How do I make sure my homepage ranks better than my 2nd page when I need the same keywords for both? I don't want them competing against each other for keywords.

[DreamKandy]

I seen here on SeoMoz something about more than one page having the same keywords so they don't compete against each other for the same keywords that makes sense to me. But  I  would like my main page (homepage) to be ranked better over time rather than the 2nd page or do I just not care about the second page ranking at all and don't SEO the page very well? ,Both pages have similar content so I need the keywords for both.  So im very confused on what to do with the second page. Thanks in advance to any helpful answers, i am a newbie when it comes to SEO.

[RanjeetP]

Michael, the first thing I would suggest you to perform is an extensive keyword research for both the pages, the Home and the Second Page, lets call the Home as A and Second as B.

Do a keyword research and as you said, since both of them have the same content, you will get a bunch of similar keywords (excluding the plurals/singulars). The ones with high search volume can be targeted from A which you think are your business keywords as A will have a better SEO value being the domain. The second bunch of keywords with less searches can be targeted from B. Do keep in mind that an good amount of quality links to A will help you make the page more valuable. It is good to optimize B also as the more optimized the pages are, the better chances of getting more value from the SERPs.

Note - You did mention above that the page have same content, so if they are are entirely the same with respect to content, you better not optimize B and instead place a 301 redirect from there to A or if it is not feasible from the user's point, do add a canonical tag on B. Duplicate pages can harm your traffic and rankings, especially when it is the Home Page.

Hope that sums it up!

Cheers,

[Francisco_Meza]

I like Akhil's response. But I need to hammer down a little more.

Page A and Page B are nearly the same thing? Merge one with the other.

Example:

Page A (Shipping Car)

Page B (Transporting Car)

Redirect page B to Page A. Include the word Transporting Car in the content. Build links to Page A with anchor text Transporting Car.

You need to watch the White Board Fridays and read this. http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo

[DreamKandy]

Thank you both for your answers I really appreciate it,  I guess I could have explained my pages better as in the same content,  (example) - page A has text and one photo of a "fast car" , so as people click my link on page A to see more "fast car pictures"  my page B has very little text and is almost all photos of "fast cars" so that was my problem, and lets say "fast cars" is my main keywords.  Anyways thanks for the answers you guys,  I will look into the canonical tag for page B, i've read a little bit about that and will look into how to do that.

[Dr-Pete]

Rand had a good post on this problem (and it's fairly common) a while back:

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/wrong-page-ranking-in-the-results-6-common-causes-5-solutions

I think Francisco has a great point, though - from both a search and user perspective, is the page necessary? If it's really covering all the same keywords, it may be telling you that Page B just doesn't have the value you original thought.

Generally speaking, though, your home-page is going to have more ranking power. If it's just two pages, the worst that happens is that your home-page outranks Page B, and Page B doesn't get much SEO love. If it's still good for users, that's fine. If you really want Page B to rank, then you may have to examine it's unique value and whether the home-page should be more general or target broader terms (or brand terms) instead.