Best category page structure on MY ecommerce site? Advice please

[isntworkdull]

Hi all,

I run the site: http://goo.gl/YATL2i

I have had this category set up like this for a while now - but wonder if its confusing to google, and potentially my users...

let me start by saying my products are available in 3 formats (soon to be 4), so for example i have 3 pages for cctv systems:

Analogue / SD cctv systems: http://goo.gl/SPkdYW

hd sdi systems: http://goo.gl/uksRAD

ip systems: http://goo.gl/UMHBd0

each of the above sub categories then have a further sub category of 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 or 16 camera kit page...

I am trying to figure out if it would be better to just have one "cctv systems" page, and use filters in the left menu so users can filter by format, number of cameras etc etc... but these filters would not navigate to other pages but simply limit the view on the one "cctv systems" page.

If you think 1 page with filters is best - can you then advise what should i do with all the sub category pages i no longer need? 301 rediret to the main cctv systems page?

Basically i currently have my site set up so cctv products are categorised by the format i,e SD, HD-SDI or IP... Which i thought was very important the user doesnt mix formats as it can not work - but am thinking maybe i should catorgorize by type i.e CCTV Camera, CCTV Recorders or CCTV Systems, and then use filters to drill further down in the categories.

Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated.

thanks

[MonicaOConnor]

This is kind of my area of expertise. You have a good amount of products on your site, and that should mean that you are really directing the traffic to those products down one path.

Filters and sorting options are really a great tool to have on your site. Think of it like this, whatever is convenient and useful to the searcher is useful to the search engine. I would recommend drilling down on some of the category pages and duplicate products and implementing some filters.

Do you use any A/B testing tools? It might be worth it to test it out first. In my experience, dropping some of the twisted navigation has increased my traffic, page values and conversions. I also have lowered my bounce rate significantly.

[isntworkdull]

Hi Monica,

I have a very high bounce rate - which would be great if changing the nav would improve this...

I dont have any A/B testing tools / experience, anything you would suggest?

regards

James

[Linda-Vassily]

You can create content experiments in Google Analytics  https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1745147?hl=en

I didn't end up using it (we got Optimizely instead) so I cannot attest to its ease of use, but it might be worth taking a look at.

[MonicaOConnor]

Optimizely is good. Very easy to use and navigate through.

[isntworkdull]

following on from my question above...

If i have lots of filters to narrow down products - i can dynamically change lots of content on page with each filter, including things like the title tag etc...

I am curious, if i had dynamic title tags depending on what filter was chose - how would that effect the page from an SEO point of view.

Also, would google etc learn the different content for different filters? by that i mean it is a cctv system page, one of the filters would be for "IP CCTV systems", i could change the content for that filter so the title said "IP CCTV Systems..."

if i searched IP CCTV Systems in google  - would they show the "IP CCTV Systems" title with URL showing filter selection - or would they show the generic title with no filters selected?