Homepage and archive page competing for the same keyword!

[2bloggers]

This post is deleted!

[brad-causes]

When you say "competing", do you mean the category page and homepage are close together in the SERPs or just optimized for the same keyword? Did you intentionally optimize the homepage for that keyword?

It all comes down to which page is truly more relevant to the search query. For example, let's pretend you and your competitor sell dog accessories (collars, leashes, food, toys, etc). Someone searching for "dog leashes" would much rather land on your page for "dog leashes" rather than your homepage or your competitor's homepage since it puts them on exactly what they were looking for (rather than having to navigate their way from your homepage to the dog leashes page). Make sense?

Also, assuming your category page is intended to outrank your homepage for that keyword, you wouldn't be competing with your homepage unless it is ranking higher than your category page. Having your homepage ranking for that same keyword is only an issue if it appears before your category page in the SERPs.

Hope that helps!

[2bloggers]

They are just optimized for the same keyword. I really cannot change that - it is my MAIN keyword. But my homepage is not showing up in the SERPs.  So I believe that anyone searching would be quite happy to land either on the category page or the homepage. The category page will be more specific for sure but the content will be very similar as the bulk of my posts go into that category although I have two other lesser parent categories. So I suppose it makes sense that my category page comes up since it is a little more specific but how can I get my homepage to show up in the SERPs?

[brad-causes]

First, ensure your homepage has been indexed by Google. In Google, do a search for site:yourhomepageURL.com. If nothing comes up, then that would be why your homepage isn't ranking. If that returns search results, then...

Do you use the SEOMoz PRO application? They have a handy report card feature that grades your on-page SEO factors. Perform an on-page audit on those two pages (homepage and category page). That should reveal why the category is outranking the homepage.

Also, you should see which page has more links to it in Open Site Explorer or Google Webmaster Tools and what the anchor text of those links is. If more people are linking to your category page instead of your homepage that could be one reason why.

[2bloggers]

My homepage is indexed, thanks for the tip.

I did run the report card and my category page had a perfect score while the homepage had several issues. But some of those issues are difficult to fix. The category page is easier to tailor to just one thing plus I have a category intro.

What happens if I fix all the errors on my homepage? Is it bad to have my homepage AND category page optimized for the same keyword? My homepage has TWO keywords although I took one out of the Title Tag because I wasn't sure if having two keywords was ok.

[brad-causes]

Well that would be why your category page is outranking your homepage for that keyword.

It's not advised to have two different pages optimized for the same keyword. The SEO world calls this keyword cannibalization. Reason being, you're splitting your SEO juice amongst two links instead of funneling it all into one. Having a single page with 10 external links pointing to it is better than having two pages with 5 external links pointing to each.

Based on your username, I'm guessing you're running a blog. Is your homepage just the most recent 4-5 posts that you've put up with some other widgets? If so, you're homepage probably won't rank for much other than generic terms like "Niche Topic Blog" or your brand keywords. Which is okay. Your blog posts and categories are where you should target long-tail keywords.

[2bloggers]

I am working on fixing some things with the homepage.

Yes my blog has the last 5 posts on the homepage with some widgets and a navigation menu.

But it is impossible not to target the same keyword on the two pages. I really don't know what to do about that. My blog is about two main things. And I have two separate category pages so that you can see just one thing if you wish.

I could get rid of the category page and just use the sub-categories which are more specific elements of that category but that would be stupid since it is ranking so well with google. Hmmm.

[brad-causes]

Without poking around your blog, I can't really offer much more advice.