Reach local driving up bounce rate...
-
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
-
[comment removed by staff]
-
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:
-
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?
-
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.
-
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
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Bounce Rate: what is it EXACTLY?
Hi everyone: we all know the term 'Bounce Rate'. I'd like to think i have a good idea of what BR is....but some things are not really clear to me. Time to call in the experts. Question #1: What EXACTLY will stop Google from considering the visit as a bounce? As discussed not too long ago in this topic https://mza.seotoolninja.com/community/q/will-this-fix-my-bounce-rate
Reporting & Analytics | | BasKierkels
Ruben wrote: "..what it basically means is that someone clicks on your SERP, and then clicks back to google? But, it doesn't matter if they spent 10 minutes on your page or 10 seconds" Jessica Conflitti wrote a reply in which she basically said that it might be a good idea to have visitors click to a different page OR a PDF-file. That's where my confusion has been for some time now: Clicking on a PDF-document, an image in the page that opens with Fancybox, a link to a different domain? Or can it only be a different URL on the same domain? The way i would expect it to be:
Pages contain the GA-tracking code. So am i right by thinking that Google needs to have the same GA-tracking code to be loaded twice? Because only at that point will they have two datapoints. And only then will they be able to tell that the visitor hasn't left. By clicking a PDF-document - as described by Jessica - you wouldn't load the GA-code twice. So I would expect that clicking a PDF does not make a difference for the BR. Don't get me wrong: i like the article but it is this detail that throws me off. IF Google can read or capture these clicks, what other elements can be used to reduce bounce rate? Clicking on a YouTube-video embedded in the page? I'm asking this because i want to get this right. Question #2: how much weight does BR have on Time on Page, Engagement, etc? We know Google is taking a lot of things into consideration when calculating the value of a URL or domain. So how much should we care for BR if we know the Time on Page is good and a large percentage of people are frequently returning? How about your experiences or knowledge on that? Really looking forward to your replies and help on clearing this topic for me. And perhaps some other readers as well! Bas0 -
Non ranking keywords driving traffic !?
Moz Analytics and Google analytics is saying some keywords are driving organic search traffic & hence MA suggesting them as keyword opportunities, yet theres no rank for any of them so how can that be so ? cheers dan
Reporting & Analytics | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
100% Bounce Rate in my Checkout??
I am currently building a report on our bounce rates for the past few years. When I look at older data, from 2010-11 I see varying bounce rates for the checkout, which is fine. When I move to new data, 2011-12 and 2012-13 I am seeing 100% bounce rates and exit rates for my checkout. We do use a 3rd party for our checkout, Shopatron and yes we do have it set up to track. Any thoughts on why I might be seeing this high rate for my bounce rate oh and this also goes for my exit percentage as well.
Reporting & Analytics | | K2_Sports0 -
Open internal links in a new tab increase bonus rate?
Hello! This week I used a simple method to reduce my blog Google Analytics bounce rate. My blog all the posts are guides, in order to follow them, user need to download a zip file (same zip file). Otherwise they can't. Therefore I added a separate blog post to download all the necessary files. As a result of that I can reduce my bounce rate from 62-70% to 45-50% level. Now I'm thinking to open that zip file download page in a new tab. If I open my blog zip file download page, in a new tab. It will again increase my bounce rate? I reduced my bounce rate using that zip file download page. Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | Godad0 -
Strange bounce rate trending
what would make it jump up/down so suddenly like that? bouncerate.png
Reporting & Analytics | | adriandg0 -
Can you get local search numbers/traffic out of Google Analytics?
With Google's new local search I am more curious as to market penetration on keywords that are now localized to my different US cities. I understand that you can separate out Google traffic based on regional Google domains, but I am curious if there is an effective way to separate out searches and keywords based on a my local US Metros? If google cannot do this, any recommendations on products that can? Thanks.
Reporting & Analytics | | Thos0031 -
Bounce Rate
Howdy Mozzers Does anyone know if the 'average time on site' in Google analytics is calculated with bounce rate included? For example if you have a 50% bounce rate and your average time on site is 2 minutes the actual time would be 4 minutes as the 50% bounce rate time is classed as 0. I hope that is clear! Cheers
Reporting & Analytics | | CraigAddyman2 -
Help with local SEO strategy for service industries
Here is the scenario I often wonder about: My client's tree removal service is ranking in #1 in local search for
Reporting & Analytics | | MozMan2
"tree removal town state." His Google Places account is set for a 30 mile radius. He has lots of directory listings and positive reviews. Some inbound links as well. The same client is ranking #1 in organic listing for "tree removal county state" ...I chose to target the county for organic listings because the client was dominating local search for the town. My reasoning: I thought, Google local search would bring all of the local specific searches for "tree removal town state" and organic listings would bring the broader searches for "tree removal county state." That is exactly what's happening and stats show there are some visitors coming to the site searching with the county name. Not a ton of traffic but a lot of keyword variations using the county name. The bulk of the traffic comes from the his Google Places listing for the town the business is located in which is great. Dilemma: My client is not ranking in local search results for neighboring towns just a few miles away and certainly not ranking in organic listings for neighboring towns either because we are targeting the county. He has a long list of town names he services in the footer area and this does seem to help for organic search in neighboring towns with little competition. Broad Question: How can I optimize pages for the same services in neighboring towns without duplicating content. For example, the home page title tag and H1 reads:
Tree Removal, Tree Trimming, Stump Removal, County State It would be very easy to create identical pages with title tags and page headings for the different towns but that would undoubtedly create duplicate content and would look weird to someone browsing the site. Specific Questions: Should I put the town name where the business is located in the title tag even though the site already ranks #1 for that town in local search, without having the town in the title tag? Why not use this importunity for an area that we are not ranking for? Do I nix the county and state and try to insert another town or two in the title and H1? Ideally I would like to have this site rank well in local search for all of the neighboring towns. This may be too broad of a post, (it is my first one) but perhaps there are a few of you out there that can outline strategies that work for service industries like, lawn care, tree removal, landscaping, etc. Thanks for reading.0