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When I relaunched our website I noticed our bounce rate had dropped dramatically. After inspection, it was exactly what Irving said - multiple calls to your GA script. This fires the script several times, confusing the heck out of it, and really screwing up your data.
Remove the multiple GA scripts and you'll be fine!
I would highly recommend not buying links from anyone other than a website proprietor. Search engines are getting much better at determining which links are purchased, and in some case penalize both the advertiser and the site selling the paid links.
The best way to purchase links is to pick up the phone and make them an offer. Be very polite, compliment their website, and then ask if they would be willing to place a link on their site.
I personally think buying links this way is very inefficient unless you can get a link back from a related industry giant with enormous amounts of traffic and visibility. Otherwise your time and money is best spent building really good content, guest blogging, and growing your social network.
I would create a page called "Service Area" and put an unordered list (ul) may look nicer, and is less spammy. Without knowing the product or service, I'm not sure if that will work for you.
Ex:
South Carolina
Georgia
Most importantly - DO NOT post that list in the footer or sidebar of every page. It will significantly dilute the effectiveness. Containing this information on a single page, and peppering the rest of the site with some of your larger markets will be likely most effective for you.