Does the root domain hold more power then an inner page?
-
Question,
Lets say a new domain is launched, the root domain and an inner page target the same term.
Google comes along for the first time and indexes the website.
Does it see the target term on the homepage as more important then the inner page because you are putting it on the root?
I get the feeling terms connected directly with the root domain have a better chance of ranking then the term being on a inner page.
Any thoughts on this?
-
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.
-
So in your example, you believe from the homepage would have a slight benefit over an inner page when it comes to ranking?
-
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. _
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
_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. _
-
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
-
Yes and no;
The root domain usually tends to get far more links then your inner pages, as any links about your website / brand usually come in here. Should you target keywords on the root; it would benefit from having the increased in-links.
The result would then depend on the level of on-page optimization that you are able to do on the home-page or internal page. Usually on internal pages you can control far more the content and thus make better on-page optimizations, should the levels of optimization be more or less the same I would safely assume that your home page (root) would take prominence.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Are Millions of back links from 3 domains bad?
I have a client that has 4 individual domains with duplicate content mirroring certain sections of the main site as well as the home page. I understand the duplicate content issues but have a different question that I would like advice on. I am seeing 3 of these domains back linking to the main domain causing over 5 million backlinks. Is this bad and can it hurt rankings? One domain has 3,215,658 backlinks and another has 1,553,947 backlinks. I have experienced this in the past with a different client, where sister companies back linked using the exact same anchor text caused over 5 million back links. This client experienced a drop of their top 2 keywords where they dropped from # 1 & 2 positions in Google SERPs to the 82nd position. Appreciate feedback
Link Building | | dctomten0 -
Domain vs. page SEO
Hi I'm new to SEO and trying to optimize one of my pages. However this page that I'm trying to optimize is not the homepage. Does it mean that since I have collected links from other pages to my homepage that the specific page I'm trying to SEO doesn't get any "link juice"? And how could this situation be corrected? Is the only way to get direct links to the page I'm trying to optimize?
Link Building | | agentti0 -
How Can I Improve My Page Authority? (Currently at 21)
Hi, I was curious if anybody knows how exactly I can go through and get good backlinks, or really any other strategies for improving my ranking in Google. My site is www.boskyoptics.com Thanks, Alex
Link Building | | AlexCruft0 -
Internal Links and Page Authority - Best Practices
Hello, Is it bad (in terms of ranking in the SERPS) if i have a link from a page with PA of 18 going to a page with PA of 21? In other words, does it matter if the page containing the link has a lower page authority than the page receiving the link? Page A links to Page B Page A page authority is 18 Page B page authority 21 could this negatively affect my rankings? Thanks
Link Building | | Prime850 -
How to identify page authority and authority link to it?
Please help me to identify if joining ASTA - American Society of
Link Building | | NadiaFL
Travel Agents will be beneficial to me. One of the benefits ASTA offers link from their site with logo. http://www.asta.org/ How I can identify if this link is authorative? Thank you!0 -
Page Rank Update
I was hit by Google’s latest Page Rank update. I know “don’t be obsessed with Page Rank”, but it concerns me. I thought that I was developing a very good link profile and actually was hopeful that it would go to a PR-5 and it dropped to a PR-3. www.simply-bags.com I have another site www.keepsakes-etc.com and have done very little link building and it also dropped to a PR-3. Can anyone give me some honest feedback about my concern?
Link Building | | b4tv0 -
Question about forwarding domains and link juice
We currently have a domain that has a small amount of inbound links: http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/www.1800wecoach.com/a!links We decided to switch over to a different domain name, which currently has 0 inbound links. What we were wondering is which would be better: link to the new domain from the old domain in a prominent location on all pages. or forward the old domain to the new domain? does forwarding a domain pass linkjuice?
Link Building | | adriandg0