How to Measure Topical Authority and Find Content Gaps
How to Measure Topical Authority and Find Content Gaps
Topics & Focus in QueryBurst scores topical focus (0–100) and semantic link alignment (0–100) for the entire site, maps pages into a topic ring visualisation, and flags semantically redundant content. It surfaces missing internal linking opportunities between topically related pages that currently aren't connected. Use it to assess overall topical coherence, identify content clusters, and find specific gaps weakening authority signals.
How to Access
- Open a site in QueryBurst
- Click Site Intelligence in the sidebar
- Select the Topics & Focus subtab
Understanding the Topics & Focus Interface
Score Gauges
Two headline scores at the top:
| Score | Description |
|---|---|
| Topical Focus | How tightly your content clusters around a central theme (0–100). Higher scores mean stronger topical authority. |
| Semantic Link Alignment | How well your internal link structure matches semantic similarity (0–100). Higher means you're linking pages that are actually related. |
Topic Ring Map
A visual ring chart showing your site's topic clusters. Each wedge represents a cluster of pages with similar content. The centre label shows the site's core focus. Click a cluster to explore its pages.
Topic Clusters
Below the ring map, each cluster is listed with:
- Cluster label — AI-generated name for the topic
- Page count — Number of pages in this cluster
- Primary entity — The dominant entity for the cluster
- Pages — Individual pages listed with their distance from the cluster centre
Topic Query Tool
Enter any topic to analyse your site's coverage:
- Type a topic (e.g., "organic skincare" or "enterprise security")
- The AI breaks it into expected subtopics
- Each subtopic shows coverage status: Covered, Weak, or Gap
- A coverage score summarises overall topical authority
- Drill down into subtopics (up to 4 levels) for heading-level section analysis
At deeper drill levels, the analysis switches to heading-level mode, checking whether your top-ranking pages include expected sections for the queried subtopic.
Analysis Sections
Redundancy Candidates
Page pairs with high semantic overlap. These pages may be competing with each other for the same queries.
- Shows similarity percentage between the two pages
- Click page links to view them in the Crawl tab
- Consider consolidating or differentiating these pages
Signal Dilution
Pages that are far from the site's topical centre. They may be diluting your site's authority signal by covering unrelated topics.
- Shows the centroid distance — how far each page sits from the site's core topic
- Higher distance means less topical relevance
Missed Linking Opportunities
Page pairs that are semantically similar but not internally linked to each other. Adding links between these pages would strengthen your topical structure.
- Shows similarity percentage between the pages
- Click page links to navigate to either page
Interpreting Results
Healthy Signs
- High topical focus (70+) — Your content clusters tightly around core themes
- High link alignment (70+) — Your internal links match your semantic structure
- Few redundancy pairs — Pages cover distinct angles of each topic
- Few dilution candidates — Most content stays on-topic
Warning Signs
- Low topical focus (<40) — Content is scattered across unrelated topics
- Low link alignment (<40) — You're linking pages that aren't semantically related, or missing links between related pages
- Many redundancy pairs — Multiple pages compete for the same topic
- Many dilution candidates — Off-topic content is weakening your authority signal
Tips
- Use the topic query tool to assess competitive topics — it shows exactly where your content falls short
- Address gaps first — Missing subtopics represent the biggest content opportunities
- Consolidate redundant pages — Merge or differentiate highly overlapping pages
- Review dilution candidates — Consider whether off-topic pages belong on this site or should be separated
- Add missing links — The missed linking section gives you ready-made internal linking tasks
Technical Details
Topic clusters are computed by embedding all page content into a high-dimensional space, computing a site centroid, and clustering using semantic similarity. Redundancy pairs are pages with similarity above a threshold. Dilution candidates are pages whose distance from the centroid exceeds a standard deviation threshold.
The topic query tool uses the LLM to generate expected subtopics, then matches them against page embeddings and BM25 keyword search to assess coverage.