36 replies to this topic

[kevs]

Will an important search term on my home page perform better, if that term appears frequently on the inner pages of the site?
ie, do engines "see" term on other pages and hence take that into account when you home page comes up on search results? thanks.

[qwerty]

The anchor text of links on internal pages that point to the home page matters, just like any link from any page does. But as a general rule, search engines are interested in pages, not sites.

[Scottie]

Every page stands on it's own. Each page can rank for something totally different. I do think similar terms will naturally appear throughout your site, but the only thing that matters is what your internal pages think your home page is about.

By that I mean, the anchor text used on internal pages to link to the home page. "Home" is not going to help you much, but "My Site - Home" is a better option, telling engines what the home page is about, not just that it's "home".

[Glen]

Every page stands on it's own. Each page can rank for something totally different. I do think similar terms will naturally appear throughout your site, but the only thing that matters is what your internal pages think your home page is about.

Completely agree with this and couldnt have said it better, individual pages combined can bring in much more website traffic then the homepage alone from the SERP's.

[Michael Martinez]

Will an important search term on my home page perform better, if that term appears frequently on the inner pages of the site?
ie, do engines "see" term on other pages and hence take that into account when you home page comes up on search results? thanks.

The others have answered your question succinctly, but let me point out something you appear to have overlooked.

Let's say you have a 5-page Web site and that each page has several hundred words (exact number does not matter) of original, detailed, explanatory content about the same topic. Let's suppose, for example, that your Web site is about the care and handling of leather shoes. So you have 5 pages loaded with information about the care and handling of leather shoes.

Your chances of having two pages place in the search results for a large number of similar queries have just skyrocketed. We're assuming you've done everything right with title tags, internal link navigation, etc. But you've got 5 pages of relevant content about the care and handling of leather shoes. It often happens, although there are no guarantees in this business, that two pages from a very informative site will be deemed relevant in search results.

And for search engines that look at relationships between pages, that also helps, as long as you make it clear that one of the pages (presumably your home page) is more important than the others.

My point is that you should not limit yourself to the mechanics of keyword placement and manipulation. That is formulaic SEO and it's largely a hit-or-miss proposition for many reasons. If you look at the value of content, you'll begin to see how you can accomplish so much more with your Web site.

[kevs]

Ok, so I think the answer is that if I have homepage optimized for leather shoes. The fact I have text on leather shoes on 5 internal pages is not going to make my homepage more competivie or get higher results against my competitors for leather shoes -- unless there is an anchor link. just having the text on those inner pages: they are in world onto themsleves. the search engines don't "see" the whole site and give you brownie points for homepage leather shoes text just becuase you have leather shoes text on 70 inner pages. is that right?

also, can someone give me an good overview on anchor links and how valuable that is for text or photos and how one does that? thanks

[Michael Martinez]

Ok, so I think the answer is that if I have homepage optimized for leather shoes. The fact I have text on leather shoes on 5 internal pages is not going to make my homepage more competivie or get higher results against my competitors for leather shoes -- unless there is an anchor link. just having the text on those inner pages: they are in world onto themsleves. the search engines don't "see" the whole site and give you brownie points for homepage leather shoes text just becuase you have leather shoes text on 70 inner pages. is that right?

Not exactly. If you have five pages of content about the care and handling of leather shoes, just relying on sensible internal navigation -- without trying to impose an SEO link formula -- should be sufficient to show the search engines that the home page is the most important of the five.

also, can someone give me an good overview on anchor links and how valuable that is for text or photos and how one does that? thanks

You're focusing too much on anchor text. It's not everything. Look at the big picture. Link naturally. Think of how you would link to other people's pages if you were honestly trying to be helpful to your visitors and be both informative and give an endorsement.

You're allowed to do that for yourself, and you don't have to learn any formulas to do it.

[Jill]

Ok, so I think the answer is that if I have homepage optimized for leather shoes. The fact I have text on leather shoes on 5 internal pages is not going to make my homepage more competivie or get higher results against my competitors for leather shoes -- unless there is an anchor link. just having the text on those inner pages: they are in world onto themsleves. the search engines don't "see" the whole site and give you brownie points for homepage leather shoes text just becuase you have leather shoes text on 70 inner pages. is that right?

Yep, that's pretty much it!

[kevs]

thanks Jill! later I'll make a post on achoring, as don't know too much about it.

[piskie]

DUCK

Search Engines (started 2 or 3 years ago by Google) apply a theme measurement to a site. In the case of larger sites, this can be multiple themes. For example a site can sell Books and CDs. If each products pages was significant enough, the site would be classified as covering 2 themes.

A "Page" within a site that was classed as belonging to a certain Theme, would rank higher than if it was an isolated single page on that subject within an otherwise unrelated bunch of pages.

[Jill]

A "Page" within a site that was classed as belonging to a certain Theme, would rank higher than if it was an isolated single page on that subject within an otherwise unrelated bunch of pages.

Interesting info, Piskie. Do you have some back up of this? You have tested it?

Since you're stating this as a fact, we can assume there's some proof of this somewhere? If so, could you please point us to it?

I certainly have not seen this in action, so I'm very interested in reading the studies you've done or read about.

[jehochman]

SEO presents an interesting branding issue. Since anchor text on interior pages pointing to the home page can help you rank, it would make sense to call your company something like "Acme Red Lederhosen" if you want to rank for Red Lederhosen. You can then place a logo or text on every page with your company name and link it back to the home page. (For logos, you need to use the ALT attribute to make this work.)

[piskie]

At a conference, a Google VP or whatever he was told me.
Many SEOs suspected the possibility so it was on my wish list of info seeking.

This was not generaly put out. But during a purely fortuitous one to one, I took the liberty of putting 20 direct questions.
I got 15 yes or no answers, 3 "I couldn't comment on that" and 2 I don't actualy know.

The most informative SE related 10 minutes I have ever had.

No further info in case it fingers him.

I have not tested it, the main reason being that to set this up on several sizeable sites accross several market sectors with some themed and some not themed but simmilar in other respects, would take too long to establish within the SERPS. That amount of effort was not justified when the source was the horses mouth.

[Jill]

Who was the Google VP of which you speak? What conference was it? This was someone on the organic side of Google such as Matt Cutts? Would this person confirm what you're saying if he/she were emailed about it?

What you're saying is a very, very big deal, and to simply state it as fact the way you did is a bit alarming to me because I just don't believe it is a fact at all. Just believing what someone tells you about an SEO thing is very dangerous in that it can lead people down a completely incorrect path.

I would hate for this thread to do that to the people reading it.

[-=seth=-]

were told that links from relevant sites to yours will have a far greater benefit than irrelevant ones, shot me down if i'm wrong but doesnt that mean google looks at the site its linking from and to (beyond anchor text), so if it pays so much attention to out and inbound links surely its going to look at internal links at the very least with the same significance and logicaly with a greater depth

im just guessing and i'm probably the least experianced person here, but the themed theory does seem to fit