SERP expert John Muller replied on a Reddit thread that topical authority doesn’t matter. This was in reply to an SEO employee who heard about the term ‘topical’ authority from their manager.

In reply to the thread, a user called ‘GrumpySEOguy’ responds that Topical Authority is nothing but a fancy term. The SEO manager was probably going through a few YouTube videos from the so-called ‘SEO gurus.’

This person simply claims this to be a fancy term, reused as something new. However, it just means relevance. This is to ensure there is relevant content on the website based on its personality.

John Muller commented that one shouldn’t have to worry about Topical authority. According to Muller, it is just an old concept refurbished. The subject of relevant content and building authority in a niche domain was always there.

Adding to this, Muller said that newbie SEO experts have been doing this for quite some time. In 2015, 10x became a concept where creators made their own content 10x times better than the ranking content in the SERP. (Source)

However, it is not always right when it comes to these alterations. Just like 10x became a skyscraper. Which, according to Muller, is the worst version. It says writing longer format content means more, and taking content from ranking articles and making them better will help them rank.

Topical authority implies writing about one topic and answering several queries of the same. However, this is no guarantee of rank or authority. Good content is the only source of authoritativeness. If it is relevant to your website, the possibility of ranking is high.

The concept of “topical authority” aligns with notions surrounding skyscrapers and 10x content, serving as labels applied to well-established best practices that are essentially common sense.