--- title: "Topics" description: "To view Topics in your account, click on the Standard Context Layer and select the Topics tab." url: "https://www.contentstack.com/docs/lytics/topics" product: "Contentstack" doc_type: "guide" audience: - developers - admins version: "current" last_updated: "2026-11-05" --- # Topics ## Viewing Topics To view **Topics** in your account, select **Topics** under **Content** in the Lytics navigation bar. The page header reports how many Supertopics and Topics the selected Context Layer holds, and a **Context layer** selector above the sections switches between them. ![](https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/blt2d43f51baca745a8/ama4f2a4ecff6bc981/c35724a8ce8bb055321fade6/7c3a4a1c7f040224ab86227a89a9c43ada46c254316b870e602e8e8a022383a8-supertopics-roster.png) Topics are generated using Lytics' Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools, as well as meta-tags from webpages. To learn more about how Topics are enriched, visit our [Enrichment](/docs/lytics/enrichment) documentation. ### Common Topics The **Common Topics** table holds the 500 most common Topics across your URLs, plus any Topic you have allowed, and it changes as new content arrives. Each row gives the Topic's **Name**, the number of **URLs** that mention it, and its **User Count** — the number of users who have a score for it. A Topic you added yourself carries a **Custom** chip. Search narrows the table, and **Show more** extends it. Three tabs divide the list: **Topics**, everything currently in your taxonomy; **Allowed Topics**; and **Blocked Topics**. ![](https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/blt2d43f51baca745a8/amf7a298379c2ea5a7/6a4d87ba34d2415b42d7cd38/47c7fcfefcec5ad1f9c171accfc93a308e0782110844d4eb9c96a8b20aef06fd-topics-common-table.png) ### Allowing and Blocking Topics Select the checkbox beside one or more Topics to allow or block them. **Allowing** a Topic pins it into your taxonomy, so it stays available for audiences and personalization even if it stops being common. **Blocking** a Topic takes it out of circulation: blocked Topics are hidden from the Topics list and are not used in new [Supertopics](/docs/lytics/supertopics) or Audiences. This is the tool to reach for where Lytics' NLP has picked up something irrelevant. Both are scoped to the selected **Context Layer**, so the same Topic can be blocked in one Context Layer and left in circulation in another. A single Topic can also be blocked or unblocked from [its summary page](#blocking-a-topic-from-its-summary). ## Topic Summary Clicking a **Topic** in the Topics table opens its summary page, which reports how much of your content covers the Topic and how engaged your audience is with it. The page has three tabs — **Summary**, **Content map** and **Details** — and the Topic's name carries a **Custom** or **Blocked** chip where either applies. ![](https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/blt2d43f51baca745a8/am9b33c59af1fc8786/4d0d2f66e27f226143fba7e9/d85bb88690d2be803aea62a3f0160400b81f90ab6d47c7ba92c04a73fc32e8f4-topic-summary-page.png) If Lytics has no figures for the Topic at all — because nothing has been classified against it, or because no Topic by that name exists — the page says so above the tabs. A single figure Lytics could not measure reads as a dash rather than a zero. ### Blocking a Topic From Its Summary ![](https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/blt2d43f51baca745a8/am422a2358c8b8258a/b44dfdf6cad60b9a5fb68912/b1658a4c444c73f67b86f373142b7d1b499453aca26b1de006d993eb4fe7e95b-topic-block-action.png) Opposite the Topic's name is **Block topic**, or **Unblock topic** where the Topic is already blocked. This is the same action as the checkbox in the Common Topics table described under [Allowing and Blocking Topics](#allowing-and-blocking-topics), applied to one Topic at a time. Blocked Topics are hidden from the Topics list and are not used in new [Supertopics](/docs/lytics/supertopics) or Audiences. Unblocking puts the Topic back into circulation. Blocking is scoped to the **Context Layer** the page resolved, not to your account as a whole: the same Topic can be blocked in one Context Layer and left in circulation in another. The **Blocked** chip beside the Topic's name reads from the same Context Layer list the action writes to, so the chip and the button always agree. Lytics confirms each change with a short _Topic blocked._ or _Topic unblocked._ message. Without permission to manage Topics, the button still appears in place but is disabled. Where no Context Layer resolves for the page, the action is not offered at all. ### Summary Tab #### Metrics * **Avg Level of Interest**: The average score among users who have a score for this Topic, from 0 to 1, shown rounded down to two decimals. The band named underneath describes that average, not your users: _Uninterested_ (below 0.25), _Low Affinity_ (0.25 to under 0.50), _Some Affinity_ (0.50 to under 0.75), or _High Affinity_ (0.75 and above). * **URLs**: The number of URLs that mention the Topic. * **Users**: The number of users who have a score for this Topic. #### Related Topics **Related topics** lists the Topics appearing on the same URLs as this one, strongest overlap first — six at a time, with +N more opening the full ranked list. Overlap is a ranking, not a count of shared URLs: each Topic's URL count in that list is its own total, not the URLs the two share. Clicking a related Topic opens a panel beside the page reporting its rank against the Topic whose page you are on, its URL count, the Topics it appears alongside, and its **Users** and **Avg Level of Interest**. Clicking a Topic _inside_ the panel re-points that same panel rather than opening a second one, so you can walk from Topic to Topic without leaving the page. **View topic summary** at the foot of the panel opens that Topic's own page, carrying the Context Layer with it. A few names are reserved by the platform (cluster, . and ..). Those open a panel but have no page of their own, and the panel says so instead of linking. A Topic with no related Topics says so, and reads differently from a Topic absent from this Context Layer's Topic set or a request that failed. #### Who Is Interested The **Who is interested** chart plots how your scored users are spread across the 0-to-1 range; hovering a bar reads out the users sitting at that score. Select a band in either of two ways: * Click a preset chip — **High Affinity**, **Some Affinity**, **Low Affinity**, **Uninterested**, or **Any Affinity**. Each chip carries the number of users it selects. * Drag the two handles to set your own range. The **Custom** chip fills in when you do. Bands are half-open, so a score sitting exactly on a shared edge belongs to the higher band. Expand **Rule** to read the SegmentQL your current selection would produce. A Topic that no one has scored yet reports _No score distribution is available for this topic yet._ in place of the chart. #### Recent Content **Recent content** lists the URLs carrying this Topic, newest first, eight at a time — **Show more** extends the list, **Show less** collapses it. Content must be [classified](/docs/lytics/content-index) before it appears here; a Topic with nothing classified against it reads _No content carries this topic yet._ ### Segmentation With Topics Once a band selects the users you want, there are two ways to turn it into an Audience. Both require permission to create Audiences. * Build audience opens a drawer that creates the Audience without leaving the page. It carries an editable **Audience name** and the identifier it will be saved under, an **Audience size** queried from your live audience rather than read off the chart, where the band sits on the distribution, and a ledger of who is in, who is out, and who is not counted either way — profiles with no score for this Topic fall in that last group. The Audience stays live: membership is a rule, not a saved list, so anyone whose score later moves into the band joins on their own. * Refine in audience builder hands off to the [Audience Builder](/docs/lytics/audiences) with the band already applied, for when you want to combine the Topic with other rules. To include every user who has shown any interest in a Topic, use the **Any Affinity** preset, or the Exists operator if you are building in the Audience Builder. ![](https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/blt2d43f51baca745a8/am4bf916886af64471/c770f40c59633ff3589a9609/bb438a89cac2e4c27b8b54721589d079f690a0562d0d2c355121841d082bd3b0-topic-build-audience-drawer.png) ### Content Map Tab The **Content map** plots this Topic against the ones appearing on the same URLs, as a graph you can pan and explore. Your Topic sits at the centre, and the size of each other node reflects how much content carries it. ![](https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/blt2d43f51baca745a8/am05d82c04bbcec856/73817bc92630da53bc557ec3/a0433546d9e8f208d37837f2e9e3f4faf57a0c74f33c9742de4654660aa97976-topic-content-map-scrubbed.png) Clicking a node opens a panel beside the map describing that Topic's relationship to the one whose page you are on: its **URLs**, **Users** and **Avg interest**, the Topics it **also appears alongside**, and a **Keep exploring** list. Clicking a Topic in the panel re-points it rather than opening a second one. A Topic you reached by exploring rather than from the top-ranked set says so. ![](https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/blt2d43f51baca745a8/am33c6109b4e897552/7c00a9f5e170b84525c9dfa4/7c66bfa0105f97b5ad383665ea1d318a53b2f8c725726b6de6bce13fd8c46dda-topic-content-map-cluster-scrubbed.png) Three actions sit at the foot of the panel: * **View summary** opens that Topic's own page. * **Create supertopic from cluster** builds a [Supertopic](/docs/lytics/supertopics) from the pair without leaving the map. * **See shared content** lists the URLs carrying both Topics. Creating a Supertopic here requires permission to manage Topics. Without it the action still appears in place, disabled, with the reason on hover. A Topic with no neighbours in the selected Context Layer reads _No related topics. Nothing in this layer appears on the same URLs as this topic. Usually that means your content barely touches it._ ### Details Tab * **Name**: The Topic as Lytics stores it. * **Field**: The profile field this Topic's scores are written to. * **Context layer**: The Context Layer that scoped the figures on this page. * **Tags**: Custom, Blocked, or Allowed, where they apply. * **Last modified**: When Lytics last processed the Topic. This is not a record of someone editing it. ![](https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/blt2d43f51baca745a8/am0e9c42bb2f605fe6/1933762e862fb2cfa00bc493/02a15a2c3007f76b9922afbe7fd5742aa2f8d21949aeb9bc06596b1d1e9de2cf-topic-details-tab.png) ### Sharing a Link The active tab and Context Layer both travel in the page's URL, so a link reproduces the view you were looking at.