Optimized pages ranking lower than homepage with keywords

[DrMcCoy]

Ok, I know this question has been out there before, but i don't know how fo search for it specifically enough.  I have several keywords that rank higher on my home page.  As you know MOZ assigns keywords to whichever page on your site popping up in search first.  So even though i have A-grade optimized pages for a particular keyword, that page may not pop up BEFORE the homepage for instance, on searches.  In many cases, the homepage is grade "F" for a particular keyword, yet its pulling up first for most of my keywords.  I know that my homepage has more rank because it gets the most visits and i'm sure we can't really optimize the homepage for EVERY keyword.  What is the best thing to do in this situation?  Do i just need to wait for my optimized page to catch up in rank, or is there a trick to optimizing homepage to ALL key words at grade "A" level?  Do i need to keep back-linking to my optimized page directly to get the juice up?  I created all these great optimized pages for specific keywords, but my homepage which shows "F" grade is the one pulling up 4th or 5th on searches Help??

[Matt-Williamson]

Hi

your homepage will have the most authority in terms of ranking power from links and this will be helping it to rank for keywords it isn't even overly optimised before. Out of interest where do your optimised pages sit in your sites hierarchy? Do they have much page authority? how many pages ares you talking about and are they in your main navigation structure? Some obvious questions but it just gives a better indication of how your site is setup. Have these pages got a lot of content and what is there engagement like - bounce rate and so on.? You mentioned backlinks - have you earned many to these pages? Sorry for all the questions just helps to get a clearer picture of things as I say..

[DrMcCoy]

Hi Matt, and thx for your response.  I have a list of "Fs" on for keywords that relate to my home page and that's why it bugged me that there was really nothing i can do.  The page critical fixes require things like including keywords in titles etc. which of course I can't do for so many key words. In some cases my home page still comes up first page in others not, which is why i created the other pages optimized for specific keywords.  And so i guess i need to backlink directly to the optimized pages to raise rank?  Domain is not enough?

By the way do any search engines still look for the h1 tags.  i've been putting them in to raise grade on MOZ.  Appreciate your help.

[Matt-Williamson]

Hi Robert

H1 headers are still an on-page factor for search engines, so don't over look them. You want to look at ways you can earn links to the individual pages that you have created which are optimised for specific keywords. Make sure you haven't over optimised these pages and also make sure that the content isn't too thin - it needs to give the visitor value. You can help the amount of internal authority that your pages have by making sure they are higher up your sites link architecture and if possible feature in your main navigation. Look at ways that you can earn links for these pages - can you add content to them or place them in front of social media audiences that will interact with and share them? The more exposure they have the more likely you are to gain natural links to these pages.

Hope this helps?

[DrMcCoy]

It does thanks.  Seems like i pretty much have to stuff each page full of media, links, social, content, the works, one grilling page at a time. Welcome to SEO work I suppose. thx again.

[JaneCopland]

Hi Robert,

Just to reiterate what was said here - the issue here will be that the home page is much stronger than the internal pages, hence why it's ranking better. This is quite a common problem. I wouldn't worry about the page grader for now, because once you get the right pages ranking, the page grader will show the correct grade for the pages.

Working on the internal linking to those pages, off-page optimisation, those page's content, etc. is certainly going to help. Strengthening the homepage won't hurt either, as long as those internal pages are linked to well from the home page. You can consider linking to them with optimised anchor text, as long as this appears natural and makes sense for a user. For example, if you were working with an insurance site and the home page is ranking for [car insurance] instead of www.site.com/car-insurance/, link to the car insurance page from the home page with the anchor text "car insurance". You'll know instinctively if this is appropriate for the pages / keywords you're dealing with here. You may well have already done this, but thought it best to reiterate just in case!

Cheers,

Jane

[DrMcCoy]

Thank Jane.  I think i'm understanding this better now.  I need to create more relevant content for the keywords with F grades on homepage and make sure i link back to optimized pages from homepage.  Great.  That shouldnt be to hard a task.

by the way.  I think I duped this question.  Look at this question

How to optimize home page for several keywords

Not sure if I could have just sent you a link lol Didn't want to log off for that sorry.  But there was alot of input here for me and I also sent alot of info regarding my site  thx. again.

thx again