Home Page & Most Important Category Page Cannibalizing Each Other

[AarcMediaGroup]

OK, so here goes.  We have an odd situation on our hands.  Our website sells a product technically known as "nail polish strips".  We are a small player at the moment, but the reviews we've gotten in "side-by-side" comparisons vs. the big boys have been crazy, and literally always in our favor.

Now the issue.....

The best way to describe our product as mentioned above is they are Nail Polish Strips.  Our domain name includes the term "Nail Strips" in it.  Of the 200+ bloggers that have done reviews and provided us links, about 80% or so have linked to the home page, most just using our websites name, some have been nice enough to actually use keyword terms like nail polish strips.

Moral of the story, for the term nail polish strips, our link profile would indicate to the google machine that our home page is stronger for this term.

THE BIG ISSUE HOWEVER......

Our main category on the site that shows products is the page we originally intended to optimize for the term Nail Polish Strips.  And our aim was going to be to optimize our home page for something else, like maybe plain old Nail Strips.

THE BIGGER ISSUE......

At any given moment, Google is having a hard time figuring it out.  Based on our link profile, we should be on page one, but what we're seeing is today, it's our Nail Polish Strips category page that ranks for that term, and tomorrow that listing will be replaced with our home page.  Literally, last night the home page was on the top of page two, and today, the category page is on the middle of page two.  They keep flip flopping.  Sometimes they both appear within the first 3 pages, sometimes only one appears on page two, the other drops out of the top 10 pages.

OUR THINKING IS.......

Our home page obviously has more strength and if the google machine is even implying they like it for that term, we might as well accommodate that.  Keyword spy shows this term has a volume of around 18,000 searches.  The term isn't hugely competitive, so we planned to 301-redirect the current category page URL that is competing with the home page, to the home page, and re-create and optimize the category page for something different, like Nail Polish Stickers or something to that effect.

THE FINAL ISSUE.......

The term stickers in this industry as it relates to our product has been the victim of a negative PR campaign because the big boys (or girls) are trying to say "Nail Stickers" are garbage as opposed to "Nail Polish Strips".  The problem is Nail Stickers gets a lot more traffic.  So we figured, we'd optimize the category page for Nail Polish Stickers, and explain in the text, that despite what some of our competitors say, just because we're using the word "stickers" to describe them, doesn't mean they are bad, so on and so forth.  I ONLY MENTION THIS SO YOU SEE WHY I'M HESITANT TO PULL THE TRIGGER ON OUR ABOVE FIX.

I know this is long, and I'm not doing a great job of putting it in to words, but any insight will help.  I'm supposed to pull the trigger today or tomorrow on this re-direct and new strategy, but don't want to do so until I get some of my fellow ninja's opinions.

[CleverPhD]

I think you are missing my point.  The Nail Stickers page does not need to be a list of links to products like your other page as that is not the product you are providing.

Make it a page that talks about the differences.  You can make it unique.  Start a campaign about "Friends Don't Let Friends Wear Nail Stickers".  Make it funny even.  Why not show pictures of bad "Nail Stickers" and have users submit.  Think about it and you will be able to setup a separate but complementary page that is different.  Beat your competitors at their own game.

[AarcMediaGroup]

Problem being, the nail polish strips and stickers are the same product.  It's just that Nail Stickers gets a boat load more traffic than Nail Polish Strips.  In the public's eye, they don't really know the difference, but those that do would be alienated because they have a bad association with stickers.  It's a conundrum that we're in.

We didn't want to have a whole 2nd page that listed the same exact products, just optimized for a different keyword.  Post-Panda that's a bad practice.

But honestly, our competitors that are bashing stickers are just trying to make sure people don't mix up this new type of product with the old more inferior stickers.

[CleverPhD]

My gut agrees with you to 301 the Nail Polish Strips category page to the home page.  If you could not do that, say you needed the category page for site navigation, then use the canonical link (Google thinks of it as a 301).  The 301 would be more solid - also on the home page setup a canonical to self link.

On the other keyword, just setup another page and optimize for that keyword separately.  Talk em up!  If anything you do a whole post on why you think stickers sucks and so they should look at your ... wait for it .... Nail Polish Strips!  I think you can turn that negative into a huge positive and the optimization can be setup separately for those keywords etc.    Your sticker page will be on a different URL and with optimization on a different term so it should not be a problem.