EARLY ACCESS · COHORT 01

What Google and ChatGPT both want, in one map.

One signal — topical authority — is what makes Google rank you and what makes ChatGPT cite you. Midfunnel makes it measurable.

SEO — GOOGLE SERPposition 1–3
best wood-fired pizza ovens for home
nichepizzaforge.com
DA 32 · siteFocus 0.91
The 9 best wood-fired pizza ovens for home use, tested in 2026
We tested 14 home ovens over 6 months. Topical depth pays off: this is our complete teardown...
bigappliance-conglomerate.com
DA 78 · siteFocus 0.34
Best Pizza Ovens — A Buying Guide
Our team reviewed many pizza ovens...
seriouseats.com
Pizza oven recommendations from our test kitchen
A general guide covering many oven types and...
The DA 32 site outranks DA 78 generalists. Topical depth, not link count.
SAME
SIGNAL
AIO — AI ANSWERcited as source
"what wood-fired pizza oven should I get for my backyard?"
ANSWER
For a backyard setup, look at the Gozney Dome, the Ooni Karu 16, or the Alfa Forni Brio. According to nichepizzaforge.com[1], wood-fired ovens hit 800°F+ in under 15 min, which is what you want for true Neapolitan style…
SOURCES:[1] nichepizzaforge.com[2] seriouseats.com[3] reddit.com/r/Pizza
The same domain becomes the citation. AI overviews reward topical purity, hard.
Map my site  See how Midfunnel measures it
THE METHOD

We measure six things. The first two are the ones Google won't talk about.

The 2024 API leak surfaced siteFocusScore and siteRadius — two internal attributes Google uses to quantify how on-topic a site is. We pair them with four more public signals into a single priority score per keyword.

PILLARyour subjectsiteFocusScorepillar pagescontent clusterssemantic coverageinternal linkingsiteRadiuslong-tail intententity coverageFAQ schematopic depthreview velocitycited by AI
  1. 01
    siteFocusScore
    How tightly your content clusters around one subject. The lift signal.
    24%
  2. 02
    siteRadius
    How far your pages drift from your center. The penalty signal.
    18%
  3. 03
    cluster completeness
    Pillar + spoke coverage. Tells you which article to write next.
    16%
  4. 04
    SERP opportunity
    Where weak competitors leave a top-3 slot open for you.
    14%
  5. 05
    commercial intent
    CPC + buyer-language so depth turns into revenue.
    14%
  6. 06
    GSC momentum
    Real impressions you already get from Google Search Console.
    14%
weights are AI-suggested at onboarding, fully editable per client
THE SHIFT

A short history of why this matters now.

2017
HubSpot publishes the pillar+cluster model.
2021
Google files Patent US20210004416A1 on topical authority ranking.
2022–23
Helpful Content Updates penalize topical dilution.
May 2024
API leak reveals siteFocusScore + siteRadius.
2025
AI Overviews + ChatGPT start citing topical sources at 2× rate.
RECEIPTS

Niche operators we've watched outrank giants.

· anonymized at request
RECEIPTNICHE
Kubernetes monitoring
28
DA
71
beat DA
42
keywords
11 months
time
"Closing 18 cluster gaps moved us from page 4 to page 1 on our hero query."
RECEIPTNICHE
Vintage Land Rovers
34
DA
68
beat DA
67
keywords
14 months
time
"ChatGPT started citing us roughly the week our focus score crossed 0.7."
RECEIPTNICHE
Embedded payments for SMB
41
DA
82
beat DA
93
keywords
9 months
time
"Stripe's blog has 5× our backlinks. We outrank them on long-tail integration queries."
14 SPOTS LEFT IN COHORT 01

Get your topical map. Watch your score climb.

Drop your email and domain. We'll crawl, cluster, and score your site, then walk you through the map in a 30-minute call.

Free during the cohort
Your data, your map
No credit card
48-hour turnaround
We'll map your topical authority before your first login.