Authority Topics, good fit, and the difficulty that is yours
Declared authority (topics you tell us) flags which keywords fit your site. Demonstrated authority (where you already rank) is the only thing that ever earns a lower "for you" difficulty.
When Phynite suggests a keyword, two separate questions get answered: is this a good fit for your site, and how hard is it to win? Those answers come from two kinds of authority, and it's worth knowing which is which.
Declared authority: the lanes you tell us you own
Under Settings → Sites → Authority Topics, you can list up to ten topics your site owns ("mexican dinners," "sheet-pan," whatever your lanes are). We use them to flag which keyword suggestions are a good fit for you.
A keyword that matches one of your declared topics gets the strongest possible fit signal, and the reason is written out under the row: "This is one of your declared authority topics, a natural fit for your site." You never have to take a badge on faith.
One thing declared topics never do: change a difficulty score. Telling us you own a topic makes suggestions more relevant. It doesn't make anything easier.
Demonstrated authority: the lanes Google already trusts you in
Separately, we compute where you've already proven yourself: topics where your posts already rank in Google's top 10, weighted by how well and how often. You don't type these anywhere. They come straight from your search data.
Demonstrated authority shows up two ways:
- As a fit reason: "You already rank top-10 for 12 soup recipes. Google already sees you as an authority here."
- As the ✦ for you number next to a keyword's difficulty.
The two difficulty numbers
Every keyword shows an honest difficulty: the same number for everyone, and it never bends to flatter you.
When you see a second number, ✦ for you, it means the climb is genuinely easier for your site specifically, because Google already ranks you on that topic. The number for everyone stays the same; the discount is yours because you earned it.
The rule underneath is simple: fit is generous, the discount is stingy. We'll happily flag a keyword as a good fit based on what you tell us. But nothing you type, not your authority topics and not your brand profile, ever lowers a difficulty number. Only real ranking evidence does that.
How this plays with Cooper
Your brand profile is a separate system: it shapes what Cooper writes and which plays it suggests first. Authority Topics shape which keywords get flagged as yours. Together they mean recommendations lean into where what you claim and what Google already believes agree, and that's exactly where updates pay off fastest.