The definition
A topical map is a planned inventory of the pages required to cover a subject comprehensively: the hubs, the supporting pages, the questions each answers, and how they link. It is built before writing, from how buyers actually ask, rather than accumulated afterwards from whatever got published.
How is a topical map different from a blog?
A blog is usually a chronological pile organised by publication date, with overlapping posts competing for the same question and obvious gaps nobody noticed. A topical map is organised by coverage, so gaps and duplicates are visible before they become pages.
Two mediocre pages targeting one question reliably lose to one good page. A map catches that in planning.
What should a topical map contain?
Per page: the primary query, the supporting and fan-out questions, the page type, the win condition, internal links, and the status. Ours also tracks what was cut and why, because a decision not to build something is worth recording.
How do you check your own topical map?
List every page on your site and group them by the question each one answers. Where two pages answer the same question, you have found a cannibalisation problem.
Where a question your buyers ask has no page at all, you have found the more valuable gap.
Rankings are never guaranteed. Anything we could not trace to a primary source is absent from this page, not estimated. The audit runs the same six layers described on the pricing page, and Share of Answer is scored quarterly.
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