How Topical Authority differs from SEO, Entity SEO, E-E-A-T
Domain Authority / Domain Rating is a third-party score (Moz, Ahrefs) summarizing backlink profile. Topical authority is about coverage depth on a specific subject — and it's what AI engines weigh when deciding whose source to cite.
How Mentionwell handles Topical Authority
- Onboarding builds a topic taxonomy and hub-and-spoke content map per domain.
- Editorial critic flags missing siblings and parent links so coverage stays interconnected.
- Internal linking driven by semantic similarity (embeddings) so related articles surface each other.
Frequently asked questions about Topical Authority
What is topical authority?
The depth and breadth of a site's coverage of a single subject — measured by how many related questions, subtopics, and supporting articles the site has published.
How do I build topical authority?
Pick a narrow topic, build a pillar article, then publish a cluster of supporting articles that link to it and to each other. Keep going until you've covered every reasonable question in the space.
See also
Ship Topical Authority-optimized articles automatically
Mentionwell handles Topical Authority on every published article — alongside the other six optimization targets in this glossary — so you don't have to think about it per post. Drop a domain, approve the first headline, watch the pipeline run.