Define why this site should cover the subject.

Start with the site’s stated job.

Write a short statement of what the organization does, who the site serves and what a successful reader task looks like. Include the services or knowledge the organization can support with evidence. A broad industry label is not enough to justify every related topic.

Separate business relevance from the reader’s immediate need. An educational explanation may be useful before any service decision, while a service page must state what is offered. A map can contain both without making every article a sales argument.

Record readers and available skills together.

Describe the audience’s starting knowledge, constraints, likely questions and decisions. Use real research when available; label assumptions when it is not. Different levels of experience may need a shared definition but different examples or routes to deeper material.

Next record access to knowledge, original information, current documentation and editorial review. A proposed topic requiring specialist evidence should remain unresolved until that evidence is available. Interest in a query does not establish the organization’s ability to answer it responsibly.

Worked example: an agency that also teaches.

Consider a hypothetical agency providing research and content planning while maintaining a free learning library. Its commercial pages explain work supplied, suitability, evidence needed from clients and service limits. Its educational pages teach planning decisions even when the reader intends to do the work independently.

A scope note could say: “We explain how to research topics, assign page ownership and review internal links. Service pages describe our own delivery process. We do not present client outcomes without permission and supporting evidence.” This is an example boundary, not a statement of a particular agency’s contract.

The map can include a beginner’s explanation of topic grouping and a separate service page for commissioning a map. They serve different tasks. It should exclude unrelated high-volume subjects that the organization cannot connect to its purpose or explain competently.

Write exclusions that an editor can apply.

List subjects outside scope, unsupported promises, unavailable services and evidence that must be obtained before drafting. Explain the reason for an exclusion so the next editor can distinguish a durable boundary from a temporary research gap.

For a borderline topic, record the reader task, relation to the site’s purpose, available evidence and likely page home. Choose include, defer, refer elsewhere or exclude with a reason. Revisit the decision when available skills or audience evidence change, rather than treating the first map as permanent.

Protect educational independence.

An explanation should state its conditions and limitations even when they make a service unnecessary. Place commercial options where they fit the task and make the relationship clear. Do not remove useful alternatives merely because they are not sold by the organization.

Google’s helpful content guidance asks publishers to consider a site’s purpose and intended audience. The scope record here is an editorial method for making those choices explicit, not a ranking guarantee.

Use the topical mapping hub to move from scope to discovery. The learning overview provides the wider context.

Source context decision record

Copy these fields into your own notes or spreadsheet. This is a static worksheet.