Homepage Ranking for a Specific Keyword

Hi guys,

Google keeps ranking my homepage instead of the article I created to a specific keyword. I already added internal links to the article, but it still ranks the wrong page.
what should I check next.

I would first ensure that the homepage and the article share similar intent. I would also consider checking out the title/H1, anchor text and internal linking of the article

first check and make sure the article is indexed properly in google search console. if it is not indexed, the home page may keep showing.

jordanloop61 said:

Hi guys,

Google keeps ranking my homepage instead of the article I created to a specific keyword. I already added internal links to the article, but it still ranks the wrong page.
what should I check next.

Click to expand...

Is the article indexed,Strengthen title, H1, headings, and content around the specific query. Check whether the homepage has significantly stronger backlinks.

Make the article more focused on the keyword and remove any strong signals from the homepage targeting it.

jordanloop61 said:

Hi guys,

Google keeps ranking my homepage instead of the article I created to a specific keyword. I already added internal links to the article, but it still ranks the wrong page.
what should I check next.

Click to expand...

another thing i would look into is whether other pages on the website link to the homepage with the exact keyword rather than the article. this might be confusing for google. i would also compare titles nd intents of both articlles before making any changes.

Home page always carries a lot of weight if the targeted keyword is first already targeted and got indexed in the Google search. If the article with your targeted keyword is created at a later stage then it is possible that Google will review all possible signals and check which page is good to rank for a specific query.

The decision should be taken by you to see that you want which page, a home page or an article page to rank for your targeted keyword. It is also possible that in future it can also lead to keyword cannibalization where multiple pages from your domain will compete with each other to get rank in the search results.