Canonicalization for Service Pages

[Island]

For one of my websites, I have a a couple of service pages, but the homepage is already ranking bottom page 1 for those service terms.

Those service pages are purely informational, and not optimized for SEO at all. In fact, I've purposely left them un-optimized so the homepage keeps ranking for those terms.

A friend of mine is suggesting that I add a canonical tag to the two service pages making the home page the preferred version. The content on these service page is completely unique. Is this a good idea?

I actually have just started reading up on canonical tags, and I don't think many people use them for pages with non-duplicate content.

 

[Ryuzaki]

My first question would be "why?". Why fix it if it ain't broken?

And then I'd suggest just moving those service pages to the homepage in some kind of tabbed Ajax box or something. Let the content actually help out the homepage if you're going to go play with it. Then delete the sub-pages, and use on-page anchor ID's to link to the tabs.

However, it sounds like you built those pages because it's good user experience. If that's the case, I wouldn't start messing with stuff just to boost yourself up from the bottom of page 1, especially when you can just get out there and earn some links instead.

 

[turbin3]

I would say don't do that. You wouldn't stand to gain anything from it, and could potentially lose something. Worst case, if you end up with multiple pages in the SERPs, taking away spots from competitors....that's kind of not a bad thing...