Why does Google rank my homepage over the precise subpage

[wheel]

I've seen this happen a couple of times and wondering if anyone has any thoughts on this.

If I put up a page on my website for say 'red widgets' and do nothing else (well, there'll be a link in my menu to that page for red widgets) my site is likely to rank very well for red widgets after some period of time.

However, Google seems to be ranking my home page for the red widgets term - not the red widgets page.

I suspect that my homepage has enough trust/whatever that just adding the words 'red widgets' as a link in the menu gets it ranked.

Any other thoughts on why this happens? Or how to correct it so that my red widgets page ranks instead of my homepage?

[whitenight]

I suspect that my homepage has enough trust/whatever that just adding the words 'red widgets' as a link in the menu gets it ranked.

Yep. That's all.
Just need to get more "trust" to the actual 'red widgets' page if that's the one you want to rank higher.

(psst. the indented "lower ranked" page actually gets more clicks, generally)

Or better yet.
Get ALL your pages to have as much "trust" as your home page.
That's when the fun starts.(see Wikipedia)

[wheel]

I don't actually have an indented listing. Just the homepage page listed. The indented listing I'd understand and prefer :).

And it doesn't happen all the time. In many cases if I do nothing other than publish a page on a secondary search term, that page rockets to the top. Other times, my home page does (without the indented listing).

[whitenight]

Btw - if your home page is ranking for a term but not the actual subpage, it will take only a nominal amount of "trust" to get the subpage to rank.

Think of it this way, the algo already feels that subpage has at least 1 solid trusted link for that page, your home page ... a few (maybe more than a few, but less than the home page) will have it ranking easily.

[jimbeetle]

There's another thread on the same topic over here [webmasterworld.com].

This behavior has occasionally been seen in the past. I'm with whitenight on a bit more link juice to the subpage being a possible fix. IIRC that's what worked in the past.

In that other post I did point out a Google patent that might, possibly, maybe be something to keep in mind. Just in case. 'Cause it is Google. And you just never know.