Index page linking... is lack of keyword home links hurting?

[tigger]

To make sure I don't trip over some penalty ( better not breath lol)

I've a new site and the internal pages are ranking okish but the index isn't - if you search for the full url its 4th which again I'm happy with as its a 3 word domain

In the past my internal home page linking has normally been the URL at the bottom of the page - but this time I've not done this and the only linking back to the index is a "home" button within the main navigation

I'm wondering if the lack of any keyword home links is not harming its chances of ranking for its prime keyword? As the URL is 3 keywords I could link back to the index using any combination of, but will G view this as bad practice?

Cheers

[FranticFish]

In my experience (which is from 7 years ago - but hey, Google have got more draconian since then, not less) adding keywords into pre-existing links to the home page is problematic.

The impression I got back then was that your 'first version' of any keywords you want to choose to link to a page are seen as OK by Google (within reason) and tweaks are likely to be discounted or raise a manipulation flag.

It's been reported for some time now that a title tag change can cause fluctuations which then settle, and if I remember correctly, Google has a patent that (if in use) would test your mettle by deliberately skewing your rank for some time after such a tweak.

So I think it extremely likely that optimising existing links (especially to the home page) could raise a flag - but I stress that I don't have any recent direct experience.

[tigger]

cheers

its odd that the internal pages are ranking fine, but not the index and this is the only page thats not being linked to with a prime keyword other than "home" - I could just do as before and link new pages with a link along the bottom showing the full url, but I'm just not sure this will be a problem

[Powdork]

is it the type of site that you could add breadcrumbs to the top of the content with a keyword link to the home page?

[tigger]

not really, just re-looked at the design / layout and it wouldn't allow that, not without it looking very odd - I could use a combination of the prime keywords / words that would probably be within the main body of text, would that not be the same as using breadcrumbs?

[Powdork]

not sure. i always thought keyword links within the content pointing to the home page of a site i was already on was a tad spammy and not user friendly.

[tigger]

this is the problem isn't it ....whats viewed as spammy and just a helpful link for more information on a subject, I suppose the wikkie feel...

After all if you have a page on wigets and within that page information on "blue, red, where to buy, problems, advice", in what way can that be seen as spammy if your linking onto those pages ?

When does helpful links become spam? and getting back to my original question how to place a link back to the index without it looking spammy

[Robert Charlton]

how to place a link back to the index without it looking spammy

Carefully. I'd pay attention to FranticFish above when he cautions about tweaking.

Here's a recent discussion on the topic, which refers to a bunch of issues about retrofitting homepage links... and also to an earlier discussion. In addition to the question of changing already existing anchor text, there's also the question (if you have several links to home in your page templates) of which link's anchor text gets counted. There's also the question of what's wrong with "Home"....

Internal homepage-link with keywords?
http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4606823.htm [webmasterworld.com]

[tigger]

Thanks for the link Robert - I'll read that thread

There's also the question of what's wrong with "Home"....

its not exactly a keyword term - most of my other sites that have taken recent updates have links somewhere within the content, mostly footer and the index is ranking fine, some better than others

the reason I asked about this is within this site I used the home term and the index is ranking very poor where as internal pages much better, true this could be down the index targeting more competitive terms but I would have assume it would be ranking somewhere in the top 20 looking at other sites of mine and the ones that are in the top 20...This I can only put down to "home" being used rather than the full url or a combination of keywords within the 3 that makes up the url