Keywords on Home Page or whole Site?

[Dink]

In regards to an organic search using Google...Is the ranking position affected by matching keywords on just the home page or does Google review the whole site for keywords and then determine ranking?

[bufferzone]

Google reviews each separate page end index it for relevant keywords. Normally you can’t optimize your index page that well. Optimization requires a relatively text heavy page. Normally the index page is not that text heavy so you need to spread your keywords out to the underlying pages.
Do your keyword analysis properly and arrange your keywords in a hierarchical order with the least specified keyword/phrase in the top and the highly specified keyword/phrase at the base.
An example could be Real-estate at the top and “Real-estate in suburban Copenhagen, North West”. Optimize your index page to the word Real-estate end right a special article optimized to and with the title “Real-estate in suburban Copenhagen, North West”.

[dreamshop]

I disagree that a page needs to be text heavy to be optimized. I've seen great results from pages with just one paragraph of text with an optimized header and page title.

To answer the original posters question...Google will index all of your pages if you provide good linking and frequent updated content. Each page is indexed on it's own merits.

It's often easier to see good serps from your secondary pages, because that's where people most commonly put their more specific themed content. For instance: say you sell clothes...your home page might be optimized for "kid's clothing, apparel, kid's shoes". Then you drill down your topic to each category and product page "girl's clothes/tank tops/brand name tank top".

The more keywords you can optimize for over a large number of pages, the better results you'll see.

The more generic the keywords [kid's clothing, versus girl's brand name tank top], often the harder it is to be in the top spot because there is so much competition.

[seeber01]

In Google, the ranking is determined in large part by links into a site, not just the keyphrases. Anchor text of incoming links helps in ranking the page if it matches keyphrases on that page. For some keyphrases, low competition means you can get top rankings with fewer links in, highly competitive terms require many more links into your site.

Hope this helps,
Debs

[CygnusX1]

I also agree that your home page does not have to be text heavy to be optimized. The home page may in fact get better listings then an internal page that has more text on it for a certain keyword phrase. There are a number of factors that influence the search engines.

For example:

How many pages you have that talk about that keyword phrase. How many other pages you have that at least mention it, or have a link from the middle of a paragraph. How many anchor text links with that keyword phrase from your own website. There are many other factors and I don’t want to spend 30mins writing them all down.

I will say that this method will not work on all your keyword phrases on your home page, but it will on some of them if there isn't a lot of competition.

Always remember that there are exceptions to all the rules, and these rules do change.

[Robert Charlton]

This thread expands on what seeber is saying....

Search Engine Theme Pyramids and Google
Optimising the Pyramid for PageRank
[webmasterworld.com...]

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

What are the thoughts about home pages being given additional weight? I mean does a home page get more ranking points because it is a home/index/default page?

[sem4u]

It gains extra weight by being the page on the site which (probably) has the highest PR. Also, anchor text is usually targeted to keywords on the home page.

[rfgdxm1]

Ideally for Google, you'd want to focus your optimization on the home page, as that's where the inbound links tend to be the most. The problem is this is impractical unless the site is narrowly focused. If all the site sells is fuzzy blue widgets, this works well. However, if the site not only sells all kinds of widgets, but also doohickeys and doodads too, you just can't focus the optimization on the home page.

[Robert Charlton]

you just can't focus the optimization on the home page

That's the point of the theme pyramid (no pun intended)...

You want to go for the most general phrase that's important to you (which will also be the shortest and most competitive) on the home page, and then go for the more specific and longer phrases as you go deeper down. These are generally less competitive and will require less PageRank and fewer inbound links.

How far down the pyramid you put, say, your three word phrases depends on how competitive they are, what your inbound linking situation is, and how long you're prepared to wait before ranking.

I also try to pick up longer "peripheral" phrases, built around my core phrases, on all pages.