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Subpage Ranking Instead Of Home Page

by MarkSherris
5 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hey,

I have a client for SEO... his website has been ranking for his main keyword for years now on the home page, he only wants the home page to rank but a few weeks ago Google decided to change the page that was ranking (the home page) and instead rank a different page a page such as the following:

http://www.websiteurl(dot)com/keywor...ts-to-rank-for

Now, I realise that Google made changes a few months back and the reason Google will be ranking the subpage is because Google thinks that it's more optimized because it has the keyword in etc (whereas his home page URL doesn't have the keyword in it).

My question though is what would be the best way to get the home page back ranking, instead of the subpage?

Would it be possible to change the URL of the page ranking to something different, and then set up a blank page where the current subpage is...and redirect it to the home page?

Bit confused but it needs sorting as ranking is dropping and conversions are sh*te on the subpage.

Mark
#home #page #ranking #subpage
  • Profile picture of the author nicktyler
    The redirect is only a very short term solution as the home page doesn't have the keyword in it anyway and the situation will just return to the current state.

    Without seeing the site I would guess that it is probably to do with the internal linking structure.

    Does the home page ahve the Keyword linking to the sub page and the subpage have the keyword in the title etc... You should try to target each page with 1 or very few keywords. You could try using variations of the keyword on the sub page where they occur or link the key word back to the home page (although this might create bad user experience if they go in a circle and the sub page is designed to take them deeper) and use the keyword on the home page if possible and in the title, h tags etc...
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  • Profile picture of the author dburk
    Originally Posted by MarkSherris View Post

    ...the reason Google will be ranking the subpage is because Google thinks that it's more optimized because it has the keyword in etc (whereas his home page URL doesn't have the keyword in it).

    My question though is what would be the best way to get the home page back ranking, instead of the subpage?
    Hi Mark,

    My goodness, start with optimizing the the page he wants to rank (the homepage) for his primary keyword, this is really basic SEO! Google ranks pages based on relevance, make the target page relevant.

    Next, optimize the entire website by using keyword rich anchortext on all the internal site links in every page that points at the target page.

    Finally get some quality backlinks from high PR pages on external websites that use the primary keyword within the anchortext.

    These are all signals to tell Google which keywords are relevant for each of your individual pages. It's important to remember, search engines rank individual pages, not websites.
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  • Profile picture of the author MarkSherris
    dburk.... I know your just trying to help but seriously.... do you think I don't know this? lol - He's my SEO client, I know what I'm doing with everything like but it's this 1 thing that I haven't personally experienced before, so that's why I've come on here for a bit of guidance / see if anyone else has had the same thing

    Yes, his home page URL doesn't have the keyword in it, because it's his company name, and his company name isn't his keyword, but the home page was ranking for the past 5 years on page 1 position 5 or above, it slipped a bit and when I started working on the site it was bottom of the page, I quickly brought it back up to the middle / slightly higher and then all of a sudden Google starts ranking the sub-page instead :\

    ------

    Nick, thanks I noticed actually that yes he links from the home page to the subpage using the keyword, so perhaps if the page name was changed so that he wasn't linking using the exact keyword that would help, I think it's definitely an internal linking issue as his home page has far more power its just Google must be assuming the keyword page has more relevancy.

    Mark
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    • Profile picture of the author dburk
      Hi Mark,

      I'm sorry, I thought you were saying the homepage doesn't have the the keyword in it. After rereading your question I see that you were referring to the inurl: property.

      Rather than lowering the total relevancy signals of the interior page, I believe you will better serve your client's needs by increasing the relevancy of the homepage. There are a number of key signals of relevancy that Google provides search operators for that will help you narrow down the areas that can be improved. Obviously, the sum of those key signals are greater for the interior page.

      Use the following keyword filtering search operators, in combination with the site: operator, to see how your client's homepage compares to the higher ranking interior page.
      • allinanchor:
      • allintext:
      • allintitle:
      • allinurl:

      Example:
      allinanchor:SEO forum site:warriorforum.com
      allintext:SEO forum site:warriorforum.com
      allintitle:SEO forum site:warriorforum.com
      allinurl:SEO forum site:warriorforum.com
      Of course we already know that allinurl: is nonexistent for the homepage, however it is just one of the primary signals and you need to see the homepage outranking the interior page for the other primary signal groups. Any of these signal groups that are ranking your homepage lower than the interior page indicate where your optimization opportunities lie.

      Once you have optimized all of these (except the inurl: ) primary on-site signals, you then should use the allinanchor: keyword search operator filter, without the site: operator filter, to see how your off-page optimization for those two pages compare. It could be that the homepage recently lost some powerful backlink(s) or that the interior page has gained powerful backlink(s) from external websites.
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  • Profile picture of the author RichardF
    This is a common problem that's been going on for months. No one seems to know exactly what causes it (it's probably a range of factors). I've had several sites suffer from this. I just let them sit idle for a couple of months and now they're back and ranking again (after the latest G update a few days ago). I gather it's some sort of penalty, filter or a simply a bug in the algorithm... Sorry I can't offer you a solution other than to carry on as normal and wait it out.
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