Home page cannibal

[katandmouse]

I was wondering if others had the same problem I have. It appears Google loves that home page too much and I'm having a difficult time getting it to rank the page I really want. And that happens if a keyword I want to rank for only appears on the home page one time with a keyword density of .1%. Take vanillaqueen.com for example. The home page ranks on the first page for "bulk vanilla beans" and not http://vanillaqueen.com/shop/category/vanilla-beans/ or http://vanillaqueen.com/five-reasons-why-buying-bulk-vanilla-makes-good-sense/

And I'll add another one that I recently took on. This is a personal injury attorney in a large city so there is a ton of competition who have been doing SEO for a very long time. (Fortunately he also does business and civil litigation law to keep the business going). Last month, according to webmaster tools, he got a couple of clicks (hey, it's something!) on "personal injury attorney [his city]" on page 2 in the SERPS, but it was his home page. http://bit.ly/1Gvumlm

**In this case I don't mind people landing on the home page, but does the fact that another page that is much better optimized for those keywords indicate a penalty on that page? And is his rank lower because the better page is not ranking and Google has to find the next best thing in the home page? **

Has anyone else experienced that and what have you done to get Google to not go home?

P.S. The law site is a huge challenge because of the competition. Any help you pros out there can offer to get this underdog out of hiding will be much appreciated. We're starting a smart, strategic content marketing plan now that I'm very excited about.

[Bob_van_Biezen]

Hi Kathy,

You’re not the only one with this problem. There have been a lot of questions on Moz about why homepages or subpages score better on certain keywords. Here are some of the results (including people who face the opposite problem, subpages beating there homepage).

• http://moz.com/community/q/how-to-make-my-good-sub-page-rank-ahead-of-my-generic-home-page
• http://moz.com/community/q/wrong-page-ranking-for-keyword-should-i-move-the-better-content-over
• http://moz.com/community/q/why-is-my-homepage-ranking-below-a-subpage
• http://moz.com/community/q/homepage-ranks-worse-than-subpages
• http://moz.com/community/q/subpage-ranking-for-homepage-keyword
• http://moz.com/community/q/why-is-a-sub-page-ranking-over-home-page

Reading those will give you a better understanding of the factors involved in Google’s decision. Since Google tries to show the most relevant result it’s your job to hint them in the right direction. In your case I saw your category page is missing a page title which can help Google determine what the page is about. I would also suggest adding a bit more content on this page.

Your blog post is probably not picked because it’s harder to reach through the internal link structure and doesn’t carry as much link status as your homepage.

Last quick tip: you can check how Google prioritizes your website on a certain keyword by searching site:vanillaqueen.com "bulk vanilla beans" in the search bar. You can see here that you’re page category page is placed second.

I hope this helps!

[Tony-Dimmock]

Hey Kathy,

Indeed this is a common problem amongst webmasters.

In addition to Bob's suggestion to add a Title Tag, I'd also suggest powering up your co's Google+ page.

A quick check of your G+ page shows:

a) There are no posts with links to your website - this is a missed opportunity, both from an indexation and potential customer funnel perspective.

b) Your "about" shows your YouTube only, so I'd add a ton more in your co's description, including links to your 7 x main categories (What's Special About Our Vanilla, Beans, Extract, Paste, Powders, Sugars & Books) and why people should buy from you / the value your brand brings (value proposition)

I'd also find ways of getting more followers on your G+ biz account from those currently following Patrician Rain's personal G+ page, as she already has 64 followers (and been viewed 11,665 times).

While you're at it, I'd verify your G+ biz page too. Google My Business provide a help page that should help.

Re your Twitter and FB pages, they seem to be in good order

Another suggestion: I'd add a link to your "Bulk Vanilla Beans" page within your blog post page text, as currently it has none at all, yet the text itself does a great job of answering many well-thought-out questions and also because your Bulk Vanilla Beans page has a link to your blog posts in the 2nd paragraph.

Last suggestion: on your YouTube page, add links to both your Twitter and Facebook, therefore creating a matrix of links to help users both find and engage with your brand on social media.

Hope all this helps, in addition to Bob's excellent resources and suggestions