Main landing page does not rank as good a single news article - why?

[Beatbuster]

We are running several special interest websites in the German speaking market, covering outdoor sports and vacation topics. We are trying to focus on one main landing page for events and keywords, this should be number one für search engines. Besides we are producing numerous content (news, pictures, videos), which are supposed to rank well and to be found on Google News, but not to rank higher for the specific keyword  than our designated landing page. It seems, that we fail with this attempt.

Example one: The main page for the alpine Ski World Championships on our skiing portal www.skiinfo.de was supposed to be this one: http://magazin.skiinfo.de/3170--ski_wm_2011_garmisch-partenkirchen.html

for the Keywords 'ski wm 2011' in Germany. We missed this goal. Many of our own news articles ranked higher. When searching for 'ski wm 2011' on skiinfo.de only directly after the World Championships, the main page was ranked on 33rd position - 32 of our own articles ranked higher.

Why does the landing page rank worse than an article like this:

http://magazin.skiinfo.de/3173-ski-wm-2011-tina-maze-gewinnt-riesenslalom-keine-deutschen-medaillen.html ?

Another example: Our designated landing page for the Event 'International Mountain Summit' (a major mountaineering and climbing event in Bressanone/ITA) is this:

http://www.bergleben.de/klettern/2148--international_mountain_summit.html (Keywords: international mountain summit, IMS). We are experiencing that our news articles rank higher, when they are 'fresh', this one still does: http://www.bergleben.de/klettern/2149-international-mountain-summit-4.html. Why?

It would be perfect, if good content would strengthen the designated landing page. We are linking back to this landing page from each article in the breadcrumb, but this does not seem to be very successful. How can we achieve this?

[Goetzman]

I think backlinks is the biggest issue here....

[StalkerB]

I saw some German special interest videos once, don't remember much sports happening though

Besides we are producing numerous content (news, pictures, videos), which are supposed to rank well and to be found on Google News

Have you been approved by Google News? If not, you're not going to be found in there.

Here's info on what you need to do to get in (if you're not already) - http://www.google.com/support/news_pub/?hl=en - Basically create a news sitemap and submit your site for approval. If you get stuck, just ask

As for the ranking issue, well...

So. Much. Code! It gives me a headache to look at for a start, but that shouldn't be your problem A lot of links on there too (340 for the ranking page, 400 on the main page :s)

Anyway, it's hard to tell you exactly (especially as all the SEOmoz tools are down just now) but for the first example I'm going to give you a few gut feeling suggestions.

1. There's very little content on the main page and what is there doesn't seem to be unique to that page. I always like a static section, even at the bottom of the page, of unique content targeting my keywords.

2. The code to content is probably making crawling your site more difficult than needs be. I'm not saying your site is uncrawlable, but I can't look at it and know what's going on.

3. There is a LOT of links from the main page with 'ski wm 2011' in it. Linking out with the keyword you're targeting in the anchor isn't advisable as it suggests to search engines it's not a destination page, but a hub. Not always the case and not a strong factor, but the sheer volume here probably doesn't help.

4. Your keyword is the first words of the title on both those pages (among others). Not a problem on it's own, but if Google's having to choose 1 or 2 pages to display about that keyword then you're saying that all of these pages are about 'ski wm 2011' so it has to choose.

5. If the event is current then some of the results may have a Query Deserves Freshness (QDF) factor, resulting in a boost to your newer articles (this is probably the case for your second example).

6. Your main page for this event has very little authority and is buried 3+ levels deep. Effectively either page seems reasonable to Google as with not many links going to each, so it has to judge more on On Page factors (going back to lack of content and no unique content).

So, how to rememdy this.

1. Build external links. Get links with the anchor text 'ski wm 2011' going to the page you want to rank.

2. Build internal links. Make your important page immediately accessible from your home page.

3. Add unique content to the page. Instead of just a collection of other stories with links to them, add a few hundred words explaining what the event is.

If I get a chance later I'll look into running some of the SEOmoz tools against the pages (since they're currently down) and see if I can come up with some more specifics. In the meantime I need to do some work Hope this helps your thinking process.