Previously I talked about the irritation of Google sending people to your home page when you’d prefer them to be sent to the correct page on the site. I suggested that some helpful links on the home page to account for these searches are a necessity. But long term, how do we persuade to change Google’s results to send people to the right page in the first place? The title and description from that page appearing in the Google results would also give us the benefit of a more explanatory entry, of course.
There’s no way of telling Google directly, but the key appears to be links. For example, if you have a specific page on how to choose a blue widget, but Google is showing your home page for related searches, the reason is probably because of the lack of clues you’ve provided (through links) that your page is about the subject concerned. Google gets the idea that your site overall is good for the subject, but it isn’t ranking the specific page highly enough. The link on the home page may be just what’s needed, but other links around the site (and even on other sites) may make the difference.