Parent Topic determines if you can rank for your target keyword while targeting a more general topic instead.
To identify the Parent Topic, we take the #1 ranking page for the keyword and find the query responsible for sending the most search traffic to that page.
You can also view the parent topic of multiple keywords at once in Keywords Explorer as long as the Parent Topic column is active:
Only keywords that have regularly updated SERPs will have Parent topic data.
How can I see what keywords share the same parent topic?
Use Keyword Explorer's clustering feature to group keywords in the same report by parent topic:
You can then click on the corresponding toggle in the Keywords column to see all keywords grouped under that parent topic:
This feature is available only on Standard or higher plans.
Clustering in Brand Radar
In Brand Radar, you can see AI answers clustered by parent topic in the Topics report.
This is useful because it helps you uncover content gaps and find new content opportunities in your niche. For more use cases, watch the video below.