Using del canonical for subpage relating to homepage

[RWW]

Hi,

I have a subpage that has a Moz-Page Optimization score for a keyword of 98%.

Nevertheless that page is not seen on page one of google. Instead google shows the homepage of the same site which has only an optimization score of around 50%.

Now Moz suggests to implement a del canonical tag.

Should I implement one in the subpage relating to the homepage?

I have never done this and am a little unsure.

What if there are other keywords for which the homepage should be shown? Will the homepage still show up?

Best wishes

Marc

[DirkC]

Hi,

The Moz suggestion on the canonical is to put a self referencing canonical - not to put a canonical on the subpage to the homepage (or the other way round). Canonicals should only be used to avoid duplicate content - which is I guess not the case with your homepage/subpage.

The fact that Google prefers to show your homepage rather than your subpage is something which isn't really 100% under your control - without the actual site it's nearly impossible why this happens. My guess would be that your homepage probably has a higher authority (more incoming links) which Google could prefer over optimised content. If you browse the q&a you'll notice that you are certainly not the only one in this case;

Dirk

[RWW]

Hi Dirk,

thanks for your detailed response.

Marc