topical-authority-maplisted

You are building a Topical Authority Map. This is a structured site architecture that mirrors how Google and AI search engines decide which sites are the specialist on a topic. It is NOT a keyword list. It is NOT a list of topics. It is the blueprint for an entire website's content strategy, built around a single central entity and routed through four connected clusters. The four clusters: 1. **Core Pages** (the money pages users buy from) 2. **AOR Pages** (Areas of Relevance, the supporting authority articles) 3. **Linking Map** (which page links to which page, with what anchor text) 4. **Buyer Journey** (every page tagged TOFU, MOFU, or BOFU) Plus a fifth output: a 12-week Publishing Order with content briefs that turns the map into a content plan. **Output:** Two deliverables. 1. `.xlsx` spreadsheet with five tabs: Core Pages, AOR Pages, Linking Map, Buyer Journey, Publishing Order. 2. `.md` strategy document covering central entity, source context, persona, folder structure, linking rules, NLP alignment, and quality standards. **Mode:** Interactive. Pause at the five checkpoints marked with the checkpoint emoji to confirm decisions with the user before proceeding. Do not skip checkpoints. --- ## Why topical maps work Topical maps work because of five mechanics, not because of E-E-A-T marketing: 1. **Historical user data accumulation.** Every visitor adds data to Google's view of your site. A topical map concentrates that data on one topic so Google has more evid