How to Use ChatGPT to Audit Topical Authority and Improve SEO Coverage
Topical authority is one of the most underrated drivers of SEO success today.
When done right, it signals to Google: “Hey, we know this topic inside out. Trust us.”
But here’s the catch.
While we know how to build topical authority, measuring it is a whole different game. Most SEO tools don’t offer a direct metric. And unless you’ve built a custom dashboard or mastered Python, it’s hard to tell how well you’re doing.
That’s where AI tools like ChatGPT come in.
You can now use LLMs (large language models) to analyze your content coverage, identify blind spots, and surface insights on how to strengthen your authority without spreadsheets or paid tools.
In this post, I’ll walk you through 5 practical ways to measure or analyze topical authority using ChatGPT, along with plug-and-play prompts you can start using today.
What Is Topical Authority, and Why Does It Matter?
Topical authority is your site’s perceived expertise on a subject. It’s not about publishing one or two strong articles it’s about consistently covering all the key angles, subtopics, and related queries in a way that aligns with search intent.
The more you demonstrate expertise across a topic, the more likely Google is to:
- Rank your content higher
- Show you across related queries
- Reward your site with long-term SEO visibility
But to get those results, you need to go beyond keyword stuffing or chasing high-volume terms. You need depth, structure, and completeness.
How to Use ChatGPT to Measure Topical Authority (5 Key Prompts)
Let’s break down the five ways to measure or analyze your topical authority using AI, with exact prompts for each.
1. Run a Content Gap Analysis
This helps you understand how your site’s coverage compares to top-ranking competitors.
Let’s say you’ve published a series of articles on email automation for SaaS. You’re ranking for a few terms, but not consistently showing up on long-tail or adjacent searches.
A content gap analysis using ChatGPT can compare your topic coverage to that of your top competitors.
Prompt to Use:
“Analyze the topical authority of my website on [topics] at [URL], compared to the top-ranking websites for the same topic, including [insert competitor URLs]. Compare the depth of my content against relevant content of my competitors, identify gaps where my topic coverage is weaker or incomplete, and suggest areas where additional content could build high topical authority.”
Use this prompt when you want to benchmark your site’s content depth against competitors and discover areas you’ve missed entirely.
Use case:
You run a marketing blog and want to compare your coverage of “Sales Enablement Tools” against industry leaders like HubSpot or Salesloft.
Expected output:
ChatGPT may tell you that your site lacks content on “sales onboarding,” “playbook templates,” or “sales-marketing alignment” topics your competitors cover well.
That’s your roadmap.
2. Evaluate Content Depth on a Specific Topic
Publishing an article on a topic isn’t enough. You need to check if you’re covering it comprehensively.
This prompt lets ChatGPT audit your current coverage of a topic and evaluate whether it includes all key subtopics, FAQs, and semantic variations.
Prompt to Use:
“Evaluate the depth of my content for [topic] to determine if I’m covering all key subtopics. Here are the key URLs on my site that cover this topic already: [insert URLs]. Please keep in mind the following subtopics: [insert subtopics] and the following keywords: [insert search queries]. Analyze the content and check if it covers all the essential subtopics. Highlight any gaps or missing FAQs that could be limiting my topical authority.”
Perfect for auditing cornerstone content or topic clusters.
Use case:
You’ve written multiple articles on “customer retention,” but bounce rates are high and rankings aren’t improving. You suspect your content lacks substance.
Expected output:
ChatGPT might point out that your “customer retention” content misses key angles like “customer health scores,” “win-back campaigns,” or “churn prediction.”
This helps you update existing pages or plan deeper follow-ups.
3. Cluster Keywords by Topic Relevance
Topical authority isn’t just about creating more content it’s about creating content that’s logically grouped and semantically aligned.
This prompt helps you identify and organize related search terms into logical clusters, which is essential for building content hubs or pillar pages.
Prompt to Use:
“Help me identify keyword clusters for [topic] to enhance my topical authority and boost rankings. Here is a list of my target keywords: [insert keywords]. Here are the URLs I’d like examined: [insert URLs]. Next, cluster the keywords based on semantic relevance and SEO principles. Suggest how to group them into individual pages or content sections.”
This helps organize your blog into tight clusters. Great for both internal linking and topic coverage.
Use case:
You’re planning content around “AI marketing tools” and have a long list of keywords like “AI email writer,” “AI SEO assistant,” “AI copy generators,” etc.
Expected output:
ChatGPT might group terms into clusters like:
- “AI for Email Marketing”
- “AI for SEO Optimization”
- “AI Content Creation Tools”
It will also suggest where to combine or separate pages, helping you avoid thin content or cannibalization.
4. Review E-E-A-T Signals in Your Content
Google’s quality rater guidelines emphasize Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T). If you want to improve your topical authority, your content needs to reflect these values.
Prompt to Use:
“Evaluate the E-E-A-T of my content and provide recommendations for strengthening topical authority. Here is the URL: [insert web page]. My target audience is: [insert audience info]. Assess whether my content demonstrates experience, expertise, authority, and trust. Suggest improvements like citing sources, improving author bios, or adding more comprehensive content.”
Use this prompt to spot weak signals or gaps in credibility.
Use case:
You published a guide on “financial planning for freelancers” but it’s not performing well. You want to check if it lacks credibility signals.
Example output:
ChatGPT might suggest:
- Adding case studies
- Citing credible third-party sources
- Highlighting your experience in financial writing
- Creating an expert author bio
E-E-A-T gaps can silently kill rankings this helps surface them fast.
5. Generate a Topical Map from Scratch
This is my go-to when planning a new content cluster or validating an existing one. You ask ChatGPT to outline the full scope of what an expert should cover under a topic.
Prompt to Use:
“Act as a subject matter expert in [niche]. List the core subtopics and supporting topics that should be covered to build strong topical authority on this subject. Include common questions, use cases, and angles that readers expect from a trusted source.”
This will give you a full topic framework, perfect for content planning or internal audits.
Use case:
You’re building a content hub around “DTC ecommerce growth” and want to be sure you’ve got all bases covered.
Expected output:
ChatGPT might return:
- Growth channels: organic, paid, partnerships
- Post-purchase retention tactics
- A/B testing and CRO
- Logistics and shipping
- Shopify vs WooCommerce breakdown
- Scaling from $1M to $10M ARR
This gives you a clean blueprint, which is way better than hunting through random keyword tools.
Final Thoughts: Measuring Topical Authority Is Easier Than You Think (With AI)
We often treat “authority” like a vague concept. But with the right prompts and a bit of AI assistance, you can make it measurable, trackable, and actionable.
If you’re serious about building long-term visibility, use ChatGPT to uncover blind spots and plan smarter content.
Feel free to share your thoughts and experience about how you go about evaluating your topical authority or using AI tools to build your content strategy.
