Google ranking my homepage for keywords i want section pages to rank for

google is indexing my homepage for a certain keyword. but i have an SEO'ed detail page that is exactly that keyword and doesnt rank.

since content on my homepage is constantly changing...im afraid my homepage ranking will keep going away because of this and i want that section homepage to rank for that keyword because it is more relevant. is this a big deal? how do i accomplish this?

Not a big deal, your home page is generally recognised as a most important page as it in 90% cases has the highest pagerank. I had a similar case where I simply created obvious entry points to subsesctions from my home page.

If this matters to you try writing press releases or articles on the theme of those pages and distribute it and also build backlinks that point directly to your sub pages.

100% correct. To rank internal pages for any given keyphrase... those pages must have relevant backlinks to those pages.

thats what ive been trying to do..

and as of today all my search terms for the main page dropped off just as i suspected would happen. does anyone have tips on writing press releases or other link building suggestions?

i made a niche store site and need to build links to it. it is a very good site and valuable to people looking for the product i am selling..so i went to forums and dropped links but webmasters hate that...so now what? ideas?

thanks!