Not sure why Home page is outranked by less optimized internal pages.

[axelk]

We launched our website just three weeks ago, and one of our primary keyword phrases is "e-business consultants".

Here's what I don't get. Our home page is the page most optimized around this search phrase. Using SEOmoz On-Page Optimization tool, the home page scores an "A". And yet it doesn't rank in the top 50 on Google Canada, although two other INTERNAL pages -  www.ebusinessconsultants.ca/about/consulting-team/ & /www.ebusinessconsultants.ca/about/consulting-approach/ - rank 5 & 6 on Google Canada, even though they only score a grade "C" for on-page optimization for this keyword phrase.

I've always understood that the home page is the most powerful page. Why are these others outranking it? I checked the crawl and Google Webmaster, and there is no obvious problem on the home page.

Is this because the site is so new?

It goes against all previous experience I've had in similar situation.

Any guidance/ insight would be highly appreciated!!

[MRCSearch]

What is telling you that you have these rankings? Rank Tracker has you NIT-50 for any page on your website.

If this is just you manually checking, there are many reasons you may be seeing your own pages. Search personalization is huge, from rank history to geography.

[marcinlejman]

I've checked your rankings with Rank Tracker and they are different from your results.

I have your site on place 15 for your your keyword, and it is the homepage that is ranking.

I can see that you have Google Analytics on your site.

Check your Landing Pages report, with a keyword as a secondary dimension. You will immediately understand where exactly people are arriving at when they visit your site for various keywords.

When tracking your rankings, always keep in mind that results can be greatly skewed by personalization.

[axelk]

Thanks, Marcin!

Agree. But personalization effects should be off, since I am in fact using the SEOmoz ranking report (albeit released last Friday during regular campaign reporting). Also, keep in mind that the rankings I listed above are on Google Canada.

I'll double check using the Rank Tracker directly. Stay tuned.

[axelk]

Nicholas:

Weird. All of us are using the same tool, and getting drastically different results. Check out Marcin's results above. When I try Rank Tracker directly just now, it shows #8 on Google Canada. Can the rankings be that "twitchy" moment to moment?

[MRCSearch]

Quite possibly. I'm still getting a not-in-top-50, however. See attached image. :S

1eimY.png

[axelk]

So check this out: Just like yours, ranked moments after your Rank Tracker check. Shows position #8. Either Google SERP results have a time-based random variable thrown in, or Rank Tracker is inconsistent. Would love to get SEOmoz view on this.

[MRCSearch]

Thinking it might be that I used a hyphen and you didn't, I just re-checked. Now, with hyphen I'm getting rank 19. Without, rank 9.

This is weird. :S

[axelk]

Nicholas:

I'll check with the good folks at SEOmoz support. Might take a while to get an answer. I'll let you know what I find.

Cheers - Axel