Citation/Business Directory Question...

[geniusenergyltd]

A company I work for has two numbers... one for the std call centre and one for tracking SEO. Now, if local citation/business directory listings have the same address but different numbers, will this affect local/other SEO results?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Dan,

Hopefully your read-through of Google's guidelines will have helped to clear this up, too.

[geniusenergyltd]

Thanks so much for all of your replies - they are much appreciated!

So much contradicting info on this subject, but thanks to William and Miriam/Simon for the valuable input.. excellent.

Cheers,

Dan

[MiriamEllis]

Hi P J,

Good question. Unfortunately, Google isn't fond of call centers and call tracking numbers are taboo in Local Search. Let me provide some resources for you here so that you can learn more about these issues.

Here are the Google Places Quality Guidelines:

https://support.google.com/places/answer/107528?hl=en

These guidelines state:

Website & Phone: Provide a phone number that connects to your individual business location as directly as possible, and provide one website that represents your individual business location.

• Use a local phone number instead of a call center number whenever possible.

So, you're looking to publish a local phone number that connects directly with the business.

Call tracking is a whole other kettle of fish. Recommend that you read:

http://blumenthals.com/blog/2013/05/14/a-guide-to-call-tracking-and-local/

You will want to be publishing an identical local area code phone number across all of your citations. Hope the above resources are helpful!

[WilliamKammer]

You need to be uniform across the web. Determine which number you want to be pronounced on the website, and schema it. It's okay to have the other phone number on there as well.

As for the uniformity of the listings across the web: put both numbers. I've spoken with a few of Google's Local Page Experts (or whatever their title is), and they've confirmed that, at least for G+ and Maps, the big deal is having the same number on your site as you do other place and putting both numbers in (one as an alt) is fine.

[simonberenyi]

Local ranking factors would likely consider a uniformity of information across your web footprint. However a local listing should have a number with a local area code. I have tried free phone codes etc and none convert anywhere close to that of a recognized local number.

If you are a large or national organisation, then people almost expect lots of different numbers. If you are a local brand, then authenticity would favor the local number, as should local SEO results.

Theory's aside, you need to test the numbers after you ask your customers what they think.