Does google like Category pages or pages with lots of Products on them?

[DoRM]

We are having an issue with getting Google to rank the page we want.  To have this page http://www.jakewilson.com/c/52/-/346/Cruiser-Motorcycle-Tires rank for the key word Cruiser Motorcycle Tires; however, this page http://www.jakewilson.com/t/52/-/343/752/Cruiser-Motorcycle-Tires is ranking instead and it has less links and page authority according to site explorer and it is farther down in the hierarchy.   I am wondering if google just likes pages that have actual products on them instead of a page leading to the page with all the products.

Thoughts?

[DoRM]

We are currently having meetings about the bigger issues, but I need examples like this (individual pages) to explain the reasoning why we need to make changes.  This is a very big site and it will take some time to get the needed changes done.   Also they asked me directly about these pages.  I just enjoy getting other peoples feed back, so thank you.

[josh-riley]

Well, you really are the only person who can answer what you think it best for your customer and then your site. You can see where revenue comes from, what products your customers want, etc. I know that, for example, I can get better conversions on better pages than others, so I want the ones that have the best conversion opportunity to rank better than the other ones.

If there's a difference between what pages you want to rank for several big keywords vs what Google has ranking, then that's usually caused by the site not being SEO'd properly to give Google the indicators for what pages you'd like to rank for which terms.

As the SEO director, it may be best worth your while to do a site audit and figure out how to address the bigger issues vs individual key pages?

[DoRM]

I just started here a month ago and was not here when they put the website together so I am trying to figure out if we should just go with what google wants or try and help them pick the other one.  Also they have done this with several big key words so I am trying to figure out what the best thing to do is.   There are several pages with the All like the example.

Thoughts?

[josh-riley]

Google likes the page it thinks is best to match the search query. Kind of an annoying answer, but that's how Google fancies its algo. That said, both of your pages have the same page title and the same H1. What I mean by that is you aren't necessarily telling that you want that second URL to rank for that specific term because you are also telling it you want your first URL to.

So, create some difference between the two pages to help indicate which page you want to rank for which content. When you don't differentiate, Google will make the choice for you and they rarely pick the page you'd prefer.