Competing URLs
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Hi
We have a number of blogs that compete with our homepage for some keywords/phrases.
The URLs of the blogs contain the keywords/phrases. I would like to re-work the blogs so that they target different keywords that don't compete and are more relevant. Should I change the URLs as I think this is what is mainly causing the issue? If so, should I 301 old URL's to the homepage?
For example, say we we're a site that specialised in selling plastic cups. Currently there is a blog with the URL www.mysite.com/plastic-cups that outranks the homepage for _plastic cups. _The blog isn't particularly relevant to plastic cups and the homepage should rank for this term. How should I let Google know that it is the homepage that is most relevant for this term?
Thanks
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A few unordered thoughts:
- I don't think that the URL alone is what's causing the blog to outrank the homepage. Some causes are probably that the content is better suited towards "plastic cups", the on-page optimization is more specific towards "plastic cups", or that the blog post has more internal/external links pointing to it. Also could be a combination of any/all of these.
- If your main topic for the site is around plastic cups, then the homepage should probably rank for it. In which case you could 301 the blog post to the homepage, and ensure that the homepage is targeting "plastic cups" as best as possible and that the content suits that keyword well.
- If the main topic for the website isn't plastic cups, then I would argue that it's OK that the blog post ranks—take that and use the homepage to target something else entirely and just make sure the CTA on the blog post is appropriate.
The way to let Google know your homepage is most relevant for the term:
- Redirect blog post to homepage.
- Ensure homepage has well written and helpful content around the topic.
- Ensure homepage targeting (title tag, h1, etc) is focused on the topic.
- Re-submit sitemap to Google for re-crawling and wait for a few days/possibly a week.
Hope that's helpful!
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