As your duck rice sells out by noon, your restaurant might be the talk of the neighbourhood. But online? It’s often quieter than an empty table after last call. The issue ain’t your food, but it’s about search engines and AI tools which don’t know you exist, or I should say that you lack topical authority.
It measures how thoroughly your website covers a topic compared to competitors, and tells Google whether you’re a passing mention or the go-to source.
There’s also no so-called ‘good authority score,’ because a good authority is actually about blending three signals: visibility, coverage, and credibility. Each piece matters. And when they work together, we’ll get the digital equivalent of a line of hungry customers stretching around the block.
[Because let’s face it, being invisible online is like serving duck rice in a blackout, no one’s going to find it.]
Here’s How These Work in Harmony
A good authority is built like a recipe. The first ingredient is visibility, which is often displayed today as an AI visibility score on a 0–100 scale.
Anything above 50 usually indicates that search engines and AI assistants have begun to notice your content. That’s when you’re finally being recommended in those handy little AI summaries people actually read.
The second ingredient is coverage. This is the core of topical authority, which lacks a specific numerical value but remains powerful nonetheless. It asks: Have you thoroughly covered your niche, surpassing your competitors?
If you run a duck rice shop, this means publishing not just your menu, but also your story. But your site should also discuss recipes, sourcing secrets, reheating hacks, and perhaps delivery options. Even publishing quirky customer stories about the duck will help coverage your topic, because every angle you cover makes you look more like the local expert.
Finally, there’s credibility, measured by E-E-A-T—Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness. Search engines reward you when other respected voices cite you.
[Think of it like a food blogger giving you a glowing review, versus your cousin writing “best warung ever” on Facebook. One carries more weight than the other.]
Together, visibility, coverage, and credibility form the foundation of topical authority. A strong authority is less about a single metric. It is more about proving you’re the complete package to be seen, trusted, and cited.
What Makes a Good Authority
Let’s get clear: an AI visibility score reading above 50 is a solid sign you’re doing something right. This score is released by some SEO tools, which can be achieved if you have answered all the questions customers might have.
For a food business, this could be anything from “crispy duck skin recipe” to “best duck rice delivery around Surabaya.” The broader and deeper your content, the easier it is for AI and Google to trust you as the source.
One viral recipe doesn’t crown you the expert. But fifty articles covering duck from farm to frying pan? That’s when you own the niche.
This consistency also builds trust with customers. Just as diners return to the same restaurant every holiday for reliable flavour, readers return to your site when they find your content valuable. Over time, both humans and search engines begin to treat your brand as the safe and reliable choice.
For your business, when your authority grows, you don’t have to bleed money on ads. Organic exposure brings customers in for free, reducing your acquisition costs. [In other words, you’ll stop feeling like you’re spending your budget to pay for digital ads.]
A higher AI visibility score makes you easier to find and fuels a steady stream of qualified viewers to your website. The more visible and complete your authority looks to AI and search engines, the more likely they are to serve up your content to hungry searchers. This brings us to the next piece of the puzzle: how some blogs manage to attract more traffic than others.
Why Some Blogs Attract More Traffic
The website’s topical authority is also strengthened by how in-depth the website covers a topic. The more traffic a website can obtain on a subject compared to its competitor, the more its topical authority increases.
Traffic for a website is earned by focusing on a topic through the use of multiple types of pages. Short service/product pages may cover some issues, but others still require a dedicated blog article page. Blogs that stick to a topic, answer specific questions, and are also authoritative about their topic will more likely get more traffic than competitors.
For example, a late-night Googler searching “how to reheat duck rice from Warung Bebek XXX” isn’t looking for generic advice. They want your exact instructions, step by step. Serve that up, and they’ll keep coming back for more.
Over time, this massive traffic will also strengthen your AI visibility score.
Discover how traffic reflects both numbers and quality here.
Traffic is about numbers and also quality. When visitors arrive from AI-cited material, they’re often more engaged and ready to buy, because they already trust you.
They’ve seen your brand recommended, which primes them to act. That’s why these visitors often convert more quickly, order more frequently, and return repeatedly.
[Think of it like 2 types of customers: one who stumbles in because they’re lost, and another who arrives saying, “I read your recipe and now I need to try this.” Guess which one spends more?]
For your business, this translates into higher revenue without increasing ad spend.
How Backlinks Boost Your Credibility
While a website with a comprehensive blog and helpful service/product pages proves your experience, expertise, and authoritativeness, backlinks work differently. Backlinks are links from other websites to your own website, which drive readers from those websites to read your content.
For your business, which exists in search engines, it is a kind of digital endorsement. When a food blogger links to your reheating tutorial, or a city guide includes your restaurant in a “Best Duck Rice” listicle, it’s like a trusted friend whispering your name into the right ears. Search engines notice these endorsements, and so do potential customers.
The real power of backlinks is twofold. They strengthen your technical credibility to prove your E-E-A-T factor. And they also build brand awareness. When people see your brand mentioned across multiple respected channels, they assume you’re the real deal before they even try your food.
[It’s like being listed in every “Top 10” guide in town. Customers think, “Well, if everyone’s talking about them, they must be good.”]
This is precisely where a content strategist pays off. Rather than posting random blog content online, they design content that is naturally possible to earn backlinks.
They might position your restaurant’s story for journalists or line up guest posts on food blogs. They even craft evergreen resources that influencers can’t resist citing. In short, they help you engineer credibility.
Click here to find out why backlinks matter for cost reduction and long-term traffic.
With every backlink, your acquisition costs shrink. Unlike ads that vanish your business’s online presence the moment you stop paying, backlinks continue delivering traffic and trust long after they’re earned.
For restaurant owners, this means fewer sleepless nights about marketing budgets and more focus on serving great food. Because serving one is what matters most.
Authority as the Currency of Online Growth
So, what is a good authority score? It’s not just a number you hit. It’s the sum of your visibility, topical coverage, and credibility. When you balance these three, you build topical authority that attracts traffic, reduces costs, and drives revenue growth.
And best of all? Once your authority is strong, your restaurant will be recognised online and recommended by AI tools. Those hungry customers you’ve never even met will probably find your restaurant.
[That’s when your duck rice sells out before you’ve even finished your morning coffee.]
Create a strategy to build your content today, to grow your authority in your niche. Swing by my profile and let’s spice things up.
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Melalui artikel Ka Vicky, aku jadi membuka kembali pelajaran mengenai topical authority yang sebenernya pemahamannya tuh adalah sub dari tema utama tulisan kita, gitu yaa, ka Vick..
Dengan pemahaman kita yang mendalam terhadap sebuah niche atau topik tertentu, maka mesin pencari google pun akan semakin mendeteksi sebagai expert di bidang tersebut.
Tapi kalau untuk pemilik usaha kuliner, misalnyaa.. kini ada google yang terdapat kolom komentar.
Dan komentar ini aku rasa lebih jujur daripada apapun.
“Google yang terdapat kolom komentar” mungkin maksudnya Google Business Profile untuk para usaha kuliner ya..
Aku setuju bahwa kolom komentar itu semacam suara kejujuran bagi usaha bisnis yang terdapat di Google. Komentar itu tempat para konsumen mengekspresikan pikiran mereka lebih cepat daripada laporan SEO manapun.
Maka aku menganggap komentar-komentar itu bisa jadi sumber data yang berharga banget. Setiap komentar itu pada dasarnya adalah insight tentang keyword yang relevan bagi usaha terkait, yang menunjukkan apa yang betul-betul dipedulikan orang.
Memang fokus pada 1 niche itu penting banget ya dalam dunia blog gini biar authoritynya terbentuk. PR banget nih buatku mbak biar bisa bikin blog dengan niche khusus
Iya, karena sekali kita menguasai suatu niche, maka baik pembaca maupun Google akan mempercayai ke-expert-an kita. Tantangannya yang sungguhan adalah memperdalam isi blog supaya menjadi tempat tujuan orang yang ingin mencari konten dengan topik itu.
Berasa rumit sekali membangun otoritas topik. Tapi, emang sih. Kalau kita ingin brand kita dikenal nggak hanya di offline, tapi di online juga, kudu mau belajar tentang membangun otoritas topik sih.
Sebetulnya yang benar itu namanya “topical authority” ya, Yuni, belum cocok sih untuk diterjemahkan jadi “otoritas topik”.
Meskipun topical authority ini terdengar rumit untuk orang yang baru pertama kali membangun brand-nya, tapi akan lebih mudah kalau membangun authority ini seperti jadi nyonya rumah sebuah pesta. Semakin sering kita nongol dengan konten kabar yang segar, semakin lekat para tamu pesta (alias pengunjung) itu akan mengingat kita dengan perasaan yang unik juga. Dan keunikan itu yang akan membangun topical authority kita.