# What is a topical map? Parts, links and order

Google mostly shows land maps for this term. Here is the SEO one: what a topical map is made of, where the idea came from, how its links set the order, and two real maps opened up.

By Kevin Jeppesen, AI growth engineer. Founder, FrameworkSEO & Ascendily. Updated 2026-11-13. Source: https://frameworkseo.com/learn/topical-maps/what-is-a-topical-map

**Topical map:** A topical map is a plan of every page a website needs to fully cover its subject, grouped into clusters, linked to each other, and numbered in the order to publish them.

## Key takeaways

- A topical map plans the whole subject. A keyword list only plans single pages.
- Every page in a topical map carries four decisions: what it answers, what type of page it is, which pages it links to, and when it goes live.
- Koray Tuğberk Gübür made the topical map a standard SEO plan in February 2021, and the idea of subjects joined by named relations is older still: library science wrote it into the ISO topic maps standard.
- The publishing order comes from the links: the pages most others link to go live first, and a link that points at a later page waits until that page is published.
- Map size follows the business, not a target: our median growth plan was 159 pages on 5 November 2026, and maps run from about 50 pages to over 20,000 depending on the size of the company, its central entity and how many services it has.

## What a topical map is, in plain words

A topical map is the plan of every page your site needs on one subject, made before anyone writes a word. Each page in it carries four decisions: what it answers, what type of page it is, which pages it links to, and when it goes live.

Most sites grow the other way. Someone finds a keyword, writes a post and moves on to the next one. A year later the site has dozens of pages that do not know about each other.

A topical map flips that. You start from why the site exists and the subject you want to be known for, and work out every page that subject needs. Then you decide how those pages link and which ones go live first.

Think of a library. One brilliant post on a thin site is a good book in an empty library. The map is the plan for the shelves: which books, on which shelf, and in what order they arrive.

> **Not a topographic map:** Google still reads "topical map" as a map of land. On 12 November 2026, all ten of its top results for the term in the US were topographic map sites, such as USGS topoView and CalTopo. A [topographic map](https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-a-topographic-map) uses contour lines to show the shape and height of the ground, per the USGS. A topical map shows the shape of your coverage: where your subject is covered and where it is thin.

## Where the term came from: Koray Tuğberk Gübür, and library science before him

The topical map as an SEO plan has a clear origin. On 11 February 2021, Koray Tuğberk Gübür, the founder of the agency Holistic SEO & Digital, published a case study on Oncrawl called "Importance of Topical Authority: A Semantic SEO Case Study". Its first step reads: "Create a Topical Map Before Starting Publishing the First Article".

The [longer version on his own site](https://www.holisticseo.digital/theoretical-seo/topical-authority), dated the same day, reports one of the sites behind it, Interingilizce.com, at "200.000+ Organic Traffic Per Month in 6 Months", built with no backlinks by design. Those are his own numbers from his own screenshots, with no control site, so read them as a strong case, not as proof.

I learned this method from Koray, and most of the vocabulary in this library is his. Where his ideas are used, the lessons name him. The full account of his framework, in plain words, is in [Koray Tuğberk Gübür's topical map framework](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/semantic-seo/koray-topical-map-framework).

### Library science drew the same map first

The idea is older than SEO. Library and information science has long organized knowledge as subjects joined by named relations, and in the 2000s that became an ISO standard, [topic maps (ISO/IEC 13250)](https://www.iso.org/standard/40017.html), whose data model was published in 2006.

Steve Pepper of Ontopia summed it up in 2000 as ["Topics, Associations, and Occurrences"](https://web.archive.org/web/2020/http://www.ontopia.net/topicmaps/materials/tao.html). Those three parts map one to one onto an SEO topical map.

![A topic map's topic, association and occurrence beside the node, link and page they became in an SEO topical map.](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/what-is-a-topical-map/topic-maps-to-topical-maps.webp)

*Topic maps already split a subject into topics, the relations between them and the resources about them. A topical map keeps all three as nodes, links and pages.*

Two more ideas from outside SEO explain why the map is written down at all. Thomas Gruber defined an ontology in 1993 as ["an explicit specification of a conceptualization"](https://tomgruber.org/writing/ontolingua-kaj-1993.pdf). A topical map is that for one business: how it sees its subject, written down so others can check it. A plan that lives in one person's head cannot be checked.

Concept maps add the second idea. Joseph Novak and Alberto Cañas [start each map from a focus question](https://cmap.ihmc.us/Publications/ResearchPapers/TheoryUnderlyingConceptMaps.pdf) and label every line between two concepts with the relation it stands for. In a topical map, that label is the reason a link exists. The longer history is in [where the topical map came from](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/semantic-seo/where-topical-maps-came-from).

## What a topical map is made of: purpose, sections and pages

Most guides draw a topical map as a tree of keywords. Koray's framework starts three layers higher, with decisions about the business, and names five parts. Each is decided before the one under it.

- **Source context:** why the site exists and how it earns. In his words, "the perspective and function of the website and the brand on the open web that involves monetization, and existing purpose" ([his 2023 article on expanding a topical map](https://www.holisticseo.digital/seo-research-study/topical-map)).
- **Central entity:** the one thing every page is about. Students of his course describe it as what the site is mainly about, shown site-wide.
- **Central search intent:** what visitors come to do, written as a verb and the central entity. Students of his course describe it this way; his public articles leave the full definition to the course.
- **Core section:** the pages closest to the sale.
- **Outer section:** the pages that answer questions further from the sale, earn visits and feed the core with links.

![A topical map in layers: source context, central entity, central search intent, a core and an outer section, then pages with four decisions each.](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/what-is-a-topical-map/what-a-topical-map-is-made-of.webp)

*Each layer is decided before the one under it. Change the source context and every page below it changes angle.*

The source context matters more than it looks. Koray's example: the question "what is an electronic bicycle" gets a different answer from an electric car site, an energy site and an engineering site. Same search, different page, because the reason the site exists is different. The three decisions before any page have their own lesson: [source context, central entity and central search intent](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/semantic-seo/source-context-central-entity).

### Under those decisions, three levels of pages

Once the purpose is set, every topical map has the same three levels, whatever names an SEO gives them. One pillar page covers the whole subject. Clusters split the subject into parts, each with a hub page. Single pages each answer one search.

- Pillar: Home espresso, the complete guide
  - Cluster: Grinders
    - Burr vs blade grinders
    - Best grind size for espresso
    - How to clean a grinder
  - Cluster: Machines
    - Manual vs automatic
    - Espresso machines under $500
    - How to descale a machine
  - Cluster: Beans
    - Light vs dark roast
    - How to store coffee beans
    - Single origin vs blend

*A made-up map for a coffee gear store, to show the shape: the pillar page on top, three of its clusters, three pages in each.*

| Level | What it is | Example for a coffee gear store |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Pillar** | The one page that covers the whole subject and links down to everything else. | Home espresso, the complete guide |
| **Cluster** | A group of pages about one part of the subject, with its own hub page. | Grinders, machines, beans |
| **Page** | One page that answers one search, completely. | Burr vs blade grinders |

### The core section changes with the kind of site

The tree above has no money in it yet. The core and outer split puts it there, and what counts as core depends on how the business earns. A map that leaves the selling pages out grows visits that never buy.

| Kind of site | Core section: pages that sell | Outer section: pages that answer |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Online store** | Collection pages, product pages | Buying guides, comparisons, care and how-to guides |
| **Local service business** | Service pages, location pages | Cost guides, how the job is done, questions before booking |
| **Software** | Feature pages, use-case pages | How-to guides, comparisons, glossary entries |
| **Publisher or affiliate site** | Hub pages, best-of lists, reviews | Guides, explainers, how-tos |

Every page in the outer section should link to a page in the core. Otherwise it earns visits that have nowhere to go. How the two halves work together is in [core section and outer section](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/semantic-seo/core-and-outer-sections).

## What one page in a topical map decides

Zoom in on a single row and you find the four decisions from the top of this page. They are what make a row a plan rather than a search term.

![One page of a made-up coffee store map with its links up to its hub, across to two neighbors and over to the collection that sells, plus its four decisions.](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/what-is-a-topical-map/one-page-in-the-network.webp)

*A page in a map is never alone: it links up to its hub, across to the neighbors a reader needs next, and over to the page that sells.*

### What it answers

One main search per page. Searches that mean the same thing share that page. A search that is only part of a bigger question becomes a section of a page, not a page of its own. Where that line sits is in [when a search deserves its own page](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/topical-maps/page-or-section).

### What type of page it is

A comparison, a product page and a how-to guide answer the same subject in three different shapes. Before you pick one, look at which shape Google already shows for that search. Our own map format names 12 page types, from collections and services to guides and tools. That is what our format names, not a limit: if a business needs a page the list does not name, the map should plan it anyway.

### Which pages it links to

Up to its hub, across to its neighbors, and over to the page that sells what it discusses. Each link is planned with its reason, the label from the concept maps above.

### When it goes live

A number in the publishing order, which the links decide. That is the next section.

## How the links in a topical map set the publishing order

The links decide the order. A page can only link to pages that already exist. So the pages most others link to go live first, and a link that points at a later page waits until that page is published.

### Hubs link down, pages link up and across

The pillar links to every hub. Each hub links to its pages. Each page links back up to its hub and across to the two or three neighbors a reader needs next.

[Google's link guide](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/links-crawlable) sets the floor: "Every page you care about should have a link from at least one other page on your site." A map plans that link for every page before the page exists. The full pattern is in [internal links inside a topical map](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/topical-maps/internal-links-in-a-topical-map).

### Google's own slide on why links matter this much

A 2017 Google slide, shown as a trial exhibit in the US antitrust case against Google, is titled ["The 3 Pillars of Ranking"](https://www.justice.gov/atr/media/1322476/dl?inline). Body is "What the document says about itself." Anchors is "What the Web says about the document." User-interactions is "What users say about the document."

A topical map plans the first two before anything is written: what each page says, and what your own pages say about it through the links and their anchor words. The third you earn after you publish.

### Count the links in, then number the pages

To set the order, count how many pages will link to each page. The pages with the most links in are the base of the map, so they go first. Pages that mostly link out can wait.

![Five pages of a made-up coffee store map ranked by how many links each will receive, and a link to a later page shown waiting for it.](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/what-is-a-topical-map/links-set-the-publishing-order.webp)

*Count the links each page will receive and publish the most-linked first. A link that points ahead is already in the plan and goes in on the day its target goes live.*

### Links that point ahead are tasks, not mistakes

One buyer asked us on a call why his map told him to link to pages he had not built yet. That is how every map looks on day one. In our dashboard, a link only shows up under "Links to add" once both of its pages are published. The sequencing rules have their own lesson: [publishing order](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/topical-maps/publishing-order).

## Two real topical maps, opened up

A tree of made-up coffee pages shows the shape. Real maps show the trade-offs. Here are two: the map behind this library, and ten rows from a map we delivered to an online store.

### Ours: the 32 lessons in this library

This lesson is page 1 of a real topical map, built in November 2026. It holds 32 lessons in three categories: 18 on topical maps, 9 on semantic SEO and 5 on Claude for SEO. Between them they plan 134 links to each other, and every lesson links back to this one.

- **The most-linked lesson is not the most-searched one.** [How to build a topical map](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/topical-maps/how-to-build-a-topical-map) has 17 planned links in, the most of any lesson, while its main search gets 10 US searches a month. It is central because so many other lessons hand the reader to it.
- **Search volume is not the entry ticket.** Five of the 32 lessons have a main search that the data puts at zero a month, and 12 more were never measured. They are in because buyers ask those questions, and the subject is not covered without them.
- **The bare term is not always winnable.** "Topical map" gets 590 US searches a month, but Google shows land maps for it. So this page aims first at the longer searches: "what is a topical map" (50) and "topical map seo" (90).

One thing about our map is unusual: all 32 lessons go live on the same day, so no link ever points at a page that is not there yet. Most sites publish over months, which is why the order above matters.

### A client's: an online store selling graphic tees

The second map was delivered to a US store selling graphic tees. It runs to 391 pages. These ten rows follow one branch: the main collection, the collections under it, and the guides that send readers to them. Nothing in the rows was reworded. Page addresses are left out.

| P | Page | Page type | Role | Main search | Searches a month (US) | Links up to | Also links to (pages that sell) |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | Graphic tees: funny, weird and vintage statement T-shirts | collection | pillar | graphic tees | 201,000 | (top of the map) |  |
| 2 | Oversized graphic tees | collection | cluster | oversized graphic tee | 22,200 | Graphic tees (the pillar) |  |
| 3 | Vintage and retro graphic tees | collection | cluster | vintage graphic tees | 14,800 | Graphic tees (the pillar) |  |
| 4 | Graphic hoodies | collection | hub | graphic hoodies | 40,500 | Graphic tees (the pillar) |  |
| 86 | Heavyweight graphic T-shirts | collection | cluster | heavyweight t shirt | 9,900 | Graphic tees (the pillar) |  |
| 145 | 90s outfits: how to dress the decade today | guide | cluster | 90s outfits | 110,000 | Outfit ideas built around a graphic tee | Vintage and retro graphic tees |
| 202 | How to wear it: style, fit and care guides | hub | hub | how to style graphic tees | 720 | Graphic tees (the pillar) |  |
| 203 | How to style an oversized T-shirt | guide | cluster | how to style an oversized t shirt | 720 | How to wear it | Oversized graphic tees |
| 204 | How to shrink a shirt (and how to unshrink one) | guide | cluster | how to shrink a shirt | 18,100 | How to wear it | Heavyweight graphic T-shirts |
| 329 | Heavyweight vs regular T-shirts: GSM, fit and feel | comparison | support | what is a heavyweight t shirt | 390 | How to wear it | Heavyweight graphic T-shirts |

P is the page's number in the publishing order of the whole map, so the numbers jump. Three things are worth copying.

- **The pages that sell go first.** Pages 1 to 4 are collections. The pillar is an existing collection page being rebuilt, not a new blog post.
- **Every guide points at a collection.** The style guide links to oversized tees, the shrinking guide to heavyweight tees. That is the outer section feeding the core.
- **Small searches still earn a page when they sell.** The heavyweight comparison answers a search with 390 a month, and it links straight to the collection that sells heavyweight tees.

Three more maps from different kinds of sites are in [topical map examples](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/topical-maps/topical-map-examples).

### How big a topical map gets

The median growth plan we delivered was 159 pages, counted on 5 November 2026. That is a middle, not a target. A map can be anywhere from about 50 pages to over 20,000, "depending on the size of the company, what central entity they have that needs that sort of coverage, how many services they have, and so on".

So a narrow local service needs fewer pages, and a store with a wide range needs more: the tee store above runs to 391. If someone sells you a map by its page count, ask which pages could go.

## Topical map vs keyword list, content calendar and sitemap

Four different documents all get called a content plan. Only the topical map decides every page the subject needs, how those pages link, and the order they go live.

|  | Keyword list | Content calendar | XML sitemap | Topical map |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **Lists** | Searches and their volumes | Posts and their dates | Pages you already have | Every page the subject needs |
| **Links between pages** | Not planned | Not planned | Not covered | Planned for every page |
| **Order set by** | Search volume | The calendar | Not set | Which pages others depend on |
| **Pages that sell** | Rarely | Rarely | Listed if they exist | Planned with the rest |

![Six searches for a made-up coffee store, first as a flat keyword list, then as map pages with a type, links, an order and a hub page added.](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/what-is-a-topical-map/keyword-list-vs-topical-map.webp)

*The list says what people search. The map turns the same searches into pages with a type, links and an order, and adds the hub page the list never named.*

A keyword list has no links column. Every page written straight from it starts with no planned link in, while Google's link guide asks for at least one. The map adds that column, and the order with it.

You still need keyword data. It tells you how people word a search and how many of them do it. The map decides what to do with that data.

Library science has names for this ladder. A keyword list is a flat list. A topic cluster is a hierarchy, like a taxonomy. A topical map sits closer to a thesaurus, because it records how subjects relate sideways, not only which one sits under which. The three side by side are in [topical map vs topic cluster vs keyword list](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/topical-maps/topical-map-vs-topic-cluster).

An XML sitemap is a different tool again. Google describes a [sitemap](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/overview) as a file that tells search engines which pages and files you think are important. It lists what you have. A topical map lists what you still need.

## Why topical maps work: what search engines have actually said

Koray's 2021 case study carried a line worth keeping: "Do not solely focus on Google to understand semantic search." So here is the evidence from four places: Google's guides, Microsoft Bing's guidelines, Google's leaked internal documentation and its patents. None of them mentions a topical map by name. All of them reward what a map produces: a site with one focus and one clear page per topic.

### Google asks whether your site has a focus

[Google's guide to people-first content](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/creating-helpful-content) lists questions for judging your own pages. Two of them: "Does your site have a primary purpose or focus?" and "Does the content provide a substantial, complete, or comprehensive description of the topic?" That first question is the source context in Google's words.

### Bing says one URL, one topic

[Bing's Webmaster Guidelines](https://www.bing.com/webmasters/help/webmaster-guidelines-30fba23a), which now cover Copilot answers too, say it outright. Section 17 is "Focus Each URL on a Single Topic": "URLs focused on a primary topic are more likely to be selected for grounding results", so "Avoid mixing unrelated concepts on a single URL". Section 6 adds that "Duplicate URLs dilute signals". That is the one-page-per-search rule of a topical map, in a search engine's own guidelines.

### Google's internal documentation measures focus

Google's internal API documentation leaked in 2024. One record in it lists two fields. The first is [siteFocusScore](https://hexdocs.pm/google_api_content_warehouse/0.4.0/GoogleApi.ContentWarehouse.V1.Model.QualityAuthorityTopicEmbeddingsVersionedItem.html), "Number denoting how much a site is focused on one topic". The second is siteRadius, "The measure of how far page_embeddings deviate from the site_embedding". In plain words: Google stores how tightly a site sticks to one subject, and how far each page drifts from it. The documents do not say how much either field weighs, so treat them as a sign, not a rule.

### A Google patent expects a topic's phrases to travel together

Google's [phrase-based indexing patent](https://patents.google.com/patent/US7536408B2/en), filed in 2004 and granted in 2009, treats phrases as related when one predicts the presence of the other. A page about a topic is expected to carry the phrases that usually come with it. A [sister patent](https://patents.google.com/patent/US7603345B2/en) flags pages that carry far more related phrases than expected as spam. So covering a subject means one page per part, not every term stuffed into one page. A patent shows what Google designed, not what runs today.

### Google's own "topic authority" is a news system

You will read that Google has rewarded topical authority since the Hummingbird update of 2013. The system Google actually named [topic authority](https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2023/05/understanding-news-topic-authority) was announced on 23 May 2023, and it picks expert sources for news searches. In the SEO sense, topical authority is how strongly a site is trusted on a whole subject, and the term comes from practitioners like Koray, not from Google. The longer story is in [topical authority](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/topical-maps/topical-authority).

### AI answers search your clusters for you

[Google says](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features) AI Overviews and AI Mode may use a "query fan-out" technique. They issue "multiple related searches across subtopics and data sources" to build one answer.

A cluster in a topical map is that same set of subtopic searches, planned in advance. When each subtopic has its own clear page, the site has an answer ready for every branch of the fan-out. How to get those pages cited is in [getting a topical map cited in AI answers](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/semantic-seo/ai-answers-and-topical-maps).

> **Watch out:** A topical map does not rank anything by itself. The pages still have to be written well, published in order and linked the way the map says. Links and mentions from other sites still count too, as [the other half of topical authority](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/topical-maps/links-and-mentions) explains.

## How to check a topical map before you use it

Run any map, built or bought, through these checks. Fix every fail before anyone writes from it. These are also the mistakes we look for first when a buyer shows us a map they built themselves.

| Check | Passes when | Fails when |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **A stated purpose** | The map says why the site exists and what it sells. | The map starts from a pile of keywords. |
| **One search per page** | Every page has its own main search. | Two pages chase the same search, or a small question gets a page it does not deserve. |
| **Pages that sell** | Product, service or collection pages are in the map, in the core section. | The map is only blog posts. |
| **A page type on every row** | Each row says guide, product, service, comparison and so on. | Rows are titles only. |
| **Links for every page** | Each row lists its links, and every page has at least one link in. | Links are left for later. |
| **Pages that build on each other** | Every outer page feeds a page in the core. | Pages stand alone and send readers nowhere. |
| **A publishing order** | The pages that others depend on go first. | Pages are sorted by search volume. |
| **A stated boundary** | The map says what is out of scope. | Off-topic pages are in because they are near the subject. |
| **Real search data** | Volumes and wording come from your own market and language. | The data is from another country, or missing. |
| **Room for small questions** | Real buyer questions stay in, even at zero measured searches. | Anything under a volume cut is dropped. |

> **Before you pay for a map:** Ask to see one full row first. If it has no page type, no links and no publishing number, you are buying a keyword list.

## How to get a topical map: build it or have it built

You can build a topical map yourself or have it built. Building one by hand takes six steps, and [how to build a topical map](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/topical-maps/how-to-build-a-topical-map) walks through each of them.

1. Write down the source context: why the site exists and what it sells.
2. Name the central entity, and write down what is out of the subject.
3. Collect every question a buyer asks before, during and after buying.
4. Decide which searches deserve a page and which are a section, then split the pages into core and outer.
5. Check what ranks today for each page, and pick the page type that wins.
6. Set the links for every page, then number the pages in publishing order.

Prefer to work with an AI assistant? [Build a topical map with Claude](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/claude-for-seo/build-a-topical-map-with-claude) covers the same job, with the decisions you should keep for yourself.

Or have it built. This is what our [growth plan](https://frameworkseo.com/) is. We research your site, your market and your competitors, then a person checks every line before the map reaches you.

## Where to go next: every lesson, by the question it answers

This page is the start of the library. Find your question in the left column; the lesson beside it answers it in full.

### Topical maps

| If your question is | Read |
| --- | --- |
| Why does a site that covers a whole subject outrank one that covers a corner of it? | [Topical authority: what it is and how to build it](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/topical-maps/topical-authority) |
| Do I still need backlinks if my map is complete? | [The other half of topical authority: links, mentions and reputation](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/topical-maps/links-and-mentions) |
| Is a topical map just a topic cluster with a new name? | [Topical map vs topic cluster vs keyword list](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/topical-maps/topical-map-vs-topic-cluster) |
| How do I build one myself, step by step? | [How to build a topical map, step by step](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/topical-maps/how-to-build-a-topical-map) |
| Does every search need its own page? | [When a search deserves its own page (and when it is a section)](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/topical-maps/page-or-section) |
| What do finished maps look like for real businesses? | [Topical map examples: three real maps, opened up](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/topical-maps/topical-map-examples) |
| Is there a sheet I can start from? | [Topical map template (free Google Sheet)](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/topical-maps/topical-map-template) |
| What goes on the top page of a map? | [Pillar pages: what they are and where they sit in a map](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/topical-maps/pillar-pages) |
| Which pages link to which, and with what words? | [Internal links inside a topical map](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/topical-maps/internal-links-in-a-topical-map) |
| Two of my pages fight for the same search. What now? | [Keyword cannibalization: how to find it and how a map prevents it](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/topical-maps/keyword-cannibalization) |
| Which pages should go live first? | [Publishing order: which pages of a map go live first](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/topical-maps/publishing-order) |
| The first pages are live. What do I add next? | [Expanding a topical map: what to add once the first pages are live](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/topical-maps/expanding-a-topical-map) |
| What do I do with old pages that do not fit the map? | [Pruning, merging and updating pages that do not belong](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/topical-maps/pruning-and-merging) |
| I run an online store. What changes? | [Topical maps for ecommerce stores](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/topical-maps/topical-map-for-ecommerce) |
| I run a local or service business. What changes? | [Topical maps for local and service businesses](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/topical-maps/topical-map-for-local-and-service-businesses) |
| Can a tool or generator make the map for me? | [Topical map tools and generators, tested on one site](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/topical-maps/topical-map-tools) |
| How do I know the map is working? | [How to tell if a topical map is working](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/topical-maps/measure-a-topical-map) |

### Semantic SEO

| If your question is | Read |
| --- | --- |
| What are entities and query fan-out, without the jargon? | [Semantic SEO in plain words: entities, query fan-out and what they change](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/semantic-seo/what-is-semantic-seo) |
| What exactly did Koray Tuğberk Gübür teach about topical maps? | [Koray Tuğberk Gübür's topical map framework, in plain words](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/semantic-seo/koray-topical-map-framework) |
| What do source context and central entity mean in practice? | [Source context, central entity and central search intent](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/semantic-seo/source-context-central-entity) |
| Which pages belong in the core section, and which in the outer? | [Core section and outer section: the two halves of a topical map](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/semantic-seo/core-and-outer-sections) |
| How does a map turn into linked, written pages? | [Semantic content networks: turning a map into linked pages](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/semantic-seo/semantic-content-network) |
| How do I make a page say something the top results do not? | [Information gain: how to make a page add what the top results lack](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/semantic-seo/information-gain) |
| Why can fewer pages beat more pages? | [Cost of retrieval: why fewer, clearer pages can outrank more](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/semantic-seo/cost-of-retrieval) |
| How do I get my pages cited in AI answers? | [Getting a topical map cited in AI answers](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/semantic-seo/ai-answers-and-topical-maps) |
| Where did the idea of a topical map come from before SEO? | [Where the topical map came from: topic maps, taxonomies and concept maps](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/semantic-seo/where-topical-maps-came-from) |

### Claude for SEO

| If your question is | Read |
| --- | --- |
| What is Claude good at for SEO, and where does it go wrong? | [Claude for SEO: what it is good at and where it gets it wrong](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/claude-for-seo/claude-for-seo) |
| Can I build a topical map with Claude? | [Build a topical map with Claude](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/claude-for-seo/build-a-topical-map-with-claude) |
| What is a Claude skill, and how do I write one for SEO? | [Claude skills for SEO: what a skill is and how to write your own](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/claude-for-seo/claude-seo-skills) |
| How do I write a content brief for one page of the map? | [Content briefs with Claude](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/claude-for-seo/content-briefs-with-claude) |
| How do I set up Claude Code for SEO work? | [Claude Code for SEO: setup, step by step](https://frameworkseo.com/learn/claude-for-seo/claude-code-for-seo) |

## Sources

- [Importance of Topical Authority for SEO (case study, 11 February 2021)](https://www.holisticseo.digital/theoretical-seo/topical-authority), Koray Tuğberk Gübür, Holistic SEO, 2021
- [How to Expand a Topical Map for Higher Topical Authority?](https://www.holisticseo.digital/seo-research-study/topical-map), Koray Tuğberk Gübür, Holistic SEO, 2023
- [ISO/IEC 13250-2:2006 Topic Maps, Part 2: Data model](https://www.iso.org/standard/40017.html), ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 34, 2006
- [The TAO of Topic Maps](https://web.archive.org/web/2020/http://www.ontopia.net/topicmaps/materials/tao.html), Steve Pepper, Ontopia, 2000
- [A translation approach to portable ontology specifications](https://tomgruber.org/writing/ontolingua-kaj-1993.pdf), Thomas R. Gruber, Stanford Knowledge Systems Laboratory, 1993
- [The Theory Underlying Concept Maps and How to Construct and Use Them](https://cmap.ihmc.us/Publications/ResearchPapers/TheoryUnderlyingConceptMaps.pdf), Joseph D. Novak and Alberto J. Cañas, IHMC, 2008
- [Bing Webmaster Guidelines](https://www.bing.com/webmasters/help/webmaster-guidelines-30fba23a), Microsoft Bing, 2026
- [Life of a Click (user-interaction), trial exhibit UPX0004, US v. Google](https://www.justice.gov/atr/media/1322476/dl?inline), U.S. Department of Justice (Google slide deck, 2017), 2017
- [QualityAuthorityTopicEmbeddingsVersionedItem (siteFocusScore, siteRadius)](https://hexdocs.pm/google_api_content_warehouse/0.4.0/GoogleApi.ContentWarehouse.V1.Model.QualityAuthorityTopicEmbeddingsVersionedItem.html), Google Content Warehouse API documentation, leaked copy on hexdocs, 2024
- [Phrase-based indexing in an information retrieval system (US7536408B2)](https://patents.google.com/patent/US7536408B2/en), Google LLC, Google Patents, 2009
- [Detecting spam documents in a phrase based information retrieval system (US7603345B2)](https://patents.google.com/patent/US7603345B2/en), Google LLC, Google Patents, 2009
- [What is a topographic map?](https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-a-topographic-map), U.S. Geological Survey, 2026
- [Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/creating-helpful-content), Google Search Central, 2026
- [Link best practices for Google](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/links-crawlable), Google Search Central, 2025
- [Understanding news topic authority](https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2023/05/understanding-news-topic-authority), Google Search Central Blog, 2023
- [AI features and your website](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features), Google Search Central, 2025
- [Learn about sitemaps](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/overview), Google Search Central, 2025