undefined
Skip to content
Moz logo Menu open Menu close
  • Products
    • Moz Pro
    • Moz Pro Home
    • Moz Local
    • Moz Local Home
    • STAT
    • Moz API
    • Moz API Home
    • Compare SEO Products
    • Moz Data
  • Free SEO Tools
    • Domain Analysis
    • Keyword Explorer
    • Link Explorer
    • Competitive Research
    • MozBar
    • More Free SEO Tools
  • Learn SEO
    • Beginner's Guide to SEO
    • SEO Learning Center
    • Moz Academy
    • MozCon
    • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
  • Blog
  • Why Moz
    • Digital Marketers
    • Agency Solutions
    • Enterprise Solutions
    • Small Business Solutions
    • The Moz Story
    • New Releases
  • Log in
  • Log out
  • Products
    • Moz Pro

      Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

    • Moz Local

      Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

    • STAT

      SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

    • Moz API

      Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

    • Compare SEO Products

      See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

    • Moz Data

      Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

    Let your business shine with Listings AI
    Moz Local

    Let your business shine with Listings AI

    Learn more
  • Free SEO Tools
    • Domain Analysis

      Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

    • Keyword Explorer

      Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

    • Link Explorer

      Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

    • Competitive Research

      Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

    • MozBar

      See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

    • More Free SEO Tools

      Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
    Moz Pro

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

    Learn more
  • Learn SEO
    • Beginner's Guide to SEO

      The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

    • SEO Learning Center

      Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

    • On-Demand Webinars

      Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

    • How-To Guides

      Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

    • Moz Academy

      Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

    • MozCon

      Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

    Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
    Moz API

    Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

    Find your plan
  • Blog
  • Why Moz
    • Digital Marketers

      Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

    • Small Business Solutions

      Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

    • Agency Solutions

      Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

    • Enterprise Solutions

      Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

    • The Moz Story

      Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

    • New Releases

      Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

    Surface actionable competitive intel
    New Feature

    Surface actionable competitive intel

    Learn More
  • Log in
    • Moz Pro
    • Moz Local
    • Moz Local Dashboard
    • Moz API
    • Moz API Dashboard
    • Moz Academy
  • Avatar
    • Moz Home
    • Notifications
    • Account & Billing
    • Manage Users
    • Community Profile
    • My Q&A
    • My Videos
    • Log Out

The Moz Q&A Forum

  • Forum
  • Questions
  • Users
  • Ask the Community

Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

  1. Home
  2. SEO Tactics
  3. On-Page Optimization
  4. Target keywords on homepage or sub page?

Moz Q&A is closed.

After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

Target keywords on homepage or sub page?

On-Page Optimization
4
12
3.8k
Loading More Posts
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as question
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
  • timscullin
    timscullin last edited by Feb 5, 2013, 3:07 AM

    Is it better to target main keywords on a site's homepage, or in a sub page.

    I would usually assume the homepage, but if the domain for the homepage doesn't include the keyword is it better to have a sub page with an exact match URL?

    For example we target the keyword "abc123"

    Is it better to optimise the homepage:

    brandname.com

    Or create a page to target it:

    brandname.com/abc123/

    And leave the homepage to target brand keywords, but link to the "abc123" page.

    Whats the best option?

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • timscullin
      timscullin @timscullin last edited by Feb 7, 2013, 1:15 AM Feb 7, 2013, 1:15 AM

      Haha well done 🙂

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • Francisco_Meza
        Francisco_Meza @timscullin last edited by Feb 7, 2013, 1:09 AM Feb 7, 2013, 1:09 AM

        I get enough search traffic from it to support 10 people. I guess the phrase "lot of traffic" is a  matter of perspective.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • timscullin
          timscullin @timscullin last edited by Feb 7, 2013, 12:29 AM Feb 7, 2013, 12:29 AM

          Yep this is very helpful. I see you have lots of good rankings too. Do you get a lot of search traffic from them?

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • Francisco_Meza
            Francisco_Meza @timscullin last edited by Feb 6, 2013, 2:49 AM Feb 6, 2013, 2:49 AM

            This is my landing page's rel canonical.

            | rel="canonical" href="http://www.shipoverseas.com/us/ship-car/africa/shipping-car-to-nigeria.html"/> |
            |   |

            I don't point it to a category page.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • xtopher66
              xtopher66 @timscullin last edited by Feb 6, 2013, 2:16 AM Feb 6, 2013, 2:15 AM

              Fransisco, are you using canononical tag to any effect on pointing the sub pages to the head category page?

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • Francisco_Meza
                Francisco_Meza @timscullin last edited by Feb 7, 2013, 1:18 AM Feb 5, 2013, 12:52 PM

                Use my site as an example. www.shipoverseas.com

                The homepage is about "international car shipping".

                All the landing pages are about "shipping cars to xyz country".

                When I 1st started this site, I didn't know that my home page was going to be about "international car shipping". I thought I was going to try to have it rank for "ship car to Europe", "ship car to au", "ship car to africa". Instead I made categories + landing pages.

                I hope that helps you organize your site.

                Tim, my marketing strategy is based off what people are looking for, not what I think is best. Look into your GA to find these clues.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • xtopher66
                  xtopher66 last edited by Feb 5, 2013, 7:35 AM Feb 5, 2013, 7:35 AM

                  I think theres a lot to be said good about exact match domains.........visitors see the words in the domain name and thats not a bad thing. Everybody got a little weighting from EMD`s, now they dont, so your not losing anything over the domain naming, just a levelling. Its not a penalty.

                  Whether to brand or not is another question and of course if you do then brand domain will be best. (Google now loves brands more than life itself, so worth considering.)

                  Consider this scenario. You are New York Lawnmowers, you have domain newyorklandmowers.com and when you place your brand links...they are in fact possibly coincide with anchor text, Over oprimisation penalty? Else you can only use URL or varying forms of anchor text.

                  If you are Lehman of New york and sell Lawnmowers you can be lehman.com and use Lehman as branding links, the URL, a small percentage of New York Lawnmowers anchor texts and other variations. (Dont forget blank images too)

                  Google will find the brand name without even fitting it in the title, its that smart, from the content and geolocation. Leave the title for the main target money keywords. Your subpages will not carry the same weight as the index page, but of course build links to them. You might find your subpage is against keywords on another site index page. Thats unavoidable.

                  PS. I changed my brand to the name Google but all i got was webmasters complaining about dropped rankings 🙂

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • timscullin
                    timscullin @Francisco_Meza last edited by Feb 5, 2013, 4:45 AM Feb 5, 2013, 4:45 AM

                    Hey Francisco,

                    Yeah I agree with you on the exact match domain, and I think you're right about opting for the memorable brandable domain.

                    But what do you mean about using the homepage as a representation of all the landing pages?

                    How do you avoid the homepage competing with the sub pages?

                    Thanks man!

                    Francisco_Meza xtopher66 timscullin 6 Replies Last reply Feb 7, 2013, 1:15 AM Reply Quote 0
                    • timscullin
                      timscullin @MoosaHemani last edited by Feb 5, 2013, 4:43 AM Feb 5, 2013, 4:43 AM

                      Hey Moosa,

                      Thanks for your response.

                      Wouldn't there be an issue of diluting my onpage optimisation if I tried to target multiple keywords on my homepage? (especially in this case where the keywords aren't very complimentary)

                      And with the sub pages wouldn't that then be competing with the homepage, somewhat cannibalising our SEO efforts across 2 pages?

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • MoosaHemani
                        MoosaHemani Banned last edited by Feb 5, 2013, 3:30 AM Feb 5, 2013, 3:30 AM

                        One can have a different opinion from me so I am advising you something I would do if I would be at your place.

                        I would list down all the keywords I want to target on the website and divide them in to 2 parts Primary keywords and Secondary keywords keeping their importance ad competition in mind. I will then target the secondary keywords to sub pages and try to target primary keywords on the home page.

                        Also, I will create sub pages for exact match keyword (for primary keywords) to give support to the home page!

                        timscullin 1 Reply Last reply Feb 5, 2013, 4:43 AM Reply Quote 2
                        • Francisco_Meza
                          Francisco_Meza last edited by Feb 5, 2013, 3:29 AM Feb 5, 2013, 3:29 AM

                          I use the home page as a representation of all the landing pages.

                          regarding your Exact Match vs Brand domain, Matt Cutts already announced that he was going to lower the weight of Exact Match domains. I guess it all depends on what you are looking for. I'm in it for the long term so I always opt to get a memorable domain (brandable).

                          This is the approach I use: brandname.com/abc123/

                          timscullin 1 Reply Last reply Feb 5, 2013, 4:45 AM Reply Quote 2
                          • 1 / 1
                          1 out of 12
                          • First post
                            1/12
                            Last post

                          Got a burning SEO question?

                          Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                          Start my free trial


                          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.

                          • See all categories

                          Related Questions

                          • Veptune

                            Keyword appearing on almost every slug of product pages = over-optimizatio

                            slug product pages

                            Hello all, I have an online store, let's say for example I sell forks of all kinds and colors. So naturally, I have 'product category' pages with titles and slugs like: Big forks
                            Small forks
                            Plastic forks
                            Red fork
                            etc.. And plenty of product pages with slugs and H1 like: Small red fork
                            Large plastic fork
                            18th-century fork
                            etc... Some category pages are well-ranked, others are not, the same goes for product pages. The problem is that for the main keyword, 'fork' (exact query in the search console), my site is completely absent. Google should logically have referenced my homepage (which has links to all categories) for this main keyword. I have also optimized the page for it, without overdoing it. I wonder if it's not because I have a lot of pages with 'fork' in the slug, and perhaps Google thinks it's too much (even though it's logical for this word to be present in all product pages because it's an essential word to describe the product). I wonder if I should not modify half of my product pages to remove the word 'fork' from the slug...(only from the slug, without touching the H1 because removing the word 'fork' would remove its meaning). Do you have any experiences with this kind of issue? I wouldn't ask the question if my homepage was behind the competition, but it's completely absent. Thanks

                            On-Page Optimization | Mar 11, 2024, 4:08 PM | Veptune
                            0
                          • Aaron.be

                            Landing page separate from product page

                            Hello there,  I have a wordpress website with a woocommerce plugin. I have 4 landing pages that describe my products and at the end of the pages, I have a CTA to my product page.  is it bad for SEO? my website: https://relationadviser.ir

                            On-Page Optimization | Oct 9, 2019, 8:02 PM | Aaron.be
                            1
                          • OrlandSEO

                            FAQ page structure

                            I have read in other discussions that having all questions on an FAQ page is the way to go and then if the question has an answer worthy of its own page, you should abbreviate the answer and link to the page with more content. My question is when using some templates in WP, they have a little + button you can click and it reveal the answer to the question. Does this hurt SEO versus having all text visible and then using headers/subheaders? An example of the + button https://fyrfyret.dk/faq/

                            On-Page Optimization | Dec 29, 2017, 6:25 AM | OrlandSEO
                            1
                          • Jacob_A

                            Should I optimize my home-page or a sub-page for my most important keyword

                            Quick question: When choosing the most important keyword set that I would like to rank for, would I be better off optimizing my homepage, or a sub page for this keyword. My thinking goes as follows: The homepage (IE www.mysite.com) naturally has more backlinks and thus a better Google Page Rank. However, there are certain things I could do to a subpage (IE www.mysite.com/green-widgets-los-angeles ) that I wouldn't want to do to the homepage, which might be more "optimal" overall. Option C, I suppose, would be to optimize both the homepage, and a single sub-page, which is seeming like a pretty good solution, but I have been told that having multiple pages optimized for the same keywords might "confuse" search engines. Would love any insight on this!

                            On-Page Optimization | Mar 2, 2016, 1:46 PM | Jacob_A
                            2
                          • NeilD

                            Keywords in Navigation

                            Hi, What is best practice for main navigation links with regards to use of keywords in them. For example is it best to using the phrase 'Pricing", "Website Pricing" or "Website Design Pricing" To me 'Pricing' is more appropriate because to the user they know they are on a website designer's site so what else would pricing be for right?!  Furthermore you use less 'real estate' on the nav bar! There is on page text around the site which has links to "see our website design pricing" etc so I assume that is perhaps a more natural place to include that phrase? Look forward to your insights 🙂

                            On-Page Optimization | Feb 22, 2013, 7:57 AM | NeilD
                            0
                          • OasisLandDevelopment

                            What is on page links?

                            Hi - i would like to know exactly what an on page link is? i understand the linking system however cant work what exactly what an on page link is? Thanks

                            On-Page Optimization | Feb 6, 2013, 8:19 AM | OasisLandDevelopment
                            0
                          • JML1179

                            KeyWord Density?

                            What is an acceptable density for a keyword? It's wise to push it as close to spam without sacrificing user experience, correct? I read an article on SeoMoz (outdated I think) that mentioned 6%. If it's a keyword phrase, do you have to make sure you don't go over the density level of a particular word in the phrase. If it's a three word phrase, do you have to not use any one word more than X% or just monitor the exact keyword.

                            On-Page Optimization | Nov 1, 2012, 2:47 PM | JML1179
                            1
                          • sub9090

                            How many keywords max can I optimize each page for?

                            I don't want to over optimize by doing 1 keyword per 1 page, but then if I do more, seomoz on-page tool report doesn't give an A grade for each keyword I optimize. I usually optimize for max 3 keywords that are very closely related, meaning they use the same words.  Ex. dentist los angeles, los angeles dentist, dentist in los angeles Am I on the right track or what's your recommendation? Should I create different landing pages for each keyword?

                            On-Page Optimization | Sep 11, 2012, 4:23 PM | sub9090
                            0

                          Get started with Moz Pro!

                          Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                          Start my free trial
                          Products
                          • Moz Pro
                          • Moz Local
                          • Moz API
                          • Moz Data
                          • STAT
                          • Product Updates
                          Moz Solutions
                          • SMB Solutions
                          • Agency Solutions
                          • Enterprise Solutions
                          Free SEO Tools
                          • Domain Authority Checker
                          • Link Explorer
                          • Keyword Explorer
                          • Competitive Research
                          • Brand Authority Checker
                          • Local Citation Checker
                          • MozBar Extension
                          • MozCast
                          Resources
                          • Blog
                          • SEO Learning Center
                          • Help Hub
                          • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                          • How-to Guides
                          • Moz Academy
                          • API Docs
                          About Moz
                          • About
                          • Team
                          • Careers
                          • Contact
                          Why Moz
                          • Case Studies
                          • Testimonials
                          Get Involved
                          • Become an Affiliate
                          • MozCon
                          • Webinars
                          • Practical Marketer Series
                          • MozPod
                          Connect with us

                          Contact the Help team

                          Join our newsletter
                          Moz logo
                          © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                          • Accessibility
                          • Terms of Use
                          • Privacy

                          Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.