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[netbuilder]

I have a website which perform very well for some keywords and much less for other keywords. I would like to try to optimize the keywords with less performance.

Let's say our website offers 2 main services: KEYWORD A and KEYWORD Z. KEYWORD Z is a very important keyword for us in terms of revenue.

KEYWORD A gives us position Nr 1 on our local Google and redirect properly the visitors to xxxxxx.com/keyword-a/keyword-a.php

KEYWORD Z perform badly and gives us position Nr 7 on local Google search. 90% Google traffic is sent to xxxxxx.com/keyword-z/keyword-z.php and the other 10% is sent to the home page of the website.

The Homepage is a "soup" of all the services our company offers, some are important (KEYWORD Z) and other much less important.

In order to optimize the keyword KEYWORD Z we were thinking to make a permanent redirect for xxxxxx.com/keyword-z/keyword-z.php to xxxxxx.com and optimize the content of the Homepage to ONLY describe our KEYWORD Z. I am not sure if Google gives more importance in the content of the homepage or not. Of course links on the homepage to other pages like xxxxxx.com/keyword-a/keyword-a.php will still exists. The point for us is maybe to optimize better the homepage and give more importance to the KEYWORD Z.

Does it make sense or not?

[netbuilder]

Well KEYWORD Z is a very competitive keyword I do agree as well as is KEYWORD A. SEOmoz gives me an A grade for the On-Page optimization. It looks like some companies (at better position than us) purchased tons of links for KEYWORD Z but Google isn't doing anything about it...

[EGOL]

I agree with Mozo.  I would not do that redirect.

I would sharpen the optimization of the homepage for keyword z - but keep the rest of my business represented there.

I would also improve optimization of the keyword z page and create a few more pages of substantive content for keyword z then  link to them from the keyword z page.  I would want to look like a deep content source for keyword z.

I would then see where the homepage ranks.  If it defeats the keyword z page I would build links to the homepage.  If keyword z page ranks higher I would build links to it.

[DougRoberts]

As Mozo said, I wouldn't try and sort this out by re-working the homepage.

Your homepage should really cover your overall proposition, who you/the business is and what it means to the world and cover the range of services you offer. As far as inbound traffic goes - your homepage will more than likely be the landing page for "branded" traffic. People searching for your business.

You then want to have landing pages, for each of your offerings. These are going to be targetted to particular keywords. You want these pages to be the most relevant pages for the search engines to return for searches about your chosen keywords. As a result, these pages are going to need to be very specifically about the topic. (Homepages tend to be more general)

Have you established why your keyword-z page is not ranking so highly? Is it a more competitive keyword or are there weaknesses about the page/content/link profile etc that you can address?

[ClassifiedsKing]

I would not recommend that.

The homepage is best left for short tail generic keywords, users go their who are unsure and still researching.

If you are actually making money from that keyword, rather optimise for that by creating a dedicated page that focuses on pulling the user through the purchasing cycle. I would 301 from I would 301 to xxxxxx.com/keyword-z to xxxxxx.com/keyword-z.

I found Google usually pics about 3-4 related phrases it will let you rank well for per page.