When we build a link strategy (or link building), one of the most frequent questions is defining the "destination" of those links. If someone decides to link to our website, is it better that they point to the main page (the Home) or go straight to a specific product, service or blog article page?
The short answer is: both, but with a purpose and a carefully thought-out balance.
If all your links go to the Home, you are wasting a huge opportunity to rank specific searches. But if they all go to a direct sales page, the pattern becomes suspicious and unnatural for Google.
Let us break it down to understand why this happens and how to achieve the right mix.
Links to the Home: The foundation of general reputation
The Home or start page is, by nature, a brand's main entry door. It is where people arrive when they search for your company's name or when you are mentioned in institutional notes, interviews, news or industry directories.
What do you achieve when you receive links to the Home?
- Building brand authority (Domain Authority): Links to the Home tell Google: "This brand exists, it is known and people mention it by name".
- Distributing strength to the rest of the site: The Home usually acts as a central "water tank". The authority the Home receives is shared with the other internal pages through the navigation menu and internal links.
The problem of overdoing the Home:
If 100% of the links pointing to your site go only to the Home, you are making life hard for search engines trying to understand what exactly you sell or what problem you solve. The Home is usually generalist; it does not answer the specific search of a user who wants to buy something particular.
Links to product or service pages (Deep Links): The key to conversions
Internal pages —such as a product page, the explanation of a service or a detailed blog guide— are the ones that really answer what people search for on the internet. Nobody searches Google for "Software company home page"; people search for "Management software for SMEs" or "Buy waterproof running shoes".
When you get links that point directly to those specific pages (what in SEO we call deep linking), very interesting things happen:
- Direct topical relevance: If an article on a technology blog talks about "The best tools for designers" and links straight to your UX design service page, the context is perfect. Google immediately understands what that URL offers.
- A boost to commercial keywords: Those internal pages are usually the ones that turn visitors into customers. If they gain authority directly, they rank better for searches with purchase intent.
An everyday example to understand the difference:
Imagine you have a very well-known Italian restaurant in the city.
- Case 1 (Link to the Home): A tourist guide writes: "If you visit the city, you cannot miss the restaurant 'La Pasta Bella' (link to the Home)".
- Result: Everyone finds out that the restaurant exists and is famous.
- Case 2 (Link to a specific page): A food critic who specializes in desserts writes: "The best cannoli with ricotta in the city are made here (link to the dessert/cannoli menu page)".
- Result: Anyone looking specifically to eat the best cannoli in the city will go straight to that dish, knowing exactly what they will find.
If you only had Case 1, people know you exist but not which dish is the star. If you only had Case 2, it would look odd that everyone talks only about the dessert and nobody knows the name of the restaurant. You need both.
The paradox of commercial pages: Why is it hard to receive links to them?
Here is a fundamental detail of human behavior on the internet: nobody naturally links to a pure sales page unless it is extremely relevant or has a unique offer.
If you have a page that only says "Buy red t-shirt for $20 — Payment button", it is very rare for a blogger or a media outlet to link to it spontaneously inside an article, because it looks like advertising.
That is why the smart strategy to push product or service pages usually relies on informative content:
- You create an article on your blog or a super complete guide (for example: "Guide to choosing the perfect t-shirt size and material").
- Websites link to that informative guide because it brings real value to their readers.
- Inside that informative guide, you place a clearly visible internal link to your product/service page.
- This way, the authority of the external link flows to the content and from there to the sale.
The rule of the natural link profile
On the internet nothing is 100% rigid, but if you look at healthy, well-ranked websites, the distribution of links usually looks more or less like this:
- 30% - 50% of links to the Home: Brand mentions, press appearances, institutional profiles.
- 50% - 70% of links to internal pages: Blog articles, guides, free tools, category pages, specific products or services.
If your links are distributed logically according to the context of the mention, Google will interpret that your site is growing in an organic, solid and reliable way.
