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I've previously used Webconfs do research domain age - it's a pretty good resource.  Don't think you'll be able to tell exactly when it made it's way through the Google Sandbox, but you should at least be able to determine when it went online.  Although, if it was was anytime after 1998-99, then it's almost guaranteed to have made a trip to the box

You can download the Google Toolbar or get Google Chrome and get the Chrome SEO Add-On, both of which have excellent tools for determining a site's rank and what terms they're after.  Google Ad Planner also has some features in this regard.  Good luck!

Farhad,

You've been a member for what, almost 2 months now?  Give it some time. Try posting your inquiries here on the Q&A, as the SEO moz community is generally quite quick to answer just about anything you can throw at em.  You also have one freebie question a month that you can send to the team, so choose wisely.  And be nice to the SEOmoz team - they make this whole thing possible

Thanks for your response and that great blog article by Rand (hadn't found that one yet!).

I absolutely agree with you - we want our users to be landing on our subfolders where the content is geared at exactly what they're looking to find (childcare, pet care, senior care, etc.).  Our subfolders are, I believe, in pretty good shape in terms of content and keyword targeting.  Nevertheless, it's still important to get the homepage to rank for something, especially because that's where 99% of links will point to.  I guess I'm still struggling with what broad terms we can use on the homepage that we can still realistically rank for.  As I mentioned, we started with things like "family care" and "family services", but those keywords usually rank for content that has nothing to do with the kind of services we offer.  Rand's example is simply constructed, starting with comics and breaking it down from there.  Unfortunately our site's services don't lend themselves to some kind of no-brainer, broad umbrella term.   I guess I just need to do a bit more broad keyword research and leave the specific keyword targeting to the subfolders.

Hey there SEO Mozzers,

I'm new to the SEO Moz community and would genuinely appreicate any advice/input on this topic.

I'm part of the online marketing team for a UK-based site called Tendea.co.uk. We operate an introductory platform for enabling the connection between parents and families seeking care services (childcare, pet care, senior care, home & garden care, etc.) and individuals providing care services (babysitters, nannies, pet sitters, housekeepers, etc.).  To take a US site for comparison, the services are very similar to those offered by Care.com

I'm currently having a bit of difficulty as to what very broad, umbrella keywords we should be targeting for the homepage, primarily in the meta title/description.  We've started with keywords such as "care, family services, care services, and family care", but I think these terms are almost too generic and aren't necessarily terms we really want to be ranking for.  I suggested to our in-house SEO team that we just target some of our strongest keywords from each of the individual care categories for the homepage (babysitter, pet sitter, housekeeper, caregiver, etc.).  They were against this idea, though, as we have separate subfolders that target the individual care categories and their specific keywords (tendea.co.uk/childcare, /pet-care, /elderly-care, etc.)  Essentially the argeument is that we don't want to be targeting these terms on the homepage and on a separate subfolder page, as then the two pages would be competing for each other's keywords.  Instead we're being encouraged to find some sort of umbrella terms to target for the home page that can encompass all of the care categories.

For comparison's sake, I took a look at Care.com's meta data and it targets all their specific keywords for the various care categories "Babysitters, nannies, Child Care & Senior Home care - Care.com".  Is this the right kind of strategy to take, or do you guys have any suggestions for much broader, umbrella keywords to target on our homepage?  Thanks in advance for your input!

-Mike

I've previously used Webconfs do research domain age - it's a pretty good resource.  Don't think you'll be able to tell exactly when it made it's way through the Google Sandbox, but you should at least be able to determine when it went online.  Although, if it was was anytime after 1998-99, then it's almost guaranteed to have made a trip to the box