Google has provided new information about the Topic Authority ranking system. Authority topics can also be interpreted as topic-oriented. This structure causes Google search not only to provide specialized and relevant content; Native content and first-hand reports are also prioritized. If the content field activists want to take advantage of the authority topic in the best way, they should have excellent content coverage in a certain specialized area.
What is an authority topic? What effect does it have on on-site SEO? And how should the SEO expert optimize the website for this system? In the following, these questions will be answered.
The quality of the content shown to the user is very important to Google. Google uses different algorithms and systems to make sure users see and read the best answers in search results.
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What is an authority topic?
Setting up an authority topic is an attempt to deal with a common challenge that Google users face when searching for an authoritative report or news about a particular topic. Users looking for expert commentary on an economic report or looking for local news about an accident in their area often come across a mix of news and general content. This general content makes it difficult to access more productive content written by specialized news websites in the user’s desired field.
The Topic Authority system allows Google to show more local news results to users. And thus search results are more suitable and relevant for the readers. For example, with flooding in the user’s area of residence, the Topic Authority signal will prioritize content from those local news websites that regularly cover topics in the area.
Additionally, topic authority means that first-hand reports from news teams familiar with the area and topic are more likely to be seen.
Google has announced that:
Local news websites get more traffic for covering news events in their area. Content producers with specialized topics should expect the same if they create specialized content related to such news.
The authority topic is not included in the “Official Google Guide to Ranking Systems” list. But the Twitter account of Google SearchLiasion announced that Topic Authority has been used for several years.
Local SEO is just as important for local news websites as it is for local small businesses.
How does the authority topic work?
The Topic Authority system uses a wide range of signals to measure the level of expertise and credibility of a local news website in specific fields. The primary signals are:
- Effectiveness and originality of the content: It is important for Google how much and how others refer to the first-hand report of a website.
- Source credibility: Google evaluates the history of the quality of reports and referrals and recommendations of specialized sources such as professional associations to the website and its contents.
How does the authority topic affect the site’s SEO strategy?
Topic Authority adds another layer to the strategic planning of SEO professionals. This layer emphasizes the importance of expertise, influence, and credibility of local news websites. And it aligns with Google’s ongoing efforts to promote quality content.
The time of strategies that lead to the presentation of generic and uniform content is over. Those who invest in producing and publishing authentic content in their niche will be in a good position to reap the benefits of this new ranking system.
Recommendations for content creators
Google gives recommendations to the media and news and specialized websites that want to use the authority topic to their advantage:
- Keep covering great content in the areas and topics you are an expert in.
- Take professional journalism seriously. Because the topic of authority, with an emphasis on local and specialized news coverage, has led to a renewed focus on accurate and complete reports.
Google ranking systems and algorithms and topic authority
Google checks many factors in a fraction of a second to provide the most relevant and useful results. For this, it is equipped with automatic ranking systems and algorithms. Some of these systems and algorithms have similarities with the authority topic.
- BERT artificial intelligence system
This artificial intelligence helps Google to understand the meaning and purpose of words and combinations of searched words.
- Crisis information systems
It helps Google to be more useful in times of crisis such as natural disasters.
- Deduplication systems for identifying duplicate and useless information
It removes the content that is not useful or first-hand from the display priority.
- The exact match domain system
If there is useful content on a website whose domain name is unrelated to the content, it will still be displayed.
- Helpful content system
It distinguishes first-hand and useful content from low-quality content.
- Link analysis systems and PageRank
By examining the linking of different pages to each other, one can understand the content and also the importance of the contents of that page.
- Local news systems
It identifies news related to each region to display them to users living in the same region.
- Original content detection systems
It helps the user to get the original version of the content.
- Passage ranking system
It helps Google to examine and understand different parts of the content or different parts of a page separately.