Topicality and Relevance

Topical relevance is the importance and understanding of a website or page content to a reader’s interests. It’s one of the key factors that search engines consider when they rank how well your content addresses a user’s search intent.

A page’s topical relevance is based on three elements:

• Keywords: The short and longtail keywords that someone types into a search engine when searching for content on a particular topic.

• Content: The broader material on a page that should be relevant to the topic someone is searching for.
• Backlinks: The inbound links that a site or page receives from other websites.

These elements, collectively, determine the authority a site enjoys on a particular topic. A camping publisher may be viewed as authoritative for beginner campers because it contains content and keywords geared towards their needs — “new to camping” articles that address how to set up a tent, for example.

As for backlinks, having a camping association linking to the camping publishers website bolsters the latter’s credibility.

These features will help to differentiate the publisher from other similar sites, especially those that don’t include keywords or content of interest to beginner campers. And such differentiation, in turn, can improve the ranking of the site when a beginner camper searches for instructions on how to set up a tent.

3.6.2 Why Is Topical Relevance Important?

Topical relevance is important for two reasons. First, by ensuring that your content is relevant to your target audience’s interests — and by providing such content regularly — you’ll be establishing the foundation for ongoing quality traffic to your site.