How is the topical map built, step by step?

1. Plan the map

From the confirmed profile, the competitors and, when research has run, the groups it found, the model drafts the map plan in five parts: the main topic, why your site is the one to cover it, what searchers want, the core topics and what the map leaves out. This step is free and takes about two minutes. Nothing else runs until you check or edit it on the Review, Confirm and Build screen. The map is only as good as this page, so fix anything that is off.

2. Mine the attributes

An attribute is anything a reader could want to know about the main topic: a type, a part, a cost, a process, a comparison, a requirement, a risk. Attributes come from named sources, each kept with a quote:

• Wikipedia for the main topic, every core topic and the article names you listed on the plan, up to sixteen articles, and Wikidata for the first two that resolve.
• Google autocomplete for the main topic and the core topics, with the alphabet and the question words.
• The People Also Ask questions and related searches stored by your research.
• The pages your competitors publish, read from their sitemaps.
• Your confirmed profile.

The model classifies each attribute as root (the main topic cannot be described without it), rare or unique, judges how close it sits to what your site does and sells, drops what the map leaves out, and gives each two to four search phrases tagged with their pattern.

3. Test each topic for a page

Every phrase gets its Google Ads volume; every candidate topic gets one live results page. Then the page test runs as a rule: demand, a distinct entity and attribute, results unlike the pages already accepted, a clear pattern. Three of four make a page. A topic whose results share five or more of the top ten with an accepted page is the same results page and becomes a heading there whatever the other checks say. Every phrase is judged for fit against the profile, and the section rule puts each page in the core or the outer section. See Why did a topic become a heading?.

4. Arrange the tree

The model proposes a parent and a title for every page: the page's subject first, no question form, plus a slug, a meta description, a page type and the image. Rules then set the depth, the chain of pages above each page, and the publish order. See What does the publishing order mean?.

5. Inspect the core

The strongest core pages, as many as the size allows, go through the same inspection as the plan: the ranking pages are read and reviewed, the opening is judged, and the site's chance of reaching the top ten is assessed. Outer pages keep their demand and results page and say "not inspected" rather than carry a verdict they have no evidence for.

6. Decisions and links

Every page gets a page decision with the three verdicts computed from stored records, so its page document, brief, draft and scorecard work exactly as they do for the plan. The link plan is a rule: every outer page links to its core page from the closing section, siblings that share an attribute link to each other in the main text, a hub links every entry, the home page links every top-level core page, and no anchor is used more than three times for one page.

7. The report

The headline, the tree and the publishing order as a printable report, shared like any plan.

Where a page lives

Each page of the map is tied to a page you already have when the site gives a reason: a page the site already ranks with for one of the page's searches, a page the profile read as that topic's page, or a page whose address spells the topic. On a store, a family topic (earrings, pendants) goes to its collection page, not to one product in it, even when a product page ranks for it. The page document names the rule on its Home line. A page with no such home is a page to create. If the rule picked the wrong page, open the page document and, under Its place in the map, name the right one: only a page we found on your site can be chosen, the box suggests the nearest ones and your collection pages as you type, and the decision, the Map tab and the planned links change together. The section and the publish order stay as built, and the move is recorded beside the build's own reasoning.

Sources and honesty

Every page traces to an attribute with its source and quote, a stored results page and a demand record. The page test, the section, the publish order and the links are rules shown on each page with the table they came from. A page's evidence tier says how much rests under it; an outer page that was not inspected says so.