The boundaries of content relevance

What are the limits of niche relevance when it comes to the way G looks at websites?

For example, if you have a financial site, what is considered relevant and what is considered off topic? Where is the boundary?

Financial site >> Banking?
Financial site >> Insurance?
Financial site >> Payday Loans?
Financial site >> Make Money Online?
Financial site >> Coupons & Discounts?
Financial site >> Shopping?

I'm sure the first 3 would be relevant with no problems, but what about the last 3? Where was the boundary crossed regarding what's considered relevant? If it wasn't crossed, how much further could you go with topics/niches? I'm looking to expand a site (not in financial niche, just an example) and I want to go as big as I can go without pushing it too far and remaining "relevant".

You're basically asking a question about the clustering algorithm of Google.
The most straightforward answer is: only Google knows the answer.

However, you can get an idea of how far you can go. Just pick another, popular, website on your niche and put its address on the Google Adwords Tool. Google will show you the keywords associated with that site.

This is actually a really good question. When I guest post, I can manage to relate some pretty distant niches to my niche but I am not sure if go0gle sees it that way. Since we are talking about a machine (the algorithm) I would assume that niche relevance must be clear for the bot to understand.

lancis said:

You're basically asking a question about the clustering algorithm of Google.
The most straightforward answer is: only Google knows the answer.

However, you can get an idea of how far you can go. Just pick another, popular, website on your niche and put its address on the Google Adwords Tool. Google will show you the keywords associated with that site.

Click to expand...

I guess that type of strategy will be as close as I'll get to a definitive answer. Thanks for the reply brother.

thinktank1 said:

This is actually a really good question. When I guest post, I can manage to relate some pretty distant niches to my niche but I am not sure if go0gle sees it that way. Since we are talking about a machine (the algorithm) I would assume that niche relevance must be clear for the bot to understand.

Click to expand...

That's along the same lines as what I was thinking too. Since it's not a person making the decisions, you'd assume that there must be some definitive boundaries or factors involved in being "relevant." Thanks for the reply I appreciate it.