SEO: Targeting Keywords at Home page or 301 URL?

  • Background info

    This is a new site and I am using WordPress for a CMS not a blog and I have set a static page as the home page.

    The problem is when I configure the home page as a static page in wordpress it sets a 301 redirect to that page, which is this domain.com/software-consultancy (so the software-consultancy page is now domain.com).

    I thought about creating a separate Home page but I didn’t see the point as the pages would be almost identical.

    “Should I target keywords to the home page?”

    If I start link building using the phrase “software consultancy” to the home page should I link to domain.com or the 301 redirect URL domain.com/software-consultancy ?

    My thoughts are that if the URL has the keywords I am targeting in it will help with SEO.

    Or should I create a separate home page and just link the company name back to the home and have a separate page for “software consultancy” my thought is that having exactly what the company does on the home page would be better. But I don’t want to lose out on search engine traffic by not having the keywords in the URL I am going to be link building for.

    I guess if I link build to the 301 redirect URL I can always revert back to this URL if I want to change?

    FYI here is my site structure:

    The site is for a small software consultancy and I have the following structure:

    domain.com/software-consultancy — (Set as WordPress static Page so essentially a 301 redirect to / )

    domain.com/software-consultancy/areas

    domain.com/software-consultancy/areas/london

    domain.com/software-consultancy/areas/new-york

    I would really appreciate some feedback on this, even if it’s experience / advice and there is no exact answer.

    Many Thanks,

    J

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

  • Hi,

    It really doesn’t matter what page you target as Google and the other major search engines will pick up on the 301 re-direct. Be careful having two pages with nearly identical content, as Google will flag the newer page as a duplicate which could potentially hurt your overall rankings.

    I hope this helps!

    Thanks

    Tim S

    Thread Starter arroway

    (@arroway)

    Hmm well it makes the home page the software-consultancy page… If you visit the software-consultancy page it 301’s to /

    Would it hurt if I build links to /software-constultancy ?

    Thanks,

    J

    Moderator Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)

    (@ipstenu)

    ?????? Advisor and Activist

    Y’all need to stop signing your posts ?? We can see who you are via the names to the left of your posts.

    My thoughts are that if the URL has the keywords I am targeting in it will help with SEO.

    It doesn’t matter. The URL keywords are such a MINOR factor in the whole thing, that it won’t give as significant a boost as getting linked to by other, related, sites will.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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