home page or deep link value

[bode]

If I have a homepapge which ranks quite well and I'm looking to gain a link from a particular source.

Which link is more valuable to your website in the serps? A homepage link or a deep link?

[cnvi]

There is no gold nugget answer to your question. Get the most relevant link possible. Ask yourself, which is more "beneficial for my end users"? Then proceed based on what will be best for the person visiting your site.

[CWebguy]

Consider each page it's own seperate site, and go from there. Your home page ranks better cause it has more backlinks.

[bode]

That's how I've built the site; assuming that a visitor has come for that particular page and I've worded the content accordingly.

However, I see competitors with all of the backlinks going to their homepage, but related pages showing up high in the serps.

I assumed that his site/ homepage had so much authority that related pages would show up.