Topical Map Generator

Choose the scope

A topical map should help you decide which pages belong together and why each one deserves to exist. Start with a reader and an outcome, not a target number of articles. A small team planning its first publishing month needs a different collection of pages from an agency managing several editorial teams.

Name the collection, then add the topics you have researched. This generator builds the hierarchy from your assignments; it does not discover topics, inspect search results or estimate demand. Keep research notes that explain the reader’s need and the evidence you can contribute. An attractive map is not proof that you have found every worthwhile topic.

Build the branches

A top-level topic has no parent. Give a supporting page the ID of the topic it belongs beneath. A hub can explain a broad decision and point readers toward detailed resources. A supporting page should handle a narrower job well enough to justify a separate destination.

For example, an editorial-planning hub could connect to a monthly-calendar guide and an approval-workflow guide. Those pages answer different questions. Two guides that merely rearrange the same calendar advice may not need separate URLs. Write their distinct reader needs in the notes before deciding to publish both.

The editor assigns stable IDs when you add topics. Those IDs keep the relationships intact when a title changes. Parent choices determine the hierarchy; moving a topic up or down changes its order, not its parent. Removing a topic moves its direct children to that topic’s parent after confirmation.

Bring a spreadsheet

Download the CSV template when your research is already in a spreadsheet. Each row needs an id, parent and title column. Leave the parent value blank for a top-level topic. Optional columns are kind, keyword, url, intent, status, priority, owner and notes.

Use the template’s spelling for headers and the editor’s values for choices such as status and intent. CSV and tab-separated files are supported. Imports replace the topic list after confirmation and retain the map’s reader and outcome. Unknown columns, duplicate IDs and malformed rows are rejected instead of silently discarded.

Draft JSON and report JSON can restore the complete map. Use JSON when exact text preservation matters: spreadsheet exports protect formula-like cell values by prefixing them, which may appear as an extra apostrophe when imported again.

Map real destinations

Add an existing URL when a useful page already covers the topic. For work not yet published, you can enter a proposed public URL or leave it blank. Status, intent and priority are your editorial assignments. Marking a node published does not cause the tool to check that the URL exists or is indexed.

Review repeated titles, primary phrases and URLs before assigning work. Repetition can reveal two interchangeable ideas, but it can also be intentional. One reference page might belong in a discussion about more than one reader journey. The warning asks you to inspect that choice; it does not recommend deleting or merging a page.

URL comparison normalizes the scheme and hostname and ignores fragments. Paths, query strings and trailing slashes remain distinct. This is a consistency check on supplied addresses, not canonical detection. The generator does not open a page or change its indexing settings.

Review the links

Each parent-child relationship produces two directional link-review pairs. They help you consider whether the broad page should introduce the detailed resource and whether the detailed page should point back to useful context. They are candidates, not existing links and not instructions to link every page to every other page.

Read the source and destination before adding a link. Choose a relevant place in the text and a label that explains where the reader will go. Google’s link guidance emphasizes crawlable links and meaningful anchor text. It does not require you to reproduce this map mechanically.

Separate branches may also deserve a connection when it helps the reader. This version derives pairs only from the parent relationships you enter; it does not infer those cross-topic connections. Record additional decisions in your editorial plan.

Hand off a page

Use the Brief JSON download beside a generated topic to prepare its writing handoff. Restore that file in the Content Brief Generator. It carries the title, reader, map outcome, primary phrase, owner, URL and your notes.

The outline and evidence fields stay empty because a hierarchy cannot supply that research. Refine the individual page’s outcome, add sources and agree what the writer should leave out. Once a draft exists, the SEO Content Optimizer can review supplied text and HTML without changing the article for you.

Keep the plan useful

Assign ownership and a practical priority before handing off a large branch. A label such as high priority is a team decision, not a score calculated from search volume. Revisit the map when reader questions, products or existing pages change. Do not expand it solely to make the diagram look complete.

Save draft JSON before leaving; there is no automatic saving. Download node CSV for the editorial inventory, link-review CSV for relationship checks and report JSON for the full result. A generated map does not create pages, add links or publish content.

The plugin does not store maps or reports in WordPress. Shared protection records a salted IP hash, tool identifier and usage date. Hosting and security-provider policies apply separately. Keep confidential or unauthorized material out of your submission.

Questions

Further reading: Ahrefs on building a topical map. This tool is independent of Ahrefs and Google. A content plan does not guarantee ranking, authority or indexing.