Getting internal pages ranked

[triumph]

I've been building links to an internal page on my site for about a year and a half now, and I can not get it to rank for my target keyword(s).

However, every now and then, my homepage (not my internal page) ranks well for the keyword(s) I'm targeting. It doesn't last long, but at least it shows up.

Should I change my strategy and just build links aimed toward the homepage. Or maybe do both?

[tedster]

A few months back, I also thought it became a bit more difficult to see an internal page rank on search results. I even commented on this forum about how often the actual information I was looking for was one-click away from the URL in the result page.

It may have a lot to do with how high the anchor text factor is rated as an on-page factor in the current algo settings. That said, it seems to be a bit more balanced right now -- but still an issue.

[leadegroot]

Not advice on how to solve your problem, more how to cope with it.
I have a sitemap-type page that Google has an annoying habit of sending traffic that should go to one of the pages it points to.
I've come up with the tactic of looking at the referer and if it has search engine queries in it, suggest a page that might be more appropriate at the top of the content, introduced with "You might be looking for...." type of text.
You can't control where Google lands your visitors, but you can influence what happens to them after that...

[Halfdeck]

Usually, PageRank distribution gravitates toward the home page unless you crosslink everything. Not to imply PageRank is the reason your home page is ranking better than your internal page, especially since you say you have alot of links pointing to your internal page, but since both pages are on the same domain, I don't see domain age, co-citation, link neighborhood, trust, or any other factor besides PageRank or some on-page factors coming into play.

I really can't say for sure though since I can't see the urls.

[piatkow]

I had the same problem but I thought it was down to bad design on my part. I revamped the site, created a site map and eventually G is sending visitors to inner pages. The PR of those pages is still zero but the SERPS now return the correct pages for a given search.

[triumph]

thanks for all the replies.

my strategy for a long time has been to build good inbound links to internal pages that are optimized for that keyword.

my homepage is now on page 2 for my target keyword that I was optimizing for the internal page, so i'm going to change gears and build some links to the homepage.

I would love to rank for my internal page, and I think it would serve visitors more. but in the end, I'd rather get clicks to the homepage than no clicks at all.

[Lorel]

I have people linking to my inside pages which are mostly tutorials and this isn't the main focus of my site but it brings a lot of people to my site and they eventually see what my services involve.

Offer visitors something they will want to come back for or share with others and you'll get more links.