Why Unrelated Content Hurts Google Rankings

John Mueller from Google recently replied to a complaint where someone was facing issues with their website not being indexed and losing rankings. John pointed out one possible reason: the website has a lot of unrelated content.

He said,

“One of the things I noticed is that there’s a lot of totally unrelated content on the site.”Then he asked,“Is that by design?”

Basically, he was asking, “Did you add this off-topic content on purpose?”

To help find that content, John gave some examples. He said you can go to Bing and search:

• site:tpointtech.com watch online

• site:tpointtech.com sexy

• site:tpointtech.com top 10

He also mentioned that your Google Search Console might show strange results if this kind of content exists.

Now, to be clear, Google has said before that you don’t need to have a niche site (a site focused on one topic) to rank. But still — if you usually write about SEO and suddenly start posting food recipes, it can confuse both your readers and Google.

Bottom Line:

Stick to your main topic. Don’t post content that’s totally off-topic. It can hurt your rankings, even if Google doesn’t require you to have a niche site. Staying focused helps both users and search engines understand what your site is about.