Does the root domain hold more power then an inner page?

[BlueprintMarketing]

I think what they're talking about is possibly duplicate content. Meaning that you might have a title tag something similar to that where you stating that you have named let's say for example Domain example.com and your title tag is "tag1". Then you have an additional webpage that is not your homepage stating that he .example.com/tag1 The title tag of "tag1" webpage.com

[SoftzSolutions]

_Definitely home page carries the most SEO weight. And what I believe is that chances are that home page of a website will has the maximum chances of earning links than internal pages unless you are offering some cool stuffs in the Internal pages. If you ask my opinion, I would be targeting the most competitive term in the Home page rather than an internal page. _

[activitysuper]

Cheers,

But what I mean is if you forget about links for a moment, lets just say the website has no links coming in.

Does Google think your target term is more important if it's in the homepage title tag rather then an inner page title tag?

You could think if a website has this term on it's root domain it must be one of, if not the most important term this website wants to rank for.

[Mark_Ginsberg]

Think of it this way - if you're a user, and you want to find out info about this page, what is the best page for you to land on? If it's a specific keyword relevant to a deep page full of content, then you'd want Google to target your inner page. If it's a general term, maybe your best page is the home page.

Take one example - electronic cigarettes.

If someone searches electronic cigarettes, then that's the head term, and pretty generic - there's lots of relevant subtopics - so you'd think the main page should be your home page. But if someone searches electronic cigarettes quit smoking, an inner page relevant to the uses and scientific proof / lack thereof about using ecigs to quit smoking would be more relevant.

Bottom line - Keep the user in mind when doing keyword targeting, and think what the best page for you to display the keyword would be.

[jonmifsud]

I would say no, importance is related more to the content then the fact of a page being a home page or no.

I would even think that for stuff like keyword in url, an internal page could be much better to optimize then the homepage. The homepage should give an overall picture to describe your enterprise. main keyword here would be your branding keywords to make sure you're first for your brand name.

I would then use internal pages for better optimization of the text, and SEO for the various terms. This way your page would be about the term rather then just mentioning the term - should be more relevant to the user / reader.

[Dr-Pete]

This is a very complex issue, but I think Jonathan's summed it up pretty well. Generally, home pages collect a lot of the "mass" of inbound links, and so they can overpower other pages. On the other hand, deep pages are easier to target to specific keywords and sometimes have targeted anchor text. I've seen cases where someone wanted the home-page to rank, but a deep page was ranking, and I've seen the opposite.

Rand wrote about that general problem here:

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

While it's not exactly what you're asking, it covers the general logic of why one page might win over another.

[Dr-Pete]

As Google starts to factor in user behavior, like CTR, this kind of thing may be even more important. I think it's a very small piece of the ranking puzzle right now, but I'd expect it to grow in the coming years. Google wants to rank the page that best answers the question, ultimately.

[SoftzSolutions]

Ok there has been some kind of confusion regarding my earlier statement. This was what I meant to say –  Say a site -
http://www.example.com – main service is website design and the focus is on “Web Design”
http://www.example.com/webdesign.php - service page

_Now, let us imagine for a second, we are not building any links. In that case, what I believe and I have observed that home is going to get a bit preference in the SERP.  _

[activitysuper]

So in your example, you believe from the homepage would have a slight benefit over an inner page when it comes to ranking?

[SoftzSolutions]

yes, this is what I choose to believe because as you know in the dynamic world of SEO, there is no such thing as ultimate answer.