A couple of points
Hi there,
In my opinion, the reason your bounce rate is so high is because traffic is arriving on a page that is not relevant to the ad they clicked so they click away. The content on the page you quoted is simply not relevant to the ad (at least the one I found - two actually, but identical). Adwords places HUGE value on
Ad Relevancy.
Here's an explanation in more detail...quite a bit more detail, sorry folks but it's all relevant.
Okay, first off...you have the exact same Title tag on every page. Ditto for keywords (I only checked about five but I'm assuming they're all similar).
Title tag -
extremely important; it's the first thing the spiders see and use to rank a web page. Title tag should contain the keywords you want to optimise that page for...ideally each page title should be different - relevant to each landing page (otherwise the spiders assume each page has the same content so they won't bother reading the other pages).
Ideal title: use your top 3 keywords/keyword phrases placing the primary keyword at the beginning of the title while limiting the actual amount of keywords as much as possible (the more keywords in there, the lesser the value assigned to each one so try not to repeat words and if you really really must, then limit it to
one repeat).
Your current title (on each page I checked) is:
Toys Online - Online Children's Toy Store - Classic toys with a difference
For index I'd use something like:
Ireland's Leading Online Toy Store or
Online Toy Store - Lego | Star Wars | Duplo | Technic
For the construction page:
Construction Wooden Toys | Lego | Meccano | Revell
That way, you can have your main keywords in the Title tag (and the country for geo-targeting) which is very important. Then use these same keywords in your H1 tag - I notice you have
Construction Toys as your H1, then
Construction Toys - LEGO, Meccano, Revell Plastic Model Kits, wooden construction toys as your H2 tag.
I'd remove the repeated
construction toys in H2 and make that the H1...something like:
Wooden Construction Toys | Lego | Meccano | Revell Model Kits (the headings shouldn't really wrap to the next line).
I'd get rid of the "Select one of these Sub-Categories" blue/purple banner and the "back to top level" link. You don't need a H2 on these pages as you've no written content - it's just taking up valuable "above the fold" space (prime space). And you don't need to tell people how to get back to the page before, they can do that by hitting the backlink in their browser (if they've found your website via Google then they surely know how to use a web browser/surf a site).
And centre the all header tags.
Keywords - while not so much weight is put on Meta tags these days (apart from alt tags), they still play a small role and as Tesco would say...
every little helps! Are you by any chance bidding on these same keywords in your Adwords campaign for this particular URL? If you are then you're wasting money as they're not targeted enough to that page, they're too generic so you'll get a lot of "wasted" clicks.
It's important to choose
related keywords whether you're SEO-ing or PPC-ing...the more related your landing page is to the user's search query, the higher Google will place and rank your website/web page.
Example: I just did a quick Google search - I entered the search phrases:
construction toys lego and
lego construction toys. Your ad showed up in position 3 on the right for the first search term and posituion 2 for the second. BUT, the ad mentions
nothing about construction toys, nor does the URL. This means it's not that relevant and you may be paying a LOT more per-click than you need to. Optimally, the search phrase
construction toys lego or lego construction toys should display an ad something like this:
Lego Construction Toys At ToysOnline.ie (too long maybe, but you get my drift)
Construction Toys By
Lego | Huge Range
(double whammy here - VERY optimal)
All
Lego Toys Here | Delivery Only €5
(use | instead of commas or full-stops)
toysonline.ie/constructiontoys (notice the destination URL - your keyword is repeatd yet again)
Notice the bolded words, that's exactly how the above ad would display if someone entered either search term construction toys lego or lego construction toys. The bolded text is a bonus from Google, it highlights the search term which will draw the user's attention to your ad.
So you see, PPC ads need to be optimised too - they need to be highly related to their landing page. The result will be that you'll get targeted visitors rather than casual-browser clicks. The aim of any marketing technique is to get targeted, ready-to-buy visitors. Casual browsers just waste your money!
I apologise, this post is longer than I intended...I have a couple more points about the site but I won't go into much detail here (PM me if you want more info)
White Text - Avoid using white text (goes back to the keyword-stuffing Black Hat techniques of old).
Alt tags - these tags are important
Left links menu - as mentioned by a couple of people, there are waaaay too many.
a) too many options
b) get rid of all that white space at the end of page. Better to have a short FULL page than a long one with a lot white showing.
c) page length: is okay but I'd add options to get back to top of page
General design: It's friendly and the graphics indicate exactly what the site is about
Colours TIP: Try to stick to the "primary" html colours (Internet Explorer issue)
Layout: Home link is a little hard to find. Spiders crawl a page from top left to right - I'd move language link, bookmark link (RSS-feed icon) and Quick Find box to right of page.
Call-to-Action: someone on the forum mentioned this. Definitely a good point - more calls to action like Click Here For The Latest Duplo Circus or whatever. Direct visitors to where you want them to be. Don't ever leave visitors wondering what they should do next...or where to click next
Broken links: There are some broken links on your site, these should be fixed (spiders will pick up on this pretty fast)
URLs: All of your URLs end with a series of letters, numbers & symbols - looks poor and will confuse spiders. Which would you rather see displayed in your browser...
toysonline.ie/lego®-lego®-duplo®-c-288_265_268.html
or
toysonline.ie/LegoDuploCircus
I realise I'm highlighting a LOT of potential work for you but at least get rid of the trademarks in the URLs. These same URLs are used to describe the images too (not good).
What I'm curious to know is the overall performance of the site; how is your Conversion Rate? Are your sales excellent, good or so-so? You did mention that your bounce rate is 25% on other pages...that means that 25-50% of your visitors are clicking away without taking the desired action. This can definitely be improved with a little work.
As mentioned, I've pointed out a lot of issues here but you can start implementing changes gradually. If your sales are okay then you're site is performing for you...but with some initial improvements, it can perform a lot better (and you'll drastically reduce your PPC costs while boosting your SEO rankings).
Immediate soluton suggestions:
- A little researach to find out exactly who your target audience is, what they want and which search terms they use
- Keyword research is VERY important. Find high-volume keyword search phrases with low competition
- Tweak your ads; make them relevant to each page you're advertising for. Use Adwords Ad Variations to find the best performing ads
Then...take five to ten pages a week and start tidying up URLs, general layout etc.
Sorry again that this post is so long, wasn't my intention! As I said, feel free to PM me if you want more details or have any questions.
Hope this helps...
