Can you rank a homepage for a search term?

micho24

micho24

Joined
Jul 23, 2018
Messages
14
Likes
3
Degree
0
Almost everyone here is building and ranking posts or pages on large authority site, but is actually possible rank a homepage for specific keyword? If I decide to cover only small niche? Basically whole site will be about one main keyword. So, my question is: Is google okey with ranking homepage if its most relevant for the search term or in every circumstances will inner page ranks better?
 
micho24 said:
Almost everyone here is building and ranking posts or pages on large authority site, but is actually possible rank a homepage for specific keyword? If I decide to cover only small niche? Basically whole site will be about one main keyword. So, my question is: Is google okey with ranking homepage if its most relevant for the search term or in every circumstances will inner page ranks better?
Click to expand...

Google will rank the page they think is most relevant, so yes, you can rank your homepage.

That being said, I think you are limiting yourself by having one website for one keyword. Its take a lot of time and effort to build authority to a website and ranking for only one keyword is not advisable in my opinion because:

1. You are limiting yourself to one opportunity, when you have tons and tons of keywords you can rank for! Why?

2. You are betting a lot of time and money on one keyword. (You should diversify to lower your risk).

3. Thin websites or website with 1 - 2 pages don't USUALLY rank highly. Google wants to know that you are an authority in your niche, so a 1 page website will not cut it in most cases. I say most cases, because there are always exceptions to the rule!

4. How do you know that your keyword will CONVERT? Is it a high purchase intent keyword? Meaning, will users searching that keyword buy or just browse and leave. You can generally tell by the keyword, but further testing is necessary to be certain! Again, this falls under #2. You need to diversify to lower your risk.
 
micho24 said:
Almost everyone here is building and ranking posts or pages on large authority site, but is actually possible rank a homepage for specific keyword? If I decide to cover only small niche? Basically whole site will be about one main keyword. So, my question is: Is google okey with ranking homepage if its most relevant for the search term or in every circumstances will inner page ranks better?
Click to expand...

In my experience these days, Google doesn't want to rank your homepage for anything but brand related terms unless it's a really high volume short tail. They prefer inner pages. You can still find the rare non-local long-tail where a homepage is ranking, but it's rare.

The advice LinkPlate is giving above is solid. You'll spend most of the same effort building up enough authority to rank for one keyword. By the time you do that, ranking for a second keyword is much easier. So definitely don't box yourself in. It's why you see so many of us talking about authority sites. Getting the authority has to happen on all sites, so you might as well keep exploiting that site once you have the authority.
 
micho24 said:
Almost everyone here is building and ranking posts or pages on large authority site, but is actually possible rank a homepage for specific keyword? If I decide to cover only small niche? Basically whole site will be about one main keyword. So, my question is: Is google okey with ranking homepage if its most relevant for the search term or in every circumstances will inner page ranks better?
Click to expand...
Well, this was where the whole EMD idea came in, as a lot of your incoming links would be variations on your exact match (i.e. 'exact match', 'exactmatch', 'exactmatch.com', 'www.exactmatch.com') which also helped brand you and helped your home page rank for the main keyphrase. I still think it works in certain sectors but it probably has to be something along the lines of 'caboweather' rather than 'cheapchloroquine'... I'm still happy to buy EMD or partial match domains for a project as long as they pass a sniff test as a reputable or real service or business.
 
ToffeeLa said:
Well, this was where the whole EMD idea came in, as a lot of your incoming links would be variations on your exact match (i.e. 'exact match', 'exactmatch', 'exactmatch.com', 'www.exactmatch.com') which also helped brand you and helped your home page rank for the main keyphrase. I still think it works in certain sectors but it probably has to be something along the lines of 'caboweather' rather than 'cheapchloroquine'... I'm still happy to buy EMD or partial match domains for a project as long as they pass a sniff test as a reputable or real service or business.
Click to expand...

In my subjective experience, the EMD bonus is a lot lower than what it was 10 years ago.

With an EMD, you're trading Branding for SEO Points.

Given the reduced SEO Points, I'd rather take the branding. Plus, the EMD limits how wide the site can be. If it ends up being a good site with tons of PageRank, you might as well branch out into more topics. The EMD is holding you back then.

In the long run, I'd take a branded site over an EMD.
 
Philip J. Fry said:
In my subjective experience, the EMD bonus is a lot lower than what it was 10 years ago.

With an EMD, you're trading Branding for SEO Points.

Given the reduced SEO Points, I'd rather take the branding. Plus, the EMD limits how wide the site can be. If it ends up being a good site with tons of PageRank, you might as well branch out into more topics. The EMD is holding you back then.

In the long run, I'd take a branded site over an EMD.
Click to expand...
I'd agree with you about the bonus being much lower - it was ridiculously high at one stage - and, as I said above, it does depend on the sector and the type of emd. Having said that, I'd still go for logcabins over timberdreams (to take an example off the top of my head).

These days I would tend to go for an exact-match hybrid out of the box as decent emds have usually been snapped up and held (to use the example above, a hybrid something like cabindreams). But I wouldn't be averse to scouring the SERPs for sites that aren't bad but aren't quite making it, especially in the current climate.
 
Ranking home pages is easier than any other pages.

I think it got a tad harder but not by much.

If you’re looking to snipe a big keyword all in on the home page is still the way to go.

Gotta concentrate your links. Google runs on a pages algorithm.
 
Homepages are definitely a popular option in local SEO. One of the first decisions I make with a client in their local area is based on competitors and their own situation. If it makes sense to have a dedicated lander, it is usually the better option however if they already have the authority to roll in with their homepage, we go that route.
 
It depends on what you're talking about. For the most part, you won't rank a homepage for long-tail queries. But for the short tail, high volume terms you'll find a ton of homepages of trusted brands because that's a great way to fight spam. But a homepage is rarely going to be a good result for a more refined query. I'm not talking about local SEO here.
 
Absolutely . You can rank a home page for multiple keyword terms sometimes too.

Late last year though, the Algo update really did try to fine tune site's home pages to one keyword.

However, just remember you need keyword diversity to rank well for your target keyword . You should have around 7% of links as actual 'branded'/target keyword. THe rest should be mostly generics. Maybe dedicate 3% to 3 diff keywords you want to taret, % each

Example:
100 links
7 links - most preferred target keyword
1 link - secondary keyword
1 link - secondary keyword
1 link - secondary keyword
90 links - generic (yoursite.com, www.site.com , click here, link here, go here, buy here, shop here, read more, etc)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back