You can be a strong brand, publish high-quality content, and still not have topical authority.

Just look at Great Jones, a kitchenware company.

Their Dutch oven (called The Dutchess) is beautiful, well-reviewed, and featured in industry-leading sites like Vogue, the New York Times, Bon Appétit, and The Kitchn.

But search “best Dutch ovens†on Google or ask an LLM for recommendations, and the brand rarely appears.

It’s not that Great Jones lacks content or press.

What’s missing is the pattern — a consistent, positive framing that ties the brand to Dutch ovens across its own site and third parties.

Without this, search engines and large language models (LLMs) can’t confidently connect the brand to the topic, so they default to the names with stronger signals.

Many brands have some version of this gap. And AI search has only made it more visible.

The good news: You can build this pattern.

In this guide, I’ll show you how using the Topical Authority Pyramid, a framework I created to turn your brand into the go-to name in your niche.

This framework builds on conversations with Amanda Milligan, Content and Growth Manager at Semrush, and my work in brand positioning across ecommerce, SaaS, and finance.

What Is Topical Authority?

Topical authority is your site’s earned reputation for expertise on a specific subject. It forms when your brand and topic appear together repeatedly across the sources that buyers, search engines, and LLMs trust.

Think about the brands you automatically connect with certain topics.

Like these:

You didn’t consciously decide to make those associations.

They formed because those brands kept showing up with the same message, in the same spaces, around the same topic.

That’s topical authority — and it’s also how search engines and LLMs learn which brands are most strongly associated with a topic.

The Topical Authority Pyramid Framework

Topical authority has traditionally been defined by content volume and breadth of coverage.

Publish comprehensively on a subject, and you’d own it.

That’s no longer enough.

As Amanda explains:

Today, search engines and LLMs look for more than coverage. They look for a clear position on the topic and external evidence that supports it.

To address this, I created the Topical Authority Pyramid:

The Pyramid breaks topical authority into three layers:

Each layer works alongside the others to establish your brand as the expert in your niche and earn more visibility in search engines and LLMs.

Many brands, including Great Jones, have strong foundational authority and scattered proof, but no consistent POV tying it all together.

Here’s how to build all three.

Step 1: Audit Your Topic Reputation

Your brand likely already has a topical reputation, whether you’ve shaped it intentionally or not.

Audit it before deciding what to build.

Research Your Current On-Site Associations

The gap between what you publish and what you want to be known for may be wider than you expect.

This is something Amanda has experienced firsthand:

The fastest way to assess this is with Semrush’s Organic Rankings tool.

Enter your domain to automatically see your brand’s strongest topic associations, organized by the topics getting visibility.

When I did this for Great Jones, their strongest topical associations were “recipes†and “celebrity chefs.â€

Dutch ovens barely registered.

Yet, the Dutchess is their primary product.

And “Dutch oven†alone gets over 200,000 monthly Google searches.

Great Jones has a big opportunity to increase their topical authority for Dutch ovens and convert some of this search interest into sales.

These are the kind of topical association gaps you want to surface in this step.

Two more places to look:

Audit Your Off-Site Presence

Next, review your third-party coverage: mentions, reviews, roundups, and editorial press.

This is where many brands have the biggest gap, and it’s the one AI systems appear to weigh most heavily.

Run these checks:

A quick off-site audit for Great Jones showed me they’ve earned coverage any kitchenware brand would envy: features in major lifestyle publications and partnerships with prominent chefs and influencers.

But when you look specifically at Dutch oven coverage, the off-site gap is obvious.

Most of the top-ranking articles are a few years old (or older):

And the overall sentiment is inconsistent.

For example, in Food & Wine’s Dutch oven roundup, the Dutchess appears under the “Other†section (rather than “Top Picksâ€) with a caveat about heating issues.

In this Bon Appétit roundup of the best Dutch ovens, Great Jones is categorized under “Dutch ovens we don’t recommend.â€

They’re also notably missing from some use-case roundups, like this one from Serious Eats:

In Reddit threads where buyers are actively looking for Dutch oven recommendations, Great Jones rarely comes up.

When it does, many of the threads are from years ago:

Great Jones has real brand equity to build on.

But it’s just not adding up to a solid reputation in Dutch ovens — yet.

Step 2: Choose the Topic You’ll Build Authority Around

You can’t build authority on everything at once.

This step narrows your focus to one topic worth owning based on a few crucial factors:

Build and Prioritize Your Topic List

Start by listing the topics you want buyers, search engines, and LLMs to associate with your brand.

Begin with the obvious ones: the products, categories, use cases, and problems you want to be known for.

Then expand with adjacent topics buyers already care about.

For Great Jones, that might include slow cooking, one-pot meals, kitchen gifting, or cookware care.

Look especially for topics where you already have traction, competitors are weak, or your brand should be associated but currently isn’t.

Once you’ve identified 10 to 15 topics, add them to the “Topic Audit & Scoring†tab in your spreadsheet.

Next, narrow the list down.

Not every topic on your list is worth building a reputation around right now.

For each one, ask two questions:

Do you want to own it? Does it drive revenue, support a product you sell, or build a reputation that brings buyers to you?

How urgent is it?

You should end up with three to five high-priority topics to investigate next.

Run a Query Audit

Now test each shortlisted topic to see who already owns the space and where there’s room for your brand to carve out a position.

For each topic, run four queries on Google and LLMs:

As you run each query, note:

Record this in the “Query Audit†tab of your spreadsheet.

If a query shows buying intent but the top results barely address it, that’s a topical authority opportunity.

For example, when I search “Dutch ovens†and “best Dutch ovens,†the same brands consistently come up: Le Creuset, Staub, Lodge, and Caraway.

But rarely Great Jones.

And for “Dutch oven for gifting,†ChatGPT didn’t mention Great Jones at all.

Great Jones only appears when buyers already know to look for them.

More importantly, some topics, such as gifting, aesthetics, and non-toxic coating, are not clearly owned by any brand.

That’s where the opportunity is.

Score by Association Strength

After the Query Audit, score your presence on each topic against three competitors on a 0 to 3-point scale.

The score reflects your overall standing across the Topical Authority Pyramid: foundational, POV, and proof combined:

Score your brand first, then each competitor.

After your scoring is complete, look for high-priority topics where you scored a 1 or 2 and at least one competitor scored a 0 or 1.

Those are topics where buyer demand is real, you have some footing, and no competitor has locked it down — the conditions for a winnable position.

For Great Jones, “Dutch ovens for gifting†fits the pattern: high priority, room to claim it, and no clear leader.

By the end, you should have one topic to focus on.

Step 3: Identify Your Topic POV

You’ve identified one viable topic. Next, decide what reputation to build around it.

Your POV is the specific angle you own inside that space.

It’s what makes your brand distinct to buyers, search engines, and AI systems.

Like these brands — same topic, completely different associations:

Research What’s Already Owned

Before identifying your POV, map what dominant brands in your space are already known for.

These are the POVs to avoid. Going after any of them directly means competing for territory another brand has spent years building.

Start with your notes from the Query Audit. The patterns there tell you a lot about which competitors own what.

To go deeper, use the Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit.

The Brand Performance tool tells you which associations your competitors are winning across AI-generated answers (and how your own brand compares).

For Great Jones, the obvious territories are taken:

No brand has clearly claimed gifting Dutch ovens, visual appeal, or beginner cooking.

(Semrush shows Great Jones is leading on design, which gives them a head start.)

These gaps are where your POV lives.

Choose Your POV

Before committing to a POV, ask three questions:

If a candidate fails any of the three, drop it. It won’t hold up once you start building proof around it.

For Great Jones, “gifting†passes all three questions.

People already buy Dutch ovens as gifts.

Customers already mention its “super attractive,†“modern,†and “beautiful†design in on-site reviews, which aligns perfectly with a gifting POV:

And no competitor has clearly made “gifting†their territory yet.

Write Your POV as One Sentence

Your POV should be easy to grasp and repeat.

Writing it as one sentence is the test. If you can’t, it’s likely not sharp enough yet.

For Great Jones, the POV could be:

Each POV targets a different buyer and a different reason to choose Dutch ovens.

Step 4: Map Your POV Proof Architecture

This step is where you plan your proof — the concrete evidence that backs up your POV — across your own site and the wider web.

You’re not building anything yet.

You’re mapping what proof you’ll need at each stage of the buyer journey, so you have a clear blueprint to follow.

Audit Your Proof Across the Buyer Journey

A POV without proof is just a claim.

To build credibility, you need evidence that backs up two things:

You belong in the category

You’re the go-to brand for the POV you’ve claimed

And you need to reinforce this at every stage of the buying journey with a different kind of proof:

To run your audit, go through each belief in the table and identify which proof assets you already have and which are missing.

Use the POV Proof Planner in your template to record your findings:

For Great Jones’s gifting POV, a quick proof audit surfaces:

Step 5: Build Your On-Site Foundation

Before search engines and LLMs can associate your brand with your POV, you need to establish it on your site.

This step is about building that foundation: the hub and supporting pages where your topic, POV, and early proof signals all come together.

Create a Hub Page for Your POV

Your hub page is the central authority document for your POV.

It defines the topic, explains why it matters, and routes buyers to supporting pages that go deeper.

For Great Jones, that could be a “Dutch oven gifting guide.â€

It would link to the Dutch oven product page and explain why Dutch ovens make exceptional gifts.

Supporting pages, such as gift basket ideas, a gifting FAQ, and a report on cookware gifting would also be linked.

If you’ve been publishing for a while, you may already have a page that can serve as the hub: a category page, a subcategory page, or an industry-specific landing page.

Build Supporting Pages

Supporting pages go deeper than the hub.

Each one proves a specific aspect of your POV at a specific stage of the buyer journey.

Go back to the proof assets you mapped in Step 4 — they tell you what you need to prove and at which stage.

Your supporting pages are how you do it.

For Great Jones, the comparison stage is a clear gap.

To convince buyers the Dutchess is a better gift than the alternatives, they need dedicated comparison pages, backed by awards, endorsements from leading industry sites and public figures, and head-to-head data.

Other supporting pages might include:

Identify what pages you need, and fill out the rest of the “On-Site Foundation Planner†tab in your template.

Structure Each Page for Readers and Machines

Lead with the most important information first — also known as the inverted pyramid.

It makes your pages easier for readers to scan and for machines to interpret.

Then, make sure each page has:

Link Your Pages

Each hub and supporting page proves something on its own.

Link them together, and you create a proof system.

Follow these internal linking best practices:

Step 6: Create an Off-Site Proof System

A strong POV and foundation won’t get you into AI answers if the association exists only on your site.

This is one of the biggest shifts in how topical authority works, as Amanda explains:

This step reinforces your POV in the places buyers and AI systems already trust.

Start with One Signature Proof Point

A signature proof point is an original, specific story or finding about your topic.

Something others outside your brand would want to reference, share, or build on.

That could be:

For Great Jones and the gifting POV, the insight has to tie Dutch ovens to gifting.

They might pull data from their own sales — say, a 4x spike in Dutch oven purchases in the two weeks before Mother’s Day — and turn it into a “State of Mother’s Day Gift-Giving†report.

That report becomes a press pitch to lifestyle publications, a video on their YouTube channel, and a thread on Reddit’s r/gifts.

One insight, multiple placements, all reinforcing the same association: Great Jones = gifting.

To find yours, start with your proof assets from Step 4.

Look for patterns in your data, reviews, industry trends, or customer behavior.

Distribute Your Proof Point

Once you have a signature insight, decide where and how to distribute it.

There are four main buckets:

For each bucket, identify the specific publications, platforms, or communities where your insight is most relevant.

Not sure where to start?

Run a search on Google or an LLM related to your proof point and look at the sites that rank and the sources that get cited.

Those are the places worth showing up in. List them in the “Off-Site Proof Planner†tab of your template.

For Great Jones, some of that infrastructure is already in place.

They already have the social media following, media clout, and collaborations with names like cookbook author Molly Baz.

What they need is a focused distribution of insights around their gifting POV.

That might look like:

Step 7: Track Topical Authority Progress

You’ve built the full Topical Authority Pyramid.

Now check whether it’s starting to influence how search engines and LLMs describe your brand.

Use the “Progress Tracker†tab in your spreadsheet to record what you find at 30, 60, and 90-day intervals.

Foundational Layer: Are You Showing Up More?

Coverage tracking tells you whether your topical footprint is growing:

Go back to your Step 2 notes. How many of your four query types surfaced your brand unprompted? Run them again and compare.

Also monitor pages ranking for queries you didn’t directly target, and rising impressions for queries related to your topic.

For Great Jones, the baseline visibility was weak for many non-brand Dutch oven queries.

Showing up in two or three queries at 90 days — especially “Dutch ovens for gifting†— would be a real sign of progress.

Tools that help:

POV Layer: Are You Being Described Correctly?

The POV layer tracks language. Specifically, whether mentions of your brand are increasingly paired with your POV.

Run POV-specific prompts monthly and check the wording.

For Great Jones, that’s searches like “Dutch oven wedding gift†or “best Dutch oven to give as a gift.â€

And when the Dutchess shows up in reviews, comparisons, and “best of†listicles, watch for the language around it.

Is it being called “a great house-warming gift,†“splurge-worthy,†or “the kind of gift that gets displayed�

That’s the POV landing.

Tools that help:

Proof Layer: Are Others Confirming Your POV?

The proof layer tracks third-party confirmation.

Are media mentions, third-party pages, and niche communities backing up the POV you want to own?

Start with your proof point.

Are others citing or referencing it? That’s a signal your off-site distribution is working.

Then, go broader.

Run [Your Brand] + [POV] queries on Google and an LLM.

Check whether you’re appearing in more third-party sources associated with your POV.

Are buyers recommending you unprompted in Reddit or niche communities? Are your hub pages attracting links from relevant sites?

When your brand appears, is it being described in relation to your POV?

For Great Jones, that might be a gift guide naming the Dutchess as the go-to Dutch oven for wedding gifts.

Tools that help:

Build the Pattern That Wins in AI Search

Great Jones proves that great press and a great product aren’t enough for topical authority.

If search engines and LLMs don’t have clear associations attached to your brand, showing up online will be a struggle — no matter what Vogue thinks of you.

But that’s fixable.

The Topical Authority Pyramid gives you the framework:

Once your first topic takes shape, expand.

Follow the Topical Authority Pyramid for your next topic, claim more territory, and deepen your authority in adjacent spaces.

Do this well, and search engines and LLMs may just start recommending you by default.

Want a repeatable way to monitor your AI visibility over time? Our AI visibility audit guide walks you through it step by step.

Backlinko is owned by Semrush. We’re still obsessed with bringing you world-class SEO insights, backed by hands-on experience. Unless otherwise noted, this content was written by either an employee or paid contractor of Semrush Inc.