I have two pages ranking for the same keyword.

[Aftermath_SEO]

The index page and the targeted landing page for that keyword. They have different content, title, meta but I am competing with myself for the main keyword in the industry. What is the best way to fix this? 301 the keyword page to the index page?

[bronxpad]

It all depends if you don't want visitors seeing one of those pages. With a 301 redirect if someone attempts to visit page A they will be redirected to page B which means they will never see page A.

This is interesting because if you have your title tags with different keywords and your meta and content are different, it just leaves me to believe that in your content you have the same keywords, even though the substance is different.

Question are you on page 1 for both pages? That wouldn't be a bad thing as it would drive down your competition.

[eyepaq]

Hi,

Can you post the urls (home page and inner page) and the query to se the serps ?

If the home page makes more sense to rank for that keyword I would place a rel canonical tag on the inner page that will point to the home page.

301 will redirect the inner page to the home page and that means the inner page won't be visibile for the users ever again. if you don't want to keep it then yes, 301 can be a good approach.

Hope it helps.

[Aftermath_SEO]

I am on page two for both, trying to get to page one. The fact that I am competing with myself maybe hurting?

I don't mind if the keyword page does not show it is thin on content anyhow and since it is the main industry keyword for both it's not a bad thing the index page shows.

[Aftermath_SEO]

crime scene clean up

www.aftermathinc.com

www.aftermathinc.com/crime+scene+cleanup

The keyword page is thin on content so I don't mind if that doesn't show but it does rank 1 better in the serps. Currently both are on page two, one on page 1 would be better.

[eyepaq]

I see. Nice rankings for both.

In my personal opinion I would go for the inner page as a main landing page for that term. The reason why is you have liberty for this page to make it more friendly for google - it has a better call to action in my opinion so it can convert better.

If you are able to improve it as far as content it can rank even better - but that won't be enough.

What I would do additionally is to add a predominant link in the home page to this page like adding a box of content in the body of the home page and link crime sceme clean up to this landing page.

If you can go into more details on the landing page about the service it will help - but don't over crowd it.

Some social signals will help - I just plus one it but that is not enough Get some signals there .

Some new freash links - editorial if posibile will also help a lot.

The other option of course is to ad rel canonical on the inner page and keep the home page as primary - the easy path.

[AlanMosley]

i would do nothing or i would simply put a link from one page to the othwer if there is not one already. unless you have a reason for not wanting 2 pages ranking.

[ColumK]

Perhaps a canonical would fix your problem. if the first one is ranking higher but has thinner content but it would still be beneficial to actual users canonicaling that url to the other page would 1. increase the position for that page (combining the two) and 2. increase conversions once it does in fact rank.

[DesignBigger]

I've seen this in cases where multiple pages are significantly better optimized than the competition. Contrary to what other folks are saying, I think 301ing the inner page to the homepage would be shooting yourself in the foot. You're sacrificing page authority and known 'good' content to have only one page appear. Give your user double the opportunity to pick you, versus taking it away from them if you happen to choose in error. Spend time on additional content for the inner page (and any related pages) to try pushing it up. Perhaps some well-thought out links to the inner page would be a good thing, too.

Simply from a human perspective, I'd do something with the large blank footer area. Maybe add contact information, short testimonials, something that will fill that area out a bit.

[AlanMosley]

Using a canonical will merge the link juice into one page, but will not merge the content, since the link juice of any links is still in the same site i would not bother using a canonical and lose th extra content.

do nothing having 2 pages ranking is not a problem

[SEOTGT]

Just to echo other responses, I wouldn't do anything to take away from one of the pages, but just continue any branding and link building efforts to just one of the pages. Adding a link from the secondary page to the primary page will help.

The notion that hurting one page will help the other doesn't really jive--just focus on building reputation for the page that matters.