Home page and category page target same keyword

[tprg]

Hi there,

Several of our websites have a common problem - our main target keyword for the homepage is also the name of a product category we have within the website. There are seemingly two solutions to this problem, both of which not ideal:

1. Do not target the keyword with the homepage. However, the homepage has the most authority and is our best shot at getting ranked for the main keyword.

2. Reword and "de-optimise" the category page, so it doesn't target the keyword. This doesn't work well from UX point of view as the category needs to describe what it is and enable visitors to navigate to it.

Anybody else gone through a similar conundrum? How did you end up going about it?

Thanks

Julian

[Nick_Ker]

Rob's advice is very good in regard to sending people to the more effective inner page.

I would not mess around with canonical tags, unless the content is actually duplicated.  Rethinking your internal links might be helpful.  One thing I have done in similar situations is to use a keyword anchored link from the category page to the home page.  Moz Analytics will tell you this is keyword cannibalization, but it does often work to nudge Google toward ranking the home page.  So on a page about "Red Widgets", you could link to the home page with "Red Widget Company".  What is likely to happen is that you will sort of split the searches based on user intent, and searches that are more than just the base keyword. Searches that Google thinks are more informational would go to the Red Widgets page, where someone looking for a supplier or maker of red widgets might be sent to the home page.  Similar links throughout the site where they are appropriate would also be good.  Like, if you have a page or a blog post that mentions red widgets, link to the category. If it says something about manufacturer of red widgets, link to the home page.  Just like incoming links, you don't want to overuse the same keywords, though.  Mix things up a bit within the same topical theme (red widget maker, manufacturer of red widgets, red widget company...)

[tprg]

Hi Rob,

I fully agree with you about sending people directly to a deeper page. A well-designed category page full of useful info is way better than a generic homepage for the visitor. I also agree about having more keywords and expanding reach that way.

The problem is that we're after a competitive term which the CEO keeps an eye on and which we used to rank well for. Over time, however, we didn't link build and others are now way ahead. That's why I am thinking that our homepage with its 500 linking domains might get a better shot than the category with 10. Question is, how do I switch the focus from category page to home page, while keeping the useful category page live. Canonical tags are one solution...

[tprg]

Hey Nick, thanks for your answer.

This is not a hypothetical situation, but something that is live in the SERPs. I have a live category page in position 11 (varies between positions 7 and 13) and I want to try that keyword with the homepage instead.

Also we're about to relaunch a different website where I currently rank with the homepage for a keyword, but the business wants to create a category page with that keyword, thus possibly cannibalizing my homepage rank.

[RobMay]

I would say there is another option Julien. Just because your 'primary' KW is the focus of the homepage, it doesn't mean it is the highest converting KW for your company/site or for that specific product. Of course, you have to dig for data a little looking at how best to approach it and how that internal page performs, what KW's drive traffic (digging deeper than not provided)

Yes, your homepage has the most domain authority value (mainly, but not always). It's again, not the best page to rank for all your terms, if the bounce and exit rates are above average and/or high. This indicates that those KW's are not converting for your homepage at the best possible rate.

In the past, I have moved the KW focus to the actual product landing page and taken the focus away from the homepage, optimizing and working on improving the UI/UX, information, product, image, video etc, on that specific page - in hopes it would outrank the main primary page and thus, convert at a higher rate. As these product pages when worked on helped the 'visitors' get directly to the page that they are looking for, without having to search for it and navigate to it from the homepage (yet, another click). Why not simplify the process sending them directly to the main page of information?

Work to identify other KW's you can use to draw focus for on the main homepage and shift that focus around.

When building out your product page for the KW, I suggest as I mentioned above - work everything about the UI/UX, design, information, photos, videos, etc etc making it an extremely valuable page (think - make it THE MOST valuable page you can think of) to help visitors, thus, more than likely converting at higher rates, decreasing bounce and exit rates to the page.

As well, the added page authority, which will strengthen the domain authority overall on the site will improve the overall experience to users.

Just a thought to help you out on success I have had with similar issues.

Cheers, Rob

[Nick_Ker]

You may be over-thinking this, or taking that "one keyword per page" advice too seriously.

You are right that you should accurately describe the category page, and using that keyword (and anything else that accurately describes the topic) is going to be part of that. Since that page is the one that is actually about the category, I would not un-optimize it.  I wouldn't even worry about removing the keyword from the home page, either, since it is also relevant. You may want to link from Home to the category where that keyword is used, though I don't think that would make a huge difference.

The good news is, you just might end up with both showing in the SERPs.