Should I use a rel=canonical to the home page

[Blaze-Communication]

Hi guys,

I have a site where the homepage is ranking for the term 'industrial flooring' around position 30 and the actual level 2 industrial flooring page is ranking well below at around position 60.

I'm happy for the homepage to rank for this term and would like to see it improve, so here are my questions:

1: Is the existence of the level 2 page preventing the homepage from ranking higher due to keyword cannibalization etc.?

2: Would the use of the rel=canonical tag pointing from the level 2 page to the home page have a positive or negative impact on the homepage's rankings for 'industrial flooring'?

3: Is there anything else I'm missing?

Greatly appreciated.

[Blaze-Communication]

Thanks guys - that's very helpful.

[LinkWheelOldSchool]

1. if you have a link from the 2nd level page to your home page that would help the home page rank better

2. don't use rel=canonical (and +1 to what Patrick said, I agree with everything)

3. off page seo is needed to get your keywrd in the top 10 (directory listings, citations, social media and links of all types) + optimize your home page properly (and make sure it's not content thin, Google doesn't usually rank well thin content pages).

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi Blaze

1. No, that would not hinder your homepage from ranking.

2. Don't do that; if for anything, it's not the true use of a canonical tag and will hinder the performance of your level 2 page from other searches. If you have more than one page ranking, it's a good thing. Keyword cannibalization is not as much of an issue as it used to be as Google and other search engines are starting to look at domain topics. Meaning that they associate domains with keywords and topic themes.

3. At the moment, with your description, no.

If you want the homepage to rank for these terms, and it's more relevant the level 2 page, start optimizing the homepage for that particular keyword. Mind your title tags, content, meta description (for CTR), categorization on that page, as well as headers and internal links. Don't stuff the keyword; use it naturally.

Mention industrial flooring and variations in citations and listings and your social media accounts. But again, don't overdo it. Make it natural.

Hope this helps, let me know if you have any more questions! Good luck!