Topic

As explained in Writing for Developers: Blogs that get read

In Google Trends, a language-agnostic subject grouping that includes related terms, misspellings, and linguistic variants.

A topic groups an article with related content so readers can discover it through recommendations or drill down into more articles on the same subject. Unlike a fleeting tag mention, a topic should reflect a subject readers would value exploring further. section 7.4.7

Choose topics with a simple reach-versus-relevance test:

• Use a broad topic to reach more followers, accepting that many articles compete for attention. section 7.4.7
• Use a specialized topic to compete in a smaller pool when it matches the article more precisely. section 7.4.7
• Treat topic counts carefully: a displayed number may count tagged articles rather than followers. section 7.4.7
• Use search terms and Google Trends to compare likely keywords before deciding which topics or metadata deserve emphasis. section 7.4.1

Figure 7.8 What’s this number (46K) telling you about the Database topic? You might assume it means 46K people follow this topic. Wrong. It’s the number of articles tagged with this topic.

Use the figure to distinguish an article count from a follower count when evaluating a Medium topic. section 7.4.7

How Writing for Developers: Blogs that get read covers it

How deep it goes

Explains topic purpose, selection tradeoffs, and misleading counts, but stops short of defining an internal classification algorithm.

Examples

Uses Medium topic counts, potential topics for a Zig blog, and Google Trends comparisons between event streaming and streaming data.

What it assumes

Assumes familiarity with publishing metadata, but distinguishes topics from categories, tags, and keyword research.

What you can do after

Operate Medium topic selection by comparing article relevance, follower reach, and competing article volume.

How it connects

Connects topics with categories, tags, keywords, metadata, search terms, and Google Trends.

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Related concepts

• SQLcontrasts with · SQL is a standardized declarative language for defining, querying, and manipulating data and structures in relational database systems.
• technical articleconfigures · A written article that explains or discusses a technical subject.
• bookused by · A book is a written or printed work, typically organized into pages or sections and published as a physical volume or digital equivalent.

This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of Writing for Developers: Blogs that get read. The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.