So, although the page is working well for most other terms, its content is not persuading visitors searching for that particular keyword to stay on the site. This usually happens because of one of the following reasons:
The particular keyword has multiple meanings and the landing page targets a meaning different from the one in which visitors are interested. For example, consider a visitor searching for the word stud. Can you guess what she might be searching for? This word has several different meanings. A visitor searching for stud could be looking for animals retained for breeding. If she lands on a page discussing stud poker, she will bounce immediately. There is little you can do about this problem because it is an issue concerning the relevancy of the search engine algorithm.
The particular keyword relates directly to the landing page; however, the visitor is looking for a specific product or service that is not presented on the page. For example, a visitor searching for information on landing pages will most likely land on LandingPageOptimization.org. This site matches what the visitor is looking for in the general sense. However, the domain is designed to sell optimization services, so visitors looking for free resources on landing pages will likely bounce. This is yet another example of keyword quality issues that you can do little about.
The keyword has a specific meaning, but the landing page encompasses a general meaning for that word. This is a typical problem when category or home pages are designated as landing pages on ecommerce websites. Figure 2-9 shows the landing page on Borders.com if you search for “technical books.” The page allows visitors to navigate to books of all types, DVDs, and music, but they will need to drill deeper to find the Technical Books category. As a result, it is natural for some of these visitors to leave the site instead of investigating further. Driving visitors to the Technical Books category is a better option to match what visitors are looking for. This is a problem you can fix. If you are driving visitors using PPC, you have to direct the most relevant page to the search term. If visitors are landing on this page via organic search, redesigning the page so that they can determine the fastest navigational path to their destination will reduce the bounce rate.
The keyword is well targeted for the landing page. If this is the case, the page design and copy do not match what visitors are looking for. Optimizing the landing page for conversion will reduce the bounce rate for the page.