Landing page redirect along with complete content

[vtmoz]

Hi Moz community,

We have a page with "keyword" we are targeting in slug like website.com/keyword/. This page doesn't have much back-links or visits like homepage. So we decided to redirect homepage to /keyword page along with complete content. Will this going to hurt? Only change anybody can notice is URL. Are there any risks involved. I think this is the best way to highlight the page we been thinking about.

Thanks

[vtmoz]

Hi Patrcik,

Thanks for such detailed response.

We tried a little to make it naturally as you said; but seems like it gonna take more time to outrage the homepage. Rather than saying landing page, I want to say redirecting homepage to another page. Anyhow we are not ranking better for the "keyword" we are targeting, so we decided this redirection. We noticed our competitors doing good by ranking with website.com/keyword.

Can we redirect for a month around, so this /keyword page might get highlighted to Google and users as well. We try to replace /keyword page with homepage internally to avoid internal redirects (Homepage have been linked internally from many sub-domains even).

We tried linking internally /keyword page to say Google how important the page is, still it didn't workout. We decided to risk as we are anyway not doing great right now.

Please share your views.

[badgergravling]

I'd second Patrick's advice - I've seen people try and do this with redirects and canonicalisation, and it normally leads to a mess that has to be sorted out in the future...

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi there

I would not be redirecting your homepage to a keyword page. What I would do is put on-page SEO efforts into the /keyword page so that users that are searching for that keyword can land on the proper page. The homepage, I would focus on branded and who your business is / what you do content. Link off to internal pages like your /keyword page and others, they will thrive off the organic equity your homepage builds. Not to mention, most of your branded mentions / listings are going to go to your homepage.

Traffic for a homepage is usually reserved for branded and high level topical keywords revolving around what your business does, so redirecting it loses that piece of your SEO strategy. I would really and strongly focus on doing this. Reason being, most of your traffic is going to come through your homepage. If you eliminate that branded and traffic equity, it could be detrimental to your user experience / brand equity.

Unless I'm completely misunderstanding, it sounds like a waste of efforts and a shortcut in SEO efforts that could backfire. Search engines are smart. Play the game correctly and all will end right.

Hope this helps - good luck!
Patrick