In this article, we are looking at pages with the lowest Topic Authority, looking to answer the question, “Which pages are at risk due to low topic authority?”
First, let’s set up a view for this in the Pages Inventory.
Use these data points
- URL
- Top Valued Topic
- Avg. Topic Authority
- Organic Traffic Est.
- Page Authority
- Value/Mo.
URL and Top Valued Topic help to recognize what the page is about.
Avg. Topic Authority averages the topical authority of all the ranking topics for that page. Topic authority is a measurement of how well your site performs for a specific topic.
Organic Traffic Estimate is an estimate of the amount of traffic this page currently receives. MarketMuse estimates the traffic for each topic for which a page ranks, taking into account its position in the search results and any SERP features as they impact click-through rates. The results are then summed to create the traffic estimate for the page.
Read All SERP Click-through Rates Are Not The Same.
Page Authority is a combined measurement of traffic and ranking and is calculated relative to other pages on your domain. Pages with high Page Authority are those that get a great deal of traffic and rank for many topics.
Value/Mo – The value of a page is based on the value of all the topics for which it ranks. The value of a topic is based on our organic traffic estimate times the value-per-visit.
MarketMuse uses cost-per-click as the default measure of value-per-visit. You can configure this based on how you measure ROI from organic traffic.
The organic traffic estimate is based on the search volume of a term, taking into account your current position in the search engine results plus any SERP features. For example, a term may have a monthly search volume of 1,000. But if there are many SERP features taking clicks away from organic results and you’re in the 10th position, the estimate of organic traffic will be a small fraction of the 1,000 visits.
Sort by
- Avg. Topic Authority ascending (lowest to highest)
Using this view
Sorting by Avg. Topic Authority ascending quickly surfaces those pages with low topic authority. They are at risk in the sense that a competitor could come along and create a bigger cluster of content around this topic and gain authority. Use the Page Authority column to contrast one type of authority against the other. Content with high Page Authority and low Avg. Topic Authority may have the greatest risk. The Organic Traffic Est. and Value/Mo helps isolate those pages that are worth the most whether in traffic or dollars.
Pages in this list will need further investigation. You can drill down into them to determine the best approach, whether that’s updating the page (and its associates) or creating additional supporting content.
Read Content Optimization: Should I Update an Existing Page, Create New Content or Both?
Customizing this view
Sorting by Avg. Topic Authority reveals those with low authority, but you’re still combing through all the pages on your site. To make a shortlist you’ll want to apply at least one filter or a combination of the one listed. Here are a few ideas for customizing this view:
- Apply a filter to Avg. Topic Authority so that the shortlist only contains low topic authority pages.
- Apply an additional filter to Organic Traffic Est. or Value/Mo. to further shorten the list to low Avg. Topic Authority pages that are valuable.