Ranking For The Main Keyword: Homepage VS Subpage??

8 replies
  • SEO
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I have wondered about this for a long time now...

Do you guys find that it is harder to rank a SUBPAGE for a main keyword, compared to ranking the homepage?

It seems to me that it has always been easier to rank the homepage of a website rather than a subpage.

However, in some cases (IE: when using brand name physical product keywords) it makes more sense to try to rank a SUBPAGE rather than the homepage (and would look better if you get MANUALLY reviewed by google, which is very common nowadays).

What do you guys think? Is is stupid to use a subpage for a main keyword?

And this is assuming you are using a new domain, not an aged domain. I am pretty sure that with an AGED domain it is stupid to use anything OTHER than the high PR homepage to rank for a main keyword.
#homepage #keyword #main #ranking #subpage
  • Profile picture of the author aygabtu
    Most of the sites I do, the homepage is pretty irrelevant. I rank in the top 10 for a bunch of keywords but they are inner pages. My homepages are no where to be found in the top 10 for keywords. Could I target my keywords to the homepage? Sure. But my homepage is not on-page optimized for the keywords, so you're losing some of the link juice.

    Point your links to the appropriate page for users to find the answer they are looking for. Most times that is not going to be your homepage.
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    • Profile picture of the author juliashing
      Originally Posted by aygabtu View Post

      Most of the sites I do, the homepage is pretty irrelevant. I rank in the top 10 for a bunch of keywords but they are inner pages. My homepages are no where to be found in the top 10 for keywords. Could I target my keywords to the homepage? Sure. But my homepage is not on-page optimized for the keywords, so you're losing some of the link juice.

      Point your links to the appropriate page for users to find the answer they are looking for. Most times that is not going to be your homepage.
      yes you can but make i seem related to the searches
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  • Profile picture of the author FamousOnYoutube
    If you have a better optimized inner pages compared to your home page then you might as well rank them and not your homepage.
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  • Profile picture of the author Monika Verma
    I also give important to relevancy of keywords with respect to pages. You have to target keywords according to pages. It will help you to get high SERP easily and also help your customer to get relevant results.

    We can understand this fact by an ex suppose i have a website related to mobile application development and i provide iPhone, iPad and Android application development, then in my home page i will target mobile application development and for iphone, ipad and android applications i will create separate pages for targeting the keywords iPhone Application Development, iPad Application Development and Android Application Development.
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    • Profile picture of the author mattb348
      Blah...

      Not exactly the kind of replies I was looking for

      Anyone done any real case studies etc.?
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  • Profile picture of the author patco
    It is better to optimize your homepage for your main keyword and try to rank EACH inner page for different keyword (this is the best you can do for your website!).

    If you have a lot of pages, you will get a lot of visitors (Of course, a lot of work is required to do this!)... But of course a subpage is much easier to optimize for a keyword, because the content on this page will NEVER be changed (until you remove/edit it!).

    The homepage content will be updated each time you add an article for example
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  • Profile picture of the author SoCal Mobile
    This is interesting. The more I try to rank my sub pages, the more they drop and the more my home page goes up. I don't get it.
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  • Profile picture of the author paulgl
    Originally Posted by mattb348 View Post

    I have wondered about this for a long time now...

    Do you guys find that it is harder to rank a SUBPAGE for a main keyword, compared to ranking the homepage?

    It seems to me that it has always been easier to rank the homepage of a website rather than a subpage.

    However, in some cases (IE: when using brand name physical product keywords) it makes more sense to try to rank a SUBPAGE rather than the homepage (and would look better if you get MANUALLY reviewed by google, which is very common nowadays).

    What do you guys think? Is is stupid to use a subpage for a main keyword?

    And this is assuming you are using a new domain, not an aged domain. I am pretty sure that with an AGED domain it is stupid to use anything OTHER than the high PR homepage to rank for a main keyword.
    Your whole topic is just full of nonsense. Manual reviews have nothing to
    do about looking good ranking a subpage. And aged domains have nothing
    to do with anything. Why would it be stupid to use anything
    other than the high PR domain for a "main" keyword?

    Makes absolutely no sense.

    What you think your main keyword is and what google thinks may be
    completely different things. You probably don't want your index
    page (Note: domains are not ranked, nor do they have PR) to
    rank for any single keywords. You want it to rank for a longer termed
    niche search. Your sub pages feed off of the internal links and anchor
    text to rank for such things. In fact, that is the main function of
    your index page. To lead others to specific things.

    But talking about manual reviews, aged domains, is just putting
    nonsense into the mix. Makes me wonder exactly what you are
    up to. A normal person trying to rank a page does not even
    think of such ridiculous things unless one is thinking of doing
    ridiculous things.

    Seriously. Do you think sites like wikipedia.org rank for searches?
    Or the subpage? I'd hate to get wikipedia.org if I was searching
    for the highest mountain. I'd rather get wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest_mountains
    Wouldn't you? So, which was easier to rank, wikipedia.org, or the subpage?

    Paul
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