Some of my pages are ranking for terms which I want other pages to rank for. What can I do to effectively switch the ranking?

[GlobalLingo]

Some of the pages are ranking for terms I have optimised other pages for. The pages which are ranking are quite rightly falling, because they aren't optimised for the terms they're showing for. However, I have pages which are optomised for those terms. How do I switch the SERPS to the page I want?

[StoresDirect]

It's annoying when this happens. My first step is to make sure the target page is optimised well and that internal links are signalling that it is the most relevant page to the keyword. Next I reinforce this with blogs linking to the target page and social media signals. If the keyword is on my priority list I will spend additional time on link building to the target page as well. If I've done enough the target page pops up in the SERPs within a few weeks. If it doesn't work I go back to square one and see what more I can do.

[pwpaneuro]

#1 Make sure you don't have a cannibalization issue

#2. If the pages you DO want to rank for contain relevant content for your selected keyword (ideally one keyword/key-phrase per page) and the content is on-page optimized as it should be then

#3. It's all about the links - both internal and external. So

a. Make sure your site architecture is created in such way that your want-to-rank-for content gets a lot of links from your other underpages

b. Try to get as many links from outside as possible towards your want-to-rank-content. Don't worry about follow and no-follow - you need both and ideally from sources with related content.

c. Don't spam the web with zillions of blog comments, forum spam and other nasty stuff.

Good luck!

Alex

[KeriMorgret]

Rand also made a post about what to do if the "wrong" page is ranking last year at http://www.seomoz.org/blog/wrong-page-ranking-in-the-results-6-common-causes-5-solutions

[GlobalLingo]

Thanks for the help guys. I think I've got a handle on the problem now.