SEO
Google Discusses SEO Effects of Expanding Website Topics
Danny Sullivan from Google recently addressed the impact of introducing new topics on a website that has already established a strong reputation in a particular niche. Speaking at Search Central Live NYC, Sullivan reassured website owners that branching into different subject areas does not inherently harm rankings. However, Google may assess how the new content integrates with the site’s existing themes.
Sullivan explained:
*”We have long done work and are going to continue doing that to understand if parts of the site seem to be independent or starkly different than other parts of the site. It is not bad to have a website do whatever you want the website to do for your readers. It’s not bad that you started off covering one thing and you start writing about something else.
I had one person at an event who was very, very concerned. They started writing about snowboards but now wanted to start writing about skis and was terrified.
That if they write about skiing that somehow the topic of the website and the focus will somehow… it doesn’t work that way.
We’re not kind of building it up on the expertise you have in this particular thing, that type of thing, but what we are trying to understand is if the site seems to be different in some way from other parts of the site.”*
Google’s Approach to Topic Expansion
Sullivan emphasized that Google evaluates how distinct a new section is compared to the rest of the site. Initially, a new topic might rank well due to the site’s established authority. However, if the subject is significantly different, rankings for that section could eventually decline – not as a penalty, but as a natural adjustment to ensure relevance.
To clarify this concept, Sullivan used the analogy of a “mini-site” – suggesting that Google may treat vastly different sections separately so they can build their own credibility over time. This approach allows Google to better understand and categorize various topic clusters within a website.
For more details, read the original article on Search Engine Journal.
