, not document every possible phrase someone could search.
How Is a Topical Map Different From a Content Map?
They may be used interchangeably here and there, but a topical map and a content map often refer to different things. They can both help you decide what content to create, sure, but they start from different places.
With a topical map, you start with the subject. You’re figuring out everything your site should cover around a core topic so you can build stronger SEO coverage.
A content map, on the other hand, often starts with your audience. Here, the goal is to consider what people need at different points in their buying journey and to use that to plan content around those needs.
There can be plenty of overlap between the two, especially once you start turning your topical map into an actual content plan. The main difference is simply the lens you’re using: one starts with the topic, while the other starts with the person you’re creating the content for.
How Do You Create a Topical Map?
Creating a topical map is mostly about taking a broad subject and breaking it down until you have a clear view of what your site should actually cover. You don’t need to make it overly complicated, but you do need to be deliberate about what makes the cut.
Here’s a basic guide to creating a topical map.
1. Choose your core topic
The first step in building a topical map is to decide on the main subject your site will build authority around.
You want something broad enough to support plenty of useful subtopics, but not so broad that the map becomes impossible to manage. Continuing with our content marketing example, “marketing” in general is probably too wide. “Content marketing” gives you a much clearer area to work with.
Even if you find that “marketing” has much higher keyword volume, the best core topic should still be closely tied to what your business actually does. There’s little value in building deep coverage around a subject if it has little connection to the people you want to reach or the services you offer.
2. Find the important subtopics
Once you’ve decided on a core topic, open up a blank spreadsheet and put it at the top. It’s time to start identifying and organizing what belongs underneath it.
It can help to start by researching the broader areas that make up the topic. A few useful places to look for subtopics include:
- Google results for your core topic
- People Also Ask
- Related searches
- Competitor site categories and blog structure
- Keyword research tools
- Questions that come up in sales calls, support tickets, or customer conversations
As you go, add the broader themes you find to your spreadsheet for now. You’ll almost certainly find a potential subtopic like “content creation” if your core theme is content marketing.
The good news is that you don’t need to turn them into article ideas yet. First, you need to figure out which ones are actually worth building out.
3. Figure out which subtopics are worth covering
Now, go through the subtopics in your spreadsheet one by one and decide which ones actually deserve to stay. You likely won’t have a list of complete bangers after your first pass.
To figure out which subtopics are worth covering in your topical map, add a few simple columns beside each one and check:
- Business relevance. Does this connect directly to what you sell or the audience you want to reach?
- Search demand. Are people actually looking for information around this subtopic?
- Content depth. Can you realistically create several useful pieces around it, or is it too narrow?
- SEO value. Would ranking for this area help strengthen the broader topic you want to be known for?
- Priority. Is this something you should build out now, later, or not at all?
You don’t need a complicated scoring system. A simple high, medium, or low rating in each column is usually enough to make the stronger opportunities stand out.
Then remove anything that feels too far off-topic, too thin to support meaningful coverage, or too disconnected from your actual business. What’s left should give you a much cleaner list of subtopics to build on in the next step.
4. Break the subtopics into content opportunities
Next, you’re going to start breaking each subtopic down into more specific content opportunities.
If “content creation” made the cut, for example, you might have ideas around planning, writing, editing, repurposing, and workflows. To keep things organized, add a new column to your subtopics in the spreadsheet and give each idea its own row so you can see which broader topic it belongs to.
From there, keep refining. Some ideas will be broad enough to support their own page, while others will show so much keyword overlap that they make more sense together. The goal here is to turn each subtopic into a cohesive set of pages you could actually create without splitting the same idea five different ways.
5. Compare the topical map with your existing content
Once the map is in decent shape, compare it with what you already have on your site.
A simple content audit can help here. Go through your existing pages and match them against the content opportunities in your spreadsheet, marking which topics are already covered, which need more depth, and which are missing entirely.
You may find that some gaps require brand-new pages, while others can be handled by updating or expanding something you already have. There may also be a few pages that cover basically the same thing and would work better combined into one.
By the end, you should have a much clearer sense of what to create next and what you can improve before adding anything new.
Build a Stronger Content Strategy With MarketingPal.io
A topical map can give you a much clearer sense of where your content should go next. But turning that big-picture view into a focused list of topics worth targeting still takes some work.
MarketingPal.io’s Topical Authority Content Plans help you get there by identifying and grouping relevant keyword opportunities in the areas your business wants to build authority. From there, you have a practical roadmap for creating content with a clear purpose rather than filling your content calendar for the sake of it.
Contact us to learn more today.
