Home page keyword effecting internal page ranking
-
Hello,
My client has a second keyword for the home page that is competitive.
The home page is not being ranked for this keyword. Instead, an internal category page is ranking.
This internal category page is more relevant than the home page - it shows the categories for the actual products that this term refers to.
But everyone around us in Google's page results has far more backlinks than the internal page, and we're all heavily optimized for this term.
My question is, is it safe to pull the second term off of the home page or is this internal page strong because it is somehow being strengthened by the home page optimization?
-
Sorry for the misunderstanding - I'm just talking about both title tags
-
Since Google already found the most relevant page on your site for the kw (combination), I would say that things would not change. I assume that the general site topic remains the same - even though you remove the text from your homepage (about how much text is it? just text? links as well? <- if yes .. this is where it gets tricky).
-
Welcome. As far as things like that go, I'm not the most well-versed unfortunately. If you are linking to that page with relevant anchor text, then it seems possible because your home page is at least somewhat relevant to the keyword, but it's tough to say.
-
Thanks Eric,
I'd like to take the second keyword off of the home page to focus on the (first) main home page keyword, which we're slipping for. Do you think the home page strength (with my second keyword) is somehow supporting my internal page with the same keyword (the second keyword)?
-
Internal pages are almost always more relevant to specific phrases than is the home page. If you run a website that sells doors, the home page is going to mention regular doors, french doors, etc, but when someone searches for French Doors, the SE is going to send them to your french doors page not the home page because they're not looking for doors of all types. They want french doors.
If your home page is still relevant to the keyword, keep it there. Just don't keyword stuff.
-
What is it you want to pull from the homepage? Some copy-text of a couple of hundred words?
I would recommend not to pull it off, as it works and seems to work good. What is it you want to gain by removing it from the homepage?
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Should I redirect a popular but irrelevant blog post to the home page?
Hi. I'm trying to get my website; www.ciphr.com , to rank for keywords relevant to "HR Software" in the UK. It's a highly competitive industry and we rank ~mid to low on page one for some of our ideal keywords that are highly relevant and high volume. Years ago we took the decision to blog about topics more loosely related to the world of work. One of our blog posts, about plants in the office https://www.ciphr.com/advice/plants-in-the-office/ is popular. It gets decent traffic and consistently builds backlinks to the post without any further effort on our part. The specific page has a PA of 46 and DA of 55 with >500 domains linking to it. This compares to our home page with a PA of 47 and 700 linking domains. It is typically the home page that ranks for our money keywords "HR Software" "HR Systems" in the UK. Because this blog post is so loosely related to our actual business, the traffic it generates is highly unlikely to turn into a customer of ours. I am considering redirecting the blog post to the home page to pass link juice to the home page. The concern I have is that, based on the anchor text and contextual signals from linking pages, Google might then infer that our home page is less relevant for our money keywords and more relevant for "plants". Are my concerns unfounded? What are your thoughts? Should I redirect the blog post to the home page? Another internal page? Keep the blog post live? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | crichardson19922 -
Should you do on-page optimization for a page with rel=canonical tag?
If you ad a rel=canonical tag to a page, should you still optimize that page? I'm talking meta description, page title, etc.
On-Page Optimization | | marynau0 -
Canonical home page references - logo link
should a website's logo be linked to the "abc.com/index.html" page or to the "abc.com" domain root? Is one better for the search engine robots?
On-Page Optimization | | mtishman1 -
Multi Keyword URL Ranking at Number 1
Here is part of a URL that takes the local number 1 spot for "implant dentist glasgow" [website] /implant-dentistry-glasgow-scotland/implant-dentistry-glasgow-scotland.html The first /implant-dentistry-glasgow-scotland/ directory or page is protected and presumably just exists for ranking reasons. I am tempted to copy that URL on a client's implant page to compete for the keyword (I believe I have better content). Given that it works well for the other site, can you think of any reason that would that be a bad idea? Thanks very much.
On-Page Optimization | | neilmac0 -
123 keywords for a page
Hey mOz fans , I have a site that has 130 keywords. can ı target this amount just incoperate them as Ryan discussed Before.
On-Page Optimization | | atakala0 -
One page dropped like a stone from rankings - why?
I have one page targeted to a specific keyword that seems to have dropped into oblivion but rest of website seems Ok and as usual. website is www.pod-exhibition-systems.co.uk search term is "banner stands" Grade is A in SEO moz tools and 3 other SEO programs. looking for an avenue to try as has been 2 weeks so far. regards Joe
On-Page Optimization | | podweb0 -
Keyword Placement in Page Title - will changing it make a big difference?
Hiya guys I've noticed since changing my Title of my forum from: Talk Nightlife | Nightlife and Clubbing forum for the UK to Talk Nightlife | Nightlife Forum and Clubbing Guide for the UK (current) ... That its jumped from 22nd to 10th in google for term "nightlife forum" Am wondering, because of the on site optimisation tool telling me I should put the keyword to the front to something like eg: Nightlife Forum | Talk Nightlife Clubbing Guide for the UK Will changing the Keyword and putting it to front of the Title make a big difference? Your thoughts please guys Cheers Luke
On-Page Optimization | | Lukescotty0 -
Blog page outranks static page for KW -- why?
Blog page ranks 10 in Google, while the static page is on page 7. What makes it more interesting is that the blog page scores an "F" with the Term Target tool while the static page scores an "A". Static page has more inbound links and a mR/mT of 3.89/ 4.54 vs. 3.71/ 4.14 for the blog page. Any ideas on how to approach this one?
On-Page Optimization | | 540SEO0