How to make the most of a sites links/PR - SEO advice wanted

[Vialli]

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As there are so many SEO experts here I thought I would ask for opinions on the best tactic for a site that I own.

Basically I have a site on the domain www.LLL-LLLLL.co.uk (L=letter) which from previous owners carries a number of links to the home page but in particular a directory, full url www.LLL-LLLL.co.uk/LLLL. The home page has is a PR4 whereas the directory has a PR6.

Other pages/directories also have links etc.

My question therefore for any SEO experts out there is;

How can I make the most of the links/PR of the domain/site/directories etc?

Do I set the root of the site up at the /LLLL directory level or do I simpy 301 the /LLLL to the home page. Are there any other options that I can do to maximise the potential of the site?

Any help or feedback greatly appreciated.

I look forward to hearing what people have to say.

[Brendon]

>> which from previous owners

Have the Whois details changed? If so, you might just be best 301ing the lot to another site

[Vialli]

>> which from previous owners

Have the Whois details changed? If so, you might just be best 301ing the lot to another site

I actually registered the name back in 2004.

I use the domain to host different bits and pieces in different directories, on the whole Google seems to like the site but having looked into the links on one directory /LLLL I don't think that I am making the most of any of its link juice.

Does any of this make sense?

[ambi4681]

If the subject matter is similar or the same then a 301 redirect to the domain would be the way, however if substantially different then you would in time most likely lose some of that PR/link juice. Matt Cutts talks about this on one of his Google videos - sorry don't remember which one

James

[Edwin]

If you have pages and site sections that match the old material, only at different URLs, then it's worth taking a few minutes to piece together where each old bit should go.

For instance, if you had 3 old pages about cats at /xxxx/page1.html, /xxxx/page2.html and /xxxx/page3.html and 2 old pages about dogs at /xxxx/page4.html and /xxxx/page5.html then 301 each of the cat pages to your new cat page, and 301 both the dog pages to your new dog page.

Don't simply 301 all old links to the homepage, unless A) they were all on the same topic as each other and B) the new site is all about the same topic as the old site - and even then, it may still be better to group the 301 redirects by more tightly defined sub-topics to match the configuration of the new pages.

[Vialli]

Hi James and Edwin, many thanks for your replies. This is how I understood the correct procedure to be. Unfortunately the internal page is about something totally obscure compared to what the site is now about but even after having the name for almost 5 years, and having a page unrelated to the incoming links the page still carries a PR6.

Now I know that PR is not seen to be important these days but in the eye of Google, they must see the page worthy as a PR6.

So this is where I am thinking that I should use this page as a starting point for a blog maybe within the sub directory.

I have some links on this page to some other sites that I operate which are a PR5, which I assume is due to the link from this PR6 page. Now having listened attentively to the SEO guys at the A4UEXPO last year I am still confused as to why this is happening with this site.

Could I use this page as a HTML sitemap for the rest of my site or would this just look like a linkfarm type of page?

I am sure that there are better methods to optimise the site but appreciate any other advice people here may have.