Digital VikingzTopical alignment
- What passes
- The linking page covers a query in the client's own query network, or ranks for one.
- What fails
- A page about the same entity class. Not a general marketing blog.
- How it is checked
- Query overlap check against the map.
Authority Signals: Entity-Aligned Links and Third-Party Citations
Authority Signals is a monthly service that earns links and third-party citations from pages sharing the client's topic. The topical map governs every anchor. Each placement is reported with the reason it qualified.
What five gates does Authority Signals check before a placement?
A placement is made only when all five pass. The report shows the pass record for each one.
Page test
- What passes
- The linking page passes the page test on its own: real demand, real content, one intent.
- What fails
- A page that exists to hold links fails.
- How it is checked
- Manual read plus live results check.
Anchor governance
- What passes
- The anchor is the canonical phrase for the target URL, or its dual-entity form.
- What fails
- No exact-match repetition across placements. No brand-only anchors on service pages.
- How it is checked
- Anchor register per target.
Source trust
- What passes
- The source has an identity block, named authors, and no link-selling footprint.
- What fails
- No pages with 'write for us' as their main function.
- How it is checked
- Domain identity audit.
Co-occurrence
- What passes
- The client entity and its attribute appear in the same sentence as the link.
- What fails
- A sentence that states the relationship, not a bare link.
- How it is checked
- Sentence check on the live placement.
How does Authority Signals work?
A link is a co-occurrence first and a vote second.
The linking page covers the same thing the client's page covers, in the same words. Google's generative search filing names inbound links as one of three trust inputs, alongside author and domain. A link from an unrelated page adds a vote from nowhere. Every placement here passes the same page test the client's own pages pass.
How does the Authority Signals monthly cycle run?
- ProspectingCandidate pages come from the query network, not from a domain list. Each one is tagged with the query it shares.
- ApprovalThe prospect list, with the gate record, goes out for approval before outreach.
- PlacementGuest articles, expert contributions, resource mentions, and data citations. Sponsored placements are labelled as sponsored.
- VerificationEach live placement is checked for the anchor, the sentence, and indexation.
- ReportPlacements table with URL, topic, anchor, target, date, and gate record. Retained-and-lost check on prior placements.
Which Google documents does Authority Signals build on?
Patents describe systems Google has invented. They are not confirmed ranking factors. The work is built so a page passes the check each document describes.
- US 2024/0289407 A1: Search with stateful chat (Google, pending application)Google's pending generative search filing describes reading trustworthiness from author, domain, and inbound links; the gates admit only aligned sources.
- Google Search Central: Spam policies for Google web searchGoogle's spam policies name link spam as a violation; the service places no unlabelled paid links and uses no private networks.
Who is Authority Signals for?
Sites with the core pages live
Links point at pages. The core section goes live first.
Brands entering a market where the competitors are older
Age is a signal no site buys. Aligned links are the signal a site earns.
Sites whose link profile is off-topic
A cleanup of anchors and a rebuild of the profile around the entity.
Not the right fit
A site without an architecture. The first gate needs a canonical anchor per URL and a query network to match against. Neither exists yet.
How is Authority Signals priced and delivered?
- Shape
- Monthly
- Pricing basis
- Capacity block per month; the count of placements follows the count of qualifying prospects
- What you receive
- Monthly placements table with the gate record
Exact scope is quoted in writing after the strategy call. How semantic SEO is priced.
A client property from the results page
Which industries and terms connect to Authority Signals?
Industries this service is built for, and the knowledge entries it applies.
Semantic SEO for Finance and FintechPage architecture for finance
Semantic SEO for Healthcare and Medical PracticesPage architecture for healthcare
Semantic SEO for Real Estate and PropertyPage architecture for real estate
What is topical authorityFoundations
What is semantic SEOFoundations
loading="lazy"/>White-Label for AgenciesThis service under your agency's brand
Talk to usMessage the team on WhatsAppQuestions about Authority Signals
Are any placements paid?
Only where the publisher labels them as sponsored. No paid placement is presented as editorial. No private networks.
What about links we already have?
The first month audits the existing profile: anchors, topics, and sources. Off-topic anchors get a change request. Toxic sources get a disavow recommendation, not an automatic disavow.
Why do you call this Authority Signals and not link building?
Half the placements are citations without a link: a named mention with an attribute, in a sentence, on a page about the same entity. Those count for co-occurrence. Link building as a label leaves them out.
Do you write the guest articles?
Yes, to the same brief format as the client's own pages. The article passes the page test on the host site before it is submitted.
Who is named as the author of guest articles?
A real person from your team, with their approval on each article. An anonymous or invented byline fails the source trust logic the service applies to every host.
What access does Authority Signals need?
No edit access to your site. Read access to Search Console supports the profile audit and the indexation checks. One named contact approves prospects and bylines.
Does Authority Signals run without Content Production?
Yes. The service needs live core pages and a map, not our writing. Your team keeps publishing, and placements point at what is live.
Do you place links in other languages?
Yes, in the languages the site publishes in. The first gate runs against the query network of that language version.
What if we object to a prospect?
Strike it, and it is not contacted. The gate record shows why it qualified, which keeps the call factual.
How are anchor phrases chosen for placements?
Each target page has one canonical anchor phrase, set in the source term vector. Placements use that phrase or the brand name. A rotating set of keyword variants is never used.
Talk through the scope
Thirty minutes with the founder. Your site open, the page decisions ahead, the scope that fits.
