A topical map service can be an invaluable tool for SEO. By visualizing the relationships between topics and keywords, a topical map provides a strategic overview of a website’s content structure. This allows for targeted content optimization and site architecture improvements. In this guide, together, we’ll explore the benefits of using a topical mapping service, how these services work, choose the right provider, and review some of the top options available. Let’s get in!
The Benefits of Using a Topical Map Service for SEO
Here are some of the key advantages of using a topical mapping service:
Identify Gaps in Content Coverage – By mapping out existing site content, gaps around important topics or keywords become visible. This allows for targeted content creation to plug holes and improve relevance.
Optimize Page Titles and Meta Descriptions – Mapping topics to pages help optimize page titles and meta descriptions for relevance and click-through rate.
Improve Site Architecture – Visualizing keyword and topic relationships reveals opportunities to improve site architecture through better navigation menus, content grouping, and interlinking.
Prioritize Content Development – A topic map provides a content development roadmap by revealing which topics and keywords are most important but underserved.
Monitor Ranking Progress – Tracking changes in rankings for each topic over time shows where progress is being made and where more work is needed.
Identify Link Building Opportunities – Seeing competing sites covering your high-value topics highlights link building and collaboration opportunities.
Simplify Updating and Reporting – With all key topics, keywords and rankings in one place, reporting and tracking progress for clients or managers is much easier.
Gain a Competitive Edge – Viewing the keyword and topic landscape from a macro perspective provides strategic insight into beating competitors.
In summary, a topical map service provides an overarching view of a website’s content and SEO landscape. This birds-eye perspective is invaluable for developing an optimal content and keyword strategy.
How a Topical Map Service Works
Topical mapping software crawls a website to extract keywords and topics. Natural language processing identifies semantically related words and groups keywords into broader topics. Algorithms analyze keyword competition, search volume, and existing page relevance to determine keyword priorities.
The software generates interactive visual maps of website content, with topics sized by importance and keywords grouped together. Additional data like rankings and competitor analysis can be layered on. The map provides an actionable SEO plan based on gaps between current and target page relevance for topics and keywords. Here is a typical topical mapping workflow:
First, you provide the service with information about your website, including its main topic, target audience, and existing content structure. The service analyzes this data along with your competitor landscape to identify relevant keywords and content topics.
Next, the service uses your website information and their analysis to build a visual map of your current content structure. This map visually organizes your main topics, subtopics, and related keywords in a hierarchical format. Some services allow you to customize the map further by adding notes and connections.
With the map created, the service can suggest opportunities to optimize your content by identifying gaps in topics or under-covered keywords. They may provide specific recommendations on new content to create or existing content to update based on the map. Some services can even create content outlines or briefs based on map insights.
Finally, some topical mapping services offer ongoing support to help maintain and evolve your map over time. This includes updating keyword research, tracking competitor content changes, and continuously finding new optimization opportunities. They help keep your map a living, breathing strategic guide as your website grows.
So in summary, a typical topical mapping process analyzes your current website content, structures it into a visual map, identifies weak spots, provides optimization recommendations, and offers continuous support for improvement as the website changes. This phased approach ensures the map provides maximum strategic value.
List of Topical Map Service Providers
Here are the top 3 providers for topical mapping services:
#1. TopicalMap.com
This service provides ready-made topical maps and associated keywords to help websites establish authority around core topics and improve search rankings. Their comprehensive content strategies include interlinked clusters of closely related subtopics.
The Topical Map Service is priced at $2397 and is suitable for those looking to build topical authority, wanting hundreds of keywords researched and clustered by an expert, and seeking a Done-For-You (DFY) content plan that covers 6-12+ months of content.
#2. Click Vision
Click Vision offers topical mapping to aid in building topical authority, avoiding duplicate content issues, and generating long-term content ideas. Their maps identify key keywords and logical site content categories to enhance search visibility.
Click Vision’s pricing starts at $399 for their Basic plan, which includes a topical map, keyword research, and content strategy. Their Advanced plan, which includes all the features of the Basic plan plus content creation and optimization, is priced at $999. They also offer a Premium plan for $1,699, which includes all the features of the Advanced plan plus link building and outreach.
#3. LeadSpring
Rankstar delivers premium topical map creation services. Their maps strategically structure site LeadSpring’s Topical Map Service is a comprehensive offering designed to help websites achieve topical authority and dominate their niche. The service involves manual uncovering of all the topics needed to be considered a “Topical Authority” in a specific niche. The Topical Map is provided in an easy-to-implement format in less than 14 days, and the price for this service is $997.
The right provider creates customized, insightful topical maps tailored to your website’s goals. Their mapping process should uncover new growth opportunities and provide an optimized content roadmap to improve search performance.
Wrapping Up
Topical mapping gives website owners an invaluable strategic overview of their existing content and gaps. The bird’s-eye view simplifies SEO by providing a clear roadmap for improving site architecture, information hierarchy, and authoritative content development. By replacing a scattered keyword focus with comprehensive topic-based themes, topical mapping allows for smarter, more efficient SEO. The ability to continuously track optimization opportunities also keeps your efforts evolving. For any website owner frustrated with improving search rankings, trying a topical mapping service can provide the visibility needed to finally master SEO.