Incoming anchor text boosting pages site-wide?

[borisbaloney]

I have a new site that is experiencing ranking boosts for certain search phrases.

First a little about the site structure. The home page is basically without content, and just a links page to specific categories within the site.

When gathering backlinks for the site I have been using the phrases in the anchor text and having the link pointing to the home page. The thing that I am questioning is that Google is ranking one deeper page on my site considerably higher than the home page.

I am not saying this is a problem because the deeper page is the "correct" page for the phrase. My question is this - isn't it "common knowledge" around here that pages are ranked and not sites? If I am getting backlinks for my home page I would have thought that it would have no effect on other pages (expect for pr but that's not the issue).

It appears to me that perhaps incoming link anchor text provides a boost for the phrase site-wide.

Any thoughts?

[MHes]

Hi

Lack of normal text on your home page is stopping it appearing for searches, but the anchor text from your home page is helping the internal page to rank well.

Word Relevancy and content seems to be beating any page which is just links. Google is probably treating your home page as a 'links page' or 'site map' and acknowledging the links but finding no reason to show your home page in the serps because it has no other content. In this respect the site is being seen on a page basis and treating links in from internal or external in a similar way, except the internal links probably have a dampener applied......

Home page pr5 - links in with good anchor text - no content (only links) = poor ranking

Internal page pr4 - links in (all be it internal ones) with good anchor text - good content = good ranking

[Brian]

My opinion is that it WILL have an impact on other pages above mere PR if you have [external link] KEYWORD -> [homepage] KEYWORD -> [lower page] KEYWORD. It may not necessarily bump the lower page above the home for that keyword, which is more likely a matter of on-page factors.