How to Determine a Site's "Niche" for Link Acquisition Purposes?

What does Google think the site is about?

[Fgump910]

For fun, I put the URL for Boing Boing in Google's keyword tool, meant to suggest keywords based off page content, and I got 100% laptop/computer keywords. Anybody who has been to that site (one of the most popular blogs on the internet) knows that laptops are only a small part of the site content.

So...what is the site about according to Google? Well, Google's PPC program is pretty damned sure it is about laptops, but I know otherwise. It clearly just looked at the site as it is now, and made a determination of the current keyword densities. It really made me wonder though.

The reason I ask is because we all know we are supposed to get links on "niche" sites, yet many blogs and sites are so ubiquitous in nature that I can't imagine Google being able to make accurate accurate assessment, or even categorize it into niche (man I hate that word).

Is there a better "niche determination" technique. Should I just avoid sites that aren't obviously focused on a particular topic? Also, how flexible is a niche....would a real estate blog be able to host a construction link, or a female health site be able to host a swimming pool link without being questioned?

Anybody with some hard evidence of where these "niche boundaries" actually occur, please let me know!

[wheel]

he reason I ask is because we all know we are supposed to get links on "niche" sites, yet many blogs and sites are so ubiquitous in nature that I can't imagine Google being able to make accurate accurate assessment, o

I have started to question this over the past year or so. I think it's good practice, but does it matter from a ranking perspective? Not so sure anymore.

I'm in niche A. I get a lot of links from niche B which is directly related to niche A, but I'm the only one mining niche B for links - my competitors don't go there (they should). Niche B links are very related, and more authoritative than links directly from my niche. Can Google connect those dots? I don't know how.

IMO the reason to get links from your niche now is less about ranking and more about hand review. If I get a hand review, I want my links to look to a person as if they are in my niche, rather than a mess of unrelated topics.

[martinibuster]

How about page relevance to the web page that page is linking to?

[buckworks]

If you aim your link development energies according to the type of eyeballs you want to reach, questions about theming tend to resolve themselves.

Not perfectly, but well enough.

I figure that if a link would make good sense to humans, get the link and let the search engines make of it what they will. It's their job to figure out things that make sense to humans, so get the link then move on to your next target.

or a female health site be able to host a swimming pool link

The logic of a link would depend on the context, and the context is the page, not the site. A link to swimming pools would be a misfit on the health site's page about vitamins, but on a page that discussed the health benefits of swimming it would make good sense.

[leadegroot]

Some off topic backlinks will never be a problem - indeed, a profile of only precisely on-topic links would be a very odd beastie indeed.
Its when you have too many that you may have a problem.
Of course, the question then becomes 'how many is too many', and thats a question that its difficult to have an answer to :(