first off, my blog is about selling rap/hip hop beats. I like to post about other things sometimes to...lets say i make a random post about swimming pools.... Now i heard google penelizes you if you write a whole bunch of random crap that isnt relevent to your blog.....but is it ok if i veer off the subject for a couple of post? Or should i just stick to rap/hip hop topics?
You really don't even need to worry about what search engines do/think anymore. They are a lot smarter than you would think. If you just focus on making a good blog for end users, Google will like it. There's a pretty interesting read here how one guy actually ranked better in Google after he banned Google from being able to spider his site. http://seo2.0.onreact.com/how-i-recovered-from-panda-by-banning-google
thanks alot for the advice, i got all of it except "end users" what exactly is that? excuse me for the noob question..
You can have a cooking blog and write nothing but football posts. The only problem is that if your users aren't interested in your posts, they aren't going to return - and that's the main thing you want, repeat visits. People going to a site about selling beats want to read about selling beats. An occasional "this happened to me and ..." post is okay, but most of your posts should be about the subject of the blog. BTW, end users are the people who visit your site.
I would try to keep a general theme for the majority of your posts but you can certainly stray from the theme every so often. As others have said, as long as your visitors like the material and they keep coming to your site it doesn't matter.
I'd say probably stick to things that fall roughly within your niche (like travelling-scuba diving, hiking, mountain climbing and cruises, that sort of thing) although like the other guys have said if you write in a clear manner and there's a reason for the writing being there that should be fine. Maybe a separate category/tags for specific posts? If the writing's consistent the search engines will be able to see trends in what you write about and act accordingly, I would have thought.
Yea first of all, don't worry about Google..second, that's a myth, you can write about whatever you want, that's what blogs are supposed to be like, personal and fun.
Search Engines do not penalize you for writing whatever you want. It is just not good for SEO of your blog as you wont get targeted traffic from the search engines.
End user is when you purchased a product and use it or not. You are the consumer. You buy a bike from the bike store or food at the grocery store, you are now the end user. Now you need to by dinner, for use. End User again.
Would these be sponsored posts? If so, all I can suggest is to put them in an 'other' or 'sponsored posts' category and make the links no follow. Maybe Google won't care if you have a few unrelated posts on your blog but they will care if you pass link juice to other sites for money.
Unless you related it somehow it'd be cool to stick with your subject.. or you could reference kendrick lamar's song swimming pools...