Has AI changed topic authority? No (but also yes)

We asked news SEO experts for their insight on how topic authority has changed in the AI world — and what to do about it!

Aug 24, 2026

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Hello, and welcome back. Jessie here, back from a wonderful (if rainy!) weekend. I’m pleased to report BOTH my softball teams got the W in their first playoff games (and more importantly, the Green Beans avoided a torrential downpour by about three minutes)! We also took a bike ride through my favourite part of the city’s waterfront and painted a snapshot of a lovely park!

This week: Topic authority! We first covered topical authority in the pre-generative AI world. We went back and updated our best practices on the concept, and asked noted news SEO experts for their insight on how authority has changed in the AI world — and what to do about it!

Two brains are better than one! Photo by KOBU Agency on Unsplash

Let’s get it.

THE 101

What is topic authority?

Topic authority is SEO jargon for subject matter expertise.

Topic authority is how search engines recognize your website as an expert on an overall subject — not just random keywords, but a full range of similar and related terms within a topic. It’s your “perceived authority over a niche or broad idea set,” according to Search Engine Journal.

Search engines interpret some sites as more knowledgeable on a topic than others. As a result, articles from those sites are more likely to rank higher on SERPs over competitors who do not write in depth on the subject.

Topic authority is closely related to E.E.A.T (Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness), a concept used by Google and its human raters to evaluate if the content surfaced in search results is relevant and helpful.

To be considered an authoritative source on a topic, you must write quality content — journalism that answers the questions readers are asking — consistently, over time.

Topic authority is the result of a proven track record of deep expertise. High quality, original journalism on a niche builds topic authority. It is helped by an effective linking strategy: internal links to other related stories on your site, along with earned backlinks.

Mastering E.E.A.T: How to create content Google wants

WTF is SEO? and Jessie Willms

August 28, 2023

Read full story

How does Google explain topic authority?

Starting in 2018, Google has evolved its algorithms to put more emphasis on the topic authority of a website. Instead of major news publishers ranking for any topic on the strength of their site’s authority, ranking focuses more on a niche or the expertise of a site.

In 2023, Google published a blog post outlining topic authority, explaining the concept as a system designed to understand the “degree of expertise a publication has in particular areas.” At the time, Google said it wasn’t an entirely new system, but one that had been used for years, even if it isn’t included in their official guide to ranking systems.

The three pillars Google outlined are: how notable a source is for a topic or location, how widely the original reporting is cited by other outlets (often highlighted with the Highly Cited label), and the reputation of the source.

To build topic authority, Google says publishers should focus on creating “helpful, people-first content.” Google says publishers should continue to “provide great coverage about the areas and topics they know well.”

The emphasis on topic authority means Google is better able to serve original reporting from local and expert news sources. As a result, regional publishers, who are the experts in a geographic area, can often outrank national outlets for breaking local news. That’s because news teams are “intimately familiar with the location and topic,” according to Google.

What it means: Where Google once ranked individual pages that targeted the right keywords, now the company increasingly considers sites that own that topic area. Topic authority is the difference between strings (keywords) and things (topics).

The better your authority across a defined topic or set of topics, the better your ranking visibility should be on Google (and more broadly, in AI systems).

Why does topic authority matter?

As part of his topic authority guide, Kevin Indig noted that internal docs leaks and public signals from Google point to the concept as a “real and important factor in ranking.” He calls it a “measurable signal of how comprehensively and credibly your site covers a topic.”

For large language models (LLMs), Kevin notes that topic authority is “a key part of how LLMs optimize for correct answers.”

“Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) — the grounding mechanism behind OpenAI’s, Google’s, Meta’s and others’ LLMs — explicitly ranks external documents for authority before passing them to the model to ground its answer,” Kevin explained.

Topic authority can also be a bulwark against Google’s core algorithm updates. As Despina Gavoyannis notes in an Ahrefs blog post, shallow sites that cover a huge variety of topics (none of them particularly well) have been penalized in Google’s core updates, notably the helpful content updates. “Sites with genuine topical depth have been more likely to hold their positions,” Gavoyannis writes.

It also improves a site’s AI visibility. “AI platforms preferentially cite sources they have evidence to trust on a subject,” Gavoyannis writes. The stronger the topic authority, the more like a site is to earn citations in AI-generated answers.

In an era where the barrier to content creation is effectively non-existent because of ChatGPT or Gemini, it’s more important than ever for legitimate sites to demonstrate topic authority (for Google and for readers).

Audience and SEO are people-first disciplines. Creating genuinely helpful, original journalism provides real value for your readers.

Unique and meaningful insights (or proprietary data) makes your content more shareable. It gives audiences good reasons to return, subscribe or support you.

How to build topic authority?

To build topic authority, first identify where your publication has subject matter expertise. Consider your site’s current and historic strengths and weaknesses: what do you consistently rank for? Is that an area highlighted in your editorial and strategic priorities (i.e., will you cover it in depth in the future)? If yes, that’s likely an area to focus editorial SEO resources.

Topic authority starts with great journalism: high quality, original reporting that’s written by real human authors, and references subject-matter experts. It’s information that’s helpful to real people, written by real people.

To build and enhance topic authority, consider the following:

Focus and invest heavily in topics or regions your newsroom has an editorial commitment to and genuine expertise;
Prioritize high-quality, original reporting (instead of aggregating from other sites), using real writers who consult true experts. Do this over the course of months (and years!);
Demonstrate E.E.A.T, with tips we’ve outlined previously, like creating author pages for your writers, earning backlinks from reputable sites and outlining your editorial process.
Execute an effective internal linking strategy that includes robust tag pages for topics, then linking to tags and related pages on your site from each new story;
Link every story on the same topic together;
Earn backlinks by publishing original, high-quality content that other outlets want to cite. A measure of this can be the Highly Cited label, which Google applies to primary reporting when other publications link to it often.

Topic authority is not a one-off effort, but something that’s demonstrated over months or years.

THE EXPERT OPINIONS

What are news SEOs saying about topic authority and AI search?

As the Google landscape changes rapidly, and new disciplines focused on generative AI features (Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) or Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) are introduced, it prompts the question: have the foundational SEO concepts changed? Is topic authority different now because AI is more prominently in the search ecosystem and has commoditized basic information?

We asked some notable names in news SEO for their thoughts on how (and if) topic authority has evolved because of AI.

Barry Adams offered the most succinct of answers to the question: “No.”

Kevin Indig explained that AI makes topic authority more granular, offering the distinction between citation and recommendation authority. Citation authority means AI uses a publication’s content, but recommendation authority means the AI names it as a trusted source.

To build genuine authority, Kevin recommends publishers prioritize categories (not keywords), and to build depth over breadth. Sites should focus on original data and “specific proof points” that will earn credible, third-party coverage and mentions.

Oleg Korneitchouk also underscored the value of citations from offsite sources. While topic authority is historically based on on-site entity coverage (along with relevant internal links and backlinks), AI enables search engines to “understand the true topical authority that is missing by only looking at links.” He points to social media chatter — off-platform conversations that could mention a publication’s work — as part of this more holistic authority.

Cyrus Shepard explained that AI search puts more emphasis on brand authority and mentions, a shift from the traditional emphasis on content and links for ranking. “Traditional topic authority still seems important for AI citations, but your brand’s topical authority now lives in a much larger universe,” Cyrus explained.

Louisa Frahm explained that because AI is really good at synthesizing basic commodity questions (like “is magnesium good for sleep” or “why does my cat purr”), publishers need to focus on creating content worth citing. Original stats or proprietary research can earn backlinks, while authoritative explanations drive citations. To stay competitive, outlets should ask: “If AI could generate the same article without us, what additional value are we bringing to the table?”

Publishers must think more about distinctive content that can’t be replicated easily, Louisa said. “Interactive tools, live trackers, searchable databases, exclusive reporting, community experiences, and distinctive analysis give audiences more than a summarized answer can provide.”

This focus on distinctiveness is echoed by Barry, who said that publishers should focus more on original journalism. This helps sites “acquire more external mentions and links to stories in your core editorial specialities, as AI systems put more emphasis on external mentions over on-site content.”

Louisa says genuine topic authority extends beyond Google. It’s more “robust and resilient” when it includes audience engagement efforts like newsletters, podcasts and online communities.

The bottom line: Topic authority remains a core concept in news SEO. To excel on search and AI engines, publishers should focus on building genuine expertise. Create helpful, people-first original content that is written by subject matter experts. This journalism will earn quality backlinks, citations and mentions. Ensure SEO best practices, like linking and enhancing E.E.A.T signals, are still followed for stories to build topic authority.