Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Target keywords on homepage or sub page?
-
Is it better to target main keywords on a site's homepage, or in a sub page.
I would usually assume the homepage, but if the domain for the homepage doesn't include the keyword is it better to have a sub page with an exact match URL?
For example we target the keyword "abc123"
Is it better to optimise the homepage:
Or create a page to target it:
And leave the homepage to target brand keywords, but link to the "abc123" page.
Whats the best option?
-
Haha well done
-
I get enough search traffic from it to support 10 people. I guess the phrase "lot of traffic" is a matter of perspective.
-
Yep this is very helpful. I see you have lots of good rankings too. Do you get a lot of search traffic from them?
-
This is my landing page's rel canonical.
| rel="canonical" href="http://www.shipoverseas.com/us/ship-car/africa/shipping-car-to-nigeria.html"/> |
| |I don't point it to a category page.
-
Fransisco, are you using canononical tag to any effect on pointing the sub pages to the head category page?
-
Use my site as an example. www.shipoverseas.com
The homepage is about "international car shipping".
All the landing pages are about "shipping cars to xyz country".
When I 1st started this site, I didn't know that my home page was going to be about "international car shipping". I thought I was going to try to have it rank for "ship car to Europe", "ship car to au", "ship car to africa". Instead I made categories + landing pages.
I hope that helps you organize your site.
Tim, my marketing strategy is based off what people are looking for, not what I think is best. Look into your GA to find these clues.
-
I think theres a lot to be said good about exact match domains.........visitors see the words in the domain name and thats not a bad thing. Everybody got a little weighting from EMD`s, now they dont, so your not losing anything over the domain naming, just a levelling. Its not a penalty.
Whether to brand or not is another question and of course if you do then brand domain will be best. (Google now loves brands more than life itself, so worth considering.)
Consider this scenario. You are New York Lawnmowers, you have domain newyorklandmowers.com and when you place your brand links...they are in fact possibly coincide with anchor text, Over oprimisation penalty? Else you can only use URL or varying forms of anchor text.
If you are Lehman of New york and sell Lawnmowers you can be lehman.com and use Lehman as branding links, the URL, a small percentage of New York Lawnmowers anchor texts and other variations. (Dont forget blank images too)
Google will find the brand name without even fitting it in the title, its that smart, from the content and geolocation. Leave the title for the main target money keywords. Your subpages will not carry the same weight as the index page, but of course build links to them. You might find your subpage is against keywords on another site index page. Thats unavoidable.
PS. I changed my brand to the name Google but all i got was webmasters complaining about dropped rankings
-
Hey Francisco,
Yeah I agree with you on the exact match domain, and I think you're right about opting for the memorable brandable domain.
But what do you mean about using the homepage as a representation of all the landing pages?
How do you avoid the homepage competing with the sub pages?
Thanks man!
-
Hey Moosa,
Thanks for your response.
Wouldn't there be an issue of diluting my onpage optimisation if I tried to target multiple keywords on my homepage? (especially in this case where the keywords aren't very complimentary)
And with the sub pages wouldn't that then be competing with the homepage, somewhat cannibalising our SEO efforts across 2 pages?
-
One can have a different opinion from me so I am advising you something I would do if I would be at your place.
I would list down all the keywords I want to target on the website and divide them in to 2 parts Primary keywords and Secondary keywords keeping their importance ad competition in mind. I will then target the secondary keywords to sub pages and try to target primary keywords on the home page.
Also, I will create sub pages for exact match keyword (for primary keywords) to give support to the home page!
-
I use the home page as a representation of all the landing pages.
regarding your Exact Match vs Brand domain, Matt Cutts already announced that he was going to lower the weight of Exact Match domains. I guess it all depends on what you are looking for. I'm in it for the long term so I always opt to get a memorable domain (brandable).
This is the approach I use: brandname.com/abc123/
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Keyword appearing on almost every slug of product pages = over-optimizatio
Hello all, I have an online store, let's say for example I sell forks of all kinds and colors. So naturally, I have 'product category' pages with titles and slugs like: Big forks
On-Page Optimization | | Veptune
Small forks
Plastic forks
Red fork
etc.. And plenty of product pages with slugs and H1 like: Small red fork
Large plastic fork
18th-century fork
etc... Some category pages are well-ranked, others are not, the same goes for product pages. The problem is that for the main keyword, 'fork' (exact query in the search console), my site is completely absent. Google should logically have referenced my homepage (which has links to all categories) for this main keyword. I have also optimized the page for it, without overdoing it. I wonder if it's not because I have a lot of pages with 'fork' in the slug, and perhaps Google thinks it's too much (even though it's logical for this word to be present in all product pages because it's an essential word to describe the product). I wonder if I should not modify half of my product pages to remove the word 'fork' from the slug...(only from the slug, without touching the H1 because removing the word 'fork' would remove its meaning). Do you have any experiences with this kind of issue? I wouldn't ask the question if my homepage was behind the competition, but it's completely absent. Thanks0 -
Home page keyword in url
I have been looking into SEO for a few weeks now trying to perfect a homepage. Going through various sources on MOZ, and other examples out there on the internet, I keep seeing that you should have your keyword in the URL of the page. The homepage is the page most people want to rank the highest in google searches, however, you cannot put the keyword in the URL as most home page URLs are simply /. Should I actually make the home like this: www.example.com/key-word-example? I would imagine this would not be the normal for many users and would seem like it's not the home page.
On-Page Optimization | | Matthew_smart0 -
Home page and category page target same keyword
Hi there, Several of our websites have a common problem - our main target keyword for the homepage is also the name of a product category we have within the website. There are seemingly two solutions to this problem, both of which not ideal: Do not target the keyword with the homepage. However, the homepage has the most authority and is our best shot at getting ranked for the main keyword. Reword and "de-optimise" the category page, so it doesn't target the keyword. This doesn't work well from UX point of view as the category needs to describe what it is and enable visitors to navigate to it. Anybody else gone through a similar conundrum? How did you end up going about it? Thanks Julian
On-Page Optimization | | tprg0 -
Are there any SEO benefits changing the default home page filename (index.htm) to a keyword rich filename
II'm a newbie. I have a website using the default home page filename: index.htm. I have total control over the web server. I was wondering whether I can get any SEO improvements for my main keyword if I change the default filename with a filename that contains the main keyword, like our-main-product.htm (doing the 301 redirect and changing the server search order, of course)?
On-Page Optimization | | Grafimart0 -
Home page or landing page?
Hello, I want to ask a question related to that - Should we put keywords in the home page title if we wish to position another landing page better for particular keywords? I have read in one website about SEO that it's good the main keywords of your website to be positioned in homepage title also. f.e. Let's say we have website about web-design and our company is named Company Ltd. The title of the home page is "Company Ltd. - Web design, SEO, etc" We have also another inner page named "Web design | Company Ltd.". So should we leave the first page name only "Company Ltd." and the landing page's name "Web design | Company Ltd." . I don't know if they both have the same keyword in their title they won't compete with each other.
On-Page Optimization | | HrishikeshKarov0 -
How many keywords max can I optimize each page for?
I don't want to over optimize by doing 1 keyword per 1 page, but then if I do more, seomoz on-page tool report doesn't give an A grade for each keyword I optimize. I usually optimize for max 3 keywords that are very closely related, meaning they use the same words. Ex. dentist los angeles, los angeles dentist, dentist in los angeles Am I on the right track or what's your recommendation? Should I create different landing pages for each keyword?
On-Page Optimization | | sub90900 -
Is there a SEO penalty for multi links on same page going to same destination page?
Hi, Just a quick note. I hope you are able to assist. To cut a long story short, on the page below http://www.bookbluemountains.com.au/ -> Features Specials & Packages (middle column) we have 3 links per special going to the same page.
On-Page Optimization | | daveupton
1. Header is linked
2. Click on image link - currently with a no follow
3. 'More info' under the description paragraph is linked too - currently with a no follow Two arguments are as follows:
1. The reason we do not follow all 3 links is to reduce too many links which may appear spammy to Google. 2. Counter argument:
The point above has some validity, However, using no follow is basically telling the search engines that the webmaster “does not trust or doesn’t take responsibility” for what is behind the link, something you don’t want to do within your own website. There is no penalty as such for having too many links, the search engines will generally not worry after a certain number.. nothing that would concern this business though. I would suggest changing the no follow links a.s.a.p. Could you please advise thoughts. Many thanks Dave Upton [long signature removed by staff]0 -
Landing Pages: New Domain or Sub Folder?
I use premise for landing pages. I have some extra domain names that are fantastic in my industry. I'm wondering if I should use those domains for these landing pages? The header, nav, footer, would be the same as my main site, the body and content would be totally different. will google penalize me if I have the same header and footer on a landing page?
On-Page Optimization | | homebizsmart0