Reach local driving up bounce rate...

[BBuck]

Hi all! I have a new client that I did a website for. After a month, looking at the analytics, it shows that while the site visits from reach local is more than the organic google,  the reachlocal traffic is bouncing, causing the overall website bounce rate to skyrocket. Organic bounce rate is 47.62% and the reachlocal is at 84.25% driving the overall bounce rate to 68!   Duration of the reachlocal traffic is at :56 vs 3:41 for organic. (SEE ATTACHED IMAGE)

I'm guessing this all means that the reachlocal traffic is obviously not quality, so does that mean they are targeting non-relevant keywords? I don't have any experience dealing with reachlocal. Should I recommend my client to drop it? And if so, how to stop that traffic from coming to the site?

I'm sure this is an easy one for you pros!

Thanks!

~BB

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[Vacatia_SEO]

[comment removed by staff]

[MiriamEllis]

Hi BBuck,

Uh-oh, yes, call tracking is a major issue. Recommend you read this recent Local U post by Mary Bowling which specifically mentions Reach Local:

http://localu.org/blog/truth-about-seo-call-tracking/

[BBuck]

Thanks for responding! There is also the issue of these paid search campaigns with their own tracking phone number conflicting with the actual business number. Doesn't that cause problems with local search if Google sees all these citations with different phone numbers but same address?

Also, back to my question: if I get my client to cancel with these people, what  happens?? Obviously the PPC stops, but what about the citations they made in directories? Do they auto remove all? Or do they just sit out there with incorrect info? Anybody know?

[Keith-Eneix]

If you need someone to agree with the above answer I'm 100% there too. : ) This is one of the big problems with the automated paid search systems these companies often setup. Their paid search campaigns are a joke as there's no real effort put into the setup process.

[kirube]

Hi BB -

For an AD to be relevant for a visitor - the ad target, the AD copy and the landing page contents should be coherent. If there is a big gap between those, there would definitely be high bounce rate. Obviously a high bounce (I'd consider even 47% to be high) means that the something is seriously wrong.

If I were in those shoes, I'd immediately stop and do a Root cause analysis. Please check whether the message you are passing through those ads is for the right group and whether it is coherent with your landing page.

K