Pass Page LinkJuice? Or Pass Keyword LinkJuice?

[iansears]

I have a popular page that is not one of the three pages that I am hoping to raise awareness of (want to focus on). The dilemma I am trying to understand is that I really don't want to encourage all the flow from the popular to ONE of my hopeful pages (focus pages).

Rather, I want to focus the keyword portions of that page to help the three hopeful pages. So I consider the rel=canonical tag.... err no. rel=canonical would pass ALL my popular page link juice to ONE of my three hopeful pages.

What's the best way to pass the keyword link juice relevant to each of my three hopeful pages their, um, portion, of the popular page link juice.

I'm white hat by preference. All four pages are good legitimate landing pages, and of course I dread sabotaging the popularity of what is working.

Suggestions? Advice?

[RyanKent]

If I am understanding your question correctly, you have a page on your website which has gained popularity. You would prefer three other related pages to benefit from this popularity. You did not share your URL so I will make up an example:

Popular page: apples

Other three pages: apple juice, apple sauce, apple butter

On your /apples page, whenever you first mention "apple juice" in content, use the phrase as anchor text pointing to the /apple-juice page of your site. Repeat the process for "apple sauce" and "apple butter".

This process will provide you with three relevant links in content which also capture the perfect anchor text for your page. It's the best type of links possible. The only thing you can do to further improve the value of these links is to ensure they are as early in the article as possible.

A secondary approach which is not as effective would be to offer a sidebar block titled "Relevant Articles" or something along that lines, and then offer links to the other 3 pages in that block.

[iansears]

Sometimes asking a question publicly exposes those "oh! duh..." epiphanies.

Of course, adding content to my popular page that keyword-anchor-text-links over to a hopeful page... and do that for all three of my hopeful pages... will accomplish my goal. Still, I invite argument. Are there better ways?

Recommend an SEOmoz webinar or article that addresses this the best? (sniff... I LOVE SEOmoz webinars!)

[iansears]

Agreed. That is how I use it.

In my case, the page that became popular has good content specific to another page I have that I call a hopeful success. If only my hopeful success page had gained the popularity for that portion of why folks love my popular page.

Multiply that point time 3 hopeful pages.

[sesertin]

You should place canonical link when two pages contents are identical or have a very little difference. If this is the case, so your popular page's text taht you not prefer is very close to the text you prefer you can place the canonical link. If You have a totally different content I think you should just place some links pointingg to your preferred page.