So as 2025 is coming to a wrap. I thought id share how I been going about topical authority for some time, it's nothing crazy new I don't think, I also know people don't like to share some things when trying to build this out, but like most of my shares I've taken it as far as I can or moved it passed it so here you go.
Important:
Before moving further I should mention if your site is brand new or starting with a fresh domain id create the answers shown here as a individual pages. I've assumed everyone has a website and they are looking to get a little boost in ranking. So I've focused this on building out FAQs within content or you could create this as stand alone FAQ pages if your prepared to put the effort in. I've not done it as singular pages so it might be a little bit different in how you generate the content but that's a whole other thing.
Starting: Going for the quick win
Ok so there is no automation here, really, you need to sit and do the work.
Start by going into Google hitting up a search on your topic, product or whatever ever it is and you want the "People Also Ask" box
As you can see I've searched for "cold water fish tank" NOW the manual bit is to expand on topics ONLY that are relevant to the page you have created or want to include the FAQ. So if your page is about lighting for example only click the little down arrow on the lighting. You don't want to keep expanding this list with any old clicks as it fudges the results. Remember we want to boost the authority with questions relevant to the article you have.
So here we will assume our article is about setting up the fish tank for the first time.
See I've clicked and now TWO new Questions come up. Which are related to setting up the fish tank, I like th filter and the killer bit so ill click both of these and shut down the one expanded topic for ease of screen shooting.
See I've expanded the killer topic but it's gone off a little too specific with "What kills fish in a tank fast" that's maybe more suited for a specific page again or another Q&A section. This is a good example of why you need to do this manually and put some actual brains into the job and time and not automate these sets as you will end up watering down your authority and page by including content that does not need to be there.
So now you want to screenshot ALL of these questions as one big list (if you can)
This is my finished list
Note it's worth keeping going here till you find anymore questions you want to include on your page.
But THE longer you get the more you need to filter these out later. So just be prepared for that.. As we are setting up a fish tank we want to focus on:
I think these will work well for my page.
So now we want to that that screenshot and go off to focus on some AI play
Playing with AI: Quick and dirty
Use a quick and dirty prompt (note I have had a few beers and alcohol as a whole since 3pm so I need to be a bit lazy here)
Id strongly advice if you have projects set up in what ever tool you like to use, is to use the one with your writing style, tone and website information included within.
Note I also just pulled the first water tank site I found to use as the example here, it's not mind, don't hurt them it's just for sharing in the purpose of this "guide"
This is probably the most shitty part of it as because we have a full screenshot of all topics it will write answers for them all. BUT that's OK if you have other pages such as the killing fish topic I touched on earlier you can get 2 x FAQ pages for 1 hit
Now we have something like this:
Simple right?
Creating the FAQ
Now it's just a case of copying THE RELEVANT questions and answers into your content. IT HAS TO BE RELEVANT. Don't just copy and page everything it says into any old page like some kind of twat. Take the time to do it once, and do it right. This goes back to the very beginning about expanding relevant questions tot he pages. Yes it's given content about killing fish you can skip the copy and paste on that section you just want what you need for your page only.
Now set up at the bottom of your content:
Frequently Asked Questions about Setting up a cold water fish tank
Place the QUESTION in a H2 and the answer below it.
That's it.
Personally if it was me id wrap this in a clean CSS list without bullets but you can make it an ordered or unordered list.
That's it. It's a bit manual and labour intensive 10-25min per search depending how detailed and how much effort you want to put in but it's worth it. Your now creating FAQs based on what People are asking and you can help improve and get some authority into your pages.
Additional
Now at this point I would start the process of internally linking also:
If we take this answer
Id link to filters, tap water pages and so on. Remember to link back to these pages as well.
If my site was new. Id create that as a singular page.
Use the above as the Title, opening paragraph and then have your favourite AI tool expand from there.
Why 120 words?
To be honest I found that number to give me a decent paragraph reply so it's short and sweet and for my pages and writing style I find it fit's in best for our FAQ sections. If it was a singular page you was producing I guess you could ask for more words... I've not tried that I do other things for my content creation.
Important:
Before moving further I should mention if your site is brand new or starting with a fresh domain id create the answers shown here as a individual pages. I've assumed everyone has a website and they are looking to get a little boost in ranking. So I've focused this on building out FAQs within content or you could create this as stand alone FAQ pages if your prepared to put the effort in. I've not done it as singular pages so it might be a little bit different in how you generate the content but that's a whole other thing.
Starting: Going for the quick win
Ok so there is no automation here, really, you need to sit and do the work.
Start by going into Google hitting up a search on your topic, product or whatever ever it is and you want the "People Also Ask" box
As you can see I've searched for "cold water fish tank" NOW the manual bit is to expand on topics ONLY that are relevant to the page you have created or want to include the FAQ. So if your page is about lighting for example only click the little down arrow on the lighting. You don't want to keep expanding this list with any old clicks as it fudges the results. Remember we want to boost the authority with questions relevant to the article you have.
So here we will assume our article is about setting up the fish tank for the first time.
See I've clicked and now TWO new Questions come up. Which are related to setting up the fish tank, I like th filter and the killer bit so ill click both of these and shut down the one expanded topic for ease of screen shooting.
See I've expanded the killer topic but it's gone off a little too specific with "What kills fish in a tank fast" that's maybe more suited for a specific page again or another Q&A section. This is a good example of why you need to do this manually and put some actual brains into the job and time and not automate these sets as you will end up watering down your authority and page by including content that does not need to be there.
So now you want to screenshot ALL of these questions as one big list (if you can)
This is my finished list
Note it's worth keeping going here till you find anymore questions you want to include on your page.
But THE longer you get the more you need to filter these out later. So just be prepared for that.. As we are setting up a fish tank we want to focus on:
- How to set up a cold-water fish tank for the first time
- Does cold water tank need a filer?
- How often should you clean a cold water fish tank?
- Are cold water fish hard to keep?
I think these will work well for my page.
So now we want to that that screenshot and go off to focus on some AI play
Playing with AI: Quick and dirty
Use a quick and dirty prompt (note I have had a few beers and alcohol as a whole since 3pm so I need to be a bit lazy here)
Id strongly advice if you have projects set up in what ever tool you like to use, is to use the one with your writing style, tone and website information included within.
Note I also just pulled the first water tank site I found to use as the example here, it's not mind, don't hurt them it's just for sharing in the purpose of this "guide"
This is probably the most shitty part of it as because we have a full screenshot of all topics it will write answers for them all. BUT that's OK if you have other pages such as the killing fish topic I touched on earlier you can get 2 x FAQ pages for 1 hit
Now we have something like this:
Simple right?
Creating the FAQ
Now it's just a case of copying THE RELEVANT questions and answers into your content. IT HAS TO BE RELEVANT. Don't just copy and page everything it says into any old page like some kind of twat. Take the time to do it once, and do it right. This goes back to the very beginning about expanding relevant questions tot he pages. Yes it's given content about killing fish you can skip the copy and paste on that section you just want what you need for your page only.
Now set up at the bottom of your content:
Frequently Asked Questions about Setting up a cold water fish tank
Place the QUESTION in a H2 and the answer below it.
That's it.
Personally if it was me id wrap this in a clean CSS list without bullets but you can make it an ordered or unordered list.
That's it. It's a bit manual and labour intensive 10-25min per search depending how detailed and how much effort you want to put in but it's worth it. Your now creating FAQs based on what People are asking and you can help improve and get some authority into your pages.
Additional
Now at this point I would start the process of internally linking also:
If we take this answer
Id link to filters, tap water pages and so on. Remember to link back to these pages as well.
If my site was new. Id create that as a singular page.
Use the above as the Title, opening paragraph and then have your favourite AI tool expand from there.
Why 120 words?
To be honest I found that number to give me a decent paragraph reply so it's short and sweet and for my pages and writing style I find it fit's in best for our FAQ sections. If it was a singular page you was producing I guess you could ask for more words... I've not tried that I do other things for my content creation.
