Redirect a blog category page to the homepage?
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Hi folks
Following Penguin 1.1, I have a client site at number 5 for their primary keyword. (was creeping up page 2 with whitehat link building and tight on-site SEO.)
However now the page ranking at No. 5 is for a blog category archive. What do people think the quickest / safest way to get this ranking directed back to the homepage is?
Many thanks
Simon
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You're welcome - I'm subscribed to this thread by e-mail so if you have other questions as you're working on it, feel free to post here and I will get back to you.
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Thanks Martin - the site is ecommerce, and the category pages are blog posts. The homepage links directly to product categories, the use of the blog is quite new and the blog category looks pretty awful right now...
But the listing keeps jumping in and out of the top 10, when its gone the homepage is back, and last seen at bottom of page 1.
I like your ideas, and will look to make the category page more appealing...
Cheers
Simon
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Why does the homepage need to rank rather than the category page? By it not being the home page that suggests the category page is actually more relevant to that keyword.
So what you should do is add more great content onto the category page and check your on-page optimisation then build some links directly to that category page.
The homepage is not always the most relevant page for a searcher. If you want people to go back to your homepage then provide some on-page encouragement on the category page instead.
Unless you have a compelling reason that the homepage should be the one that ranks, because at this point, Google appears not to agree with you
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