Better to link to HP or Inside Page?

Ok...So my site sell XYZ's. All types of XYZ's. XYZ's being the product. There are many types of XYZ's. For instance...Italian XYZ's and Baby XYZ's ect ect ect. I have distinct groups of pages optimized for each subcategory of XYZ. (Ex I have an /Italian_XYZ.htm and /Baby_XYZ.htm) which serves as the mini-homepage for each sub-category.

I am looking for everyone's opinion. Of course when I get back links, I spread around the Achor text. Some I use Italian XYZ's, some I use Baby XYZ's...but I send the BL's to the homepage. But the home page is super busy competing for all kinds of keywords and can't be "perfectly" optimized like the individual pages for each category can be. Should I consider external BackLinks that go directly to the Optimized page for Italian and Baby XYZ's? I've done a lot of research and can't come to a definative answer.

I like this question.... I think about this stuff all of the time. :smile:

First, know your SERPs inside out and backwards... know your competitors and their prices and their positions above and below you in those SERPs. Have your keywords researched until you can recite them in your sleep, then spend two more days at wordtracker and another two identifying what your competitors are after - check wordtracker again.

Then decide where your opportunities are and ATTACK them with backlinks and competetive optimization. Decide where you can make the most money and go after it. Change your strategy if needed and attack again.

I sell stuff that has seasonal use and I have ssi set up to attack different products for spring or fall... I also watch were a competitor is getting the jump on me and apply backlinks and reoptimize to squelch him on specific terms. Sometimes this deoptimizes me on other terms but that's OK if I can hold my position there against others or if the profits there are smaller.

You can't own everything but get as much as you can.

Command your ship!

Geez EGOL

I hope I never compete with you for a keyword !

I love competition... and I always remember...

It's not the size of the dog in the fight that matters, it's the size of the fight in the dog.... plus how smart he is.

I'm also interested in experiences on this. I have a keyword which many wan't to be on page one with, since I'm ranking terrible on this keyword I have the past weeks done some small experiments by changing some forum signatures in some other forums. Have in mind that my text on the subpage isn't good enough optimized, haven't had time to focus on that yet.

Stage 1: Had not used this keyword as anchortext in those forum before, bottom of page 15.
Stage 2: Adding this keyword to my link, pointing to home-page. The subpage and the front-page shows up together on the SERP, then split's apart. Subpage stays at page 15, frontpage moves to the beginning of page 14.
Stage 3: Changing the link so it point to the subpage. Today the front-page and the subpage were together again on bottom of page 15. I will give this stage some more time before I optimize my text and move on.

Since this is a competitive keyword it could be other things that have caused this. This test has only lasted for three weeks. Anyway, my experience so far.

Go after those guys Mano. I hope that you get 'em all. Let us know if you do.

There are some keywords that I salivate over but there are really big guns on the first page... I've tried to get there but can't - and have tried lots of attacks, side attacks, etc. I am not ready yet. So I figured out where I could bag a couple of lesser keywords and went after both of them with the same page... All of the time I have the big fight on my mind and when the time is right I'll be back to kick their asses.

Thank's EGOL, I will post if I find out something that could be valuable. Since this keyword is competitive I'm doing this a little bit for fun and since it's a challenge,- with combination of some other word's I can be on page one. I have some other keyword's that I'm on page one with so I'm not that concerned if I don't make it to page one, but hey,- I will try!

But that still doesn't really answer the question. Do I get backlinks directly to the /Italian_XYZ.htm or do I send the links to the homepage?

YOU must answer that for yourself.

Anybody who answers that without lookin at your site and without knowing your profit margins and not knowing your current position in the SERPs is full of crap... don't take generic advice when you need surgical answers.

It will not do you much good to get your homepage into #3 position under a couple of cut throat discounters. There you will only make a couple bucks per sale. Instead you could use the same links to several interior pages and get them up to good rankings in SERPs where (maybe) you will be price competetive.

Which interior pages? Get busy and study the SERPs and your competitors... figure it out.

Just as a basic guide... good links hitting your site anywhere will help your homepage a little if the target pages has a link to home... decide where they will do you the most good. I spend hours each week in the SERPs and doing keyword research and this is all just for one site - and I have been doing this hard for a couple of years. Finding more keywords, building more pages, getting links into them.

EGOL, I have to say that you are by far one of the best resources this forum has to offer. efficient and effective posts. appreciated.

Thank you James. I appreciate that. I enjoy this subject and like to help.

An update: A small drop for this keyword, my main page and the subpage I'm pointing to are still on page 15 in SER, but the subpage had a period at the end of page 16 today.

But what worries me more is that a company I know about are targeting the same keyword, and they are pointing their keyword-link also to the subpage. They have the same PR as me. They have been in front of me normally (haven't been watching them especially close), today I thought I should check where they were. I found them way behind me, on page 50. And they have also done on-page optimization, I haven't focused on that yet because of the testing.

Interesting...keep up the good work...I too wil post my findings.

EGOL,

Fantastic post! I have been thinking for a while that quality and brains can outdo all but overwhelming quantity.
If you don't mind me asking, do you do SEO for your own site or professionally for other people's sites?

I think I will paste your comments into a word document, increase the font size, print it out, and put it on my wall. Smart, smart, smart!

I run a retail business and spend at least 40% of my time doing SEO, writing content, building, and rebuilding. This rebuilding is in response to my changing understanding of the SERPs, changing business model, changes in my competition and what I think are moves in the algos. I get some help with graphic art and programming - not a lot, but in a few key places.

I get lots of ideas here by posting questions about what I don't understand and generous people share their knowledge. My experience is that the more I have posted here the more that others want to help me. I have gotten some very rich answers and a couple of very good allies. So if you try hard to help other people there will be somebody watching... and when they know how to help you they will post a vein of gold or send a fantastic PM. It comes back to you measure-by-measure.

I don't know everything and a couple times a year I have gone to get professional advice. Webby who mods here, and another pro have helped me and I appreciate their good work.