Home page v Inner Page Rankings Penguin

[driller41]

Hi, my sites were hit by Penguin, I have left them alone since then.

They are holiday affiliate sites, 10ish pages of content.

I had a look at one last night, the home page was stuck at -65 for its keyword - it is an EMD btw.

But the inner pages are ranking at positions 1-3 for the title of the inner page - which is the EMD + 2 words.

I have deoptimised the home page for now.

So I am thinking the penalty is on the home page only, are the sites toast or can I use the inner page rankings to get some traffic?

[aakk9999]

But the inner pages are ranking at positions 1-3 for the title of the inner page - which is the EMD + 2 words.

can I use the inner page rankings to get some traffic?

If inner pages are ranking already, aren't you getting some traffic? Otherwise I do not understand "can I use..." - how would you use it, i.e. what would you do to it?

[driller41]

Hi, I guess I was surprised that the inner pages ranked for anything, I thought the Penguin demotion would have killed the whole site but it seems to be more granular.

[Shepherd]

I thought the Penguin demotion would have killed the whole site but it seems to be more granular.

I think if you dig even deeper you will find that penguin demotion is specific to keywords and then pages, so even more granular than one might expect.

[tangor]

Google routinely says CONTENT is the key and the USER EXPERIENCE the other key. Might be just that and no more. Take a look at what makes those inner pages rank and keep doing that, or make it even better.