Pages on website competing with each other.

[fretfull]

Let's say I have a website that sells shoes and coats. I do have the keyword shoe on my main page but I also have a subpage that deals only with shoes. I would like that subpage that deals only with shoes to be the page returned during a search. What happens is that both pages show up. My main page shows up because it says shoes and then further down the shoe subpage. It's like my main page is out competing the subpage. Is there a way to deal with this? I don't want to remove the world shoe from my main page. Is there something where I can tell search engines to not index a specific word on a page. Is there a way to tell them that for the keyword "shoe" that the shoe subpage is canonical?

[dennisjensen]

Hi,

What you have is the perfect situation, two spots on, I take it, the first page. What do you want more :)

It sounds like your homepage has more leverage than the subpage. Suggestions, if want to try and swap positions:
Internal linkbuilding to the subpage.
Maybe a few external links as well, if you have viable options.
Review content on the subpage, again.
If your subpage is new, have patience.

I wouldn't do anything to jeopardize your two spot ranking.

[Mark_A]

I get this, more than one site page in the Serps - plus I often get a ppc page there also. To my way of thinking it is more real estate for searchers to click on, and less for competitors. I don't mind it at all.

[lucy24]

Is there a way to deal with this?

Why would you want to? The only time it could realistically make a difference is if you've got a client obsessed with CTR, and then you have to waste time explaining that the real CTR is actually twice the reported figure, because humans have two chances to click on your site from a single SERP.

Take it as a learning opportunity and study your information closely to figure out who clicks on what. Is it always the page with the higher position, or are there other variables? Do some people bypass the one that crops up at #3, and instead click on the one that came up at #17?