Canoncial tag for homepage?
-
I have a site that gets most of it's traffic from one keyword combination, but I've noticed lately that instead of sending people to the homepage, it's sending people to an internal page.
This isn't a problem, except for the fact that all the best link juice and domain authority has been directed at the homepage.
There's not a lot of content on the homepage, so is it worth setting up a canonical tag on the homepage for this internal page to ensure that the page authority/link juice helps to boost this page that is already being indexed for the keyword?
-
Yeah I'd say that Google is just preferring the internal page over the homepage... the content is more relevant, the keyword is in the url, etc.
-
Yeah the internal page has the keyword in the url - and it actually has more relevant content. So perhaps it's ok that that page is being ranked, it's just a shame that the homepage has the better page rank, so we're not getting as strong of a ranking as I think we would if the homepage were getting more of the internal links.
Is it a good idea to point internal links from other pages to the homepage instead, when the internal page really has the most relevant content just to try to get a better ranking? I'd say no, right?
-
Yeah, I tend to agree with Michael. Make sure this isn't an issue with your home-page. Google does seem to be preferring more targeted pages these days, though, and it can happen for a lot of reasons. This is an older post by Rand, but it's still very relevant:
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/wrong-page-ranking-in-the-results-6-common-causes-5-solutions
-
Oh, I think you're asking for trouble if you do that.
Unless your home page is really badly targeted for that keyword, or the internal page has the keyword in the URL and your domain doesn't, or somehow you've built a ton of links to the internal page and NOT the homepage, this is really suspicious, and makes me think that Google might be levying a penalty against your home page.
If that's the case, the canonical tag runs the risk of transferring the penalty
First off, install Chartelligence in your Chrome browser, and then take a look at your Google Analytics to see when the traffic dropped for your home page, and from that, if that lines up with a particular iteration of Panda or Penguin.
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
-
Stong Tags still useful in 2016
Hello, Are strong tags still beneficial in 2016? A few co-workers feel they look spammy on our site and that they are no longer really used by the search engines. However, we can't find any real significant info for no longer implementing them or saying they're outdated. Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | STP_SEO0 -
Unkown H1-Tag on my webshop
Dear community, I have a unknown and undetecable H1-tag on my webshop. I'm currently optimizing my webshop and get stuck by two H1-tags on every page. Does anyone know where i can remove this H1-tag? My webshop URL: www.rijwielcashencarry.nl Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | rijwielcashencarry0400 -
Title tag and URL Optimization
Hello guys, Should the URL reflect the structure of the title of a webpage? This is the old title with the Url: 20mm O/D Black Polypropylene LSZH Flexible Conduit 100m Coil /Product/20mm-o-d-black-polypropylene-lszh-conduit-100m-coil/1352 I changed the keyword position and it looks like this: 20mm Flexible Conduit | O/D Black Polypropylene LSZH | 100m I kept the same Url for now, should I change that too? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | PremioOscar0 -
Removing text from Homepage - Bad idea?
Hi Mozzers, I've just read this great article: http://moz.com/ugc/how-to-build-a-great-online-fashion-brand-34-things-that-really-amazing-fashion-retailers-do I'm working with my wife on a small (hopefully, growing) fashion website www.vintageeheirloom.com One of the points was not to directly sell on the homepage, rather draw customers into different areas of the site. Seems good advice and it's followed by many big brands online. As a small company, doing fairly well for some targeted keywords, do you think it would be a good or bad idea for me to remove most, or all of the text on my homepage. The main emphasis of our site is vintage Chanel and using the tool nTopic I score 99% relevancy for 'Vintage Chanel'. Removing would certainly affect this. Obviously I could amend my Vintage Chanel shopping category to include all this. I'd be grateful if you have any thoughts / similar experience. Thanks ! Kevin
On-Page Optimization | | well-its-1-louder0 -
Title Tag and Company Name
Hello everyone! The company I work for has an e-commerce site that needs to be optimized. I am starting from the title tags which are too long and need optimized for specific keywords. Thing is that each title tag contains the specific keywords for the page and the company name. My question is should I keep the company name within the title tags or should I just keep the keywords I target for those pages? How will it affect my rank? Cheers Oscar
On-Page Optimization | | PremioOscar0 -
Keyword use in Title tag?
To improve SEO on a particular keyword, should you use that same keyword in the title tag of multiple pages within your site? Will that help or would it actually hurt by causing pages within your site to complete against each other for that keyword? Does it make a difference if that keyword is truly used on all those different pages?
On-Page Optimization | | KHCreative0 -
Summary of Anchor Text and Hash Tags
This a summary of my understanding of anchor text and hash tags, along with a question. I'm looking for confirmation of my assumptions and an answer to the question. Here we go: Given these two links on a page in order, Google will use the anchor text "first" a) First b) a) Second Given these two links on a page in order, Google will use the anchor text "Second" a) First b) Second Given these three links on a page in order, Google will use the anchor text "Second" and "Third" a) First b) Second c) Third Is this consistent with your understanding of using hash tags to get around the first link rule? Here's my question: If I have the following 4 links on a page, does 50% of the link juice go to Page A and 50% to Page B; OR 25% to Page A and 75% to page B; OR something else? www.example.com/Page-A.html www.example.com/Page-B.html#anchor1 www.example.com/Page-B.html#anchor2 www.example.com/Page-B.html#anchor3 Thanks in advance.
On-Page Optimization | | dvansant0 -
How? Title in Google differs than actual title tag
Just curious on how sites do this? If you search for a video (perhaps Green Lantern Trailer), you'll see the YouTube results in Google/Bing listed as YouTube - Green Lantern Trailer but when you go to the page, the actual title tag displayed is Green Lantern Trailer - YouTube I've seen other sites do this too. I'm just curious what they are doing (I don't see any other title tags in the html)? I thought your title tag is what is displayed in SERP? Thanks,
On-Page Optimization | | NicB10