How does dynamic call tracking affect local SEO?
-
I would like to begin tracking calls and offline conversions, but I am concerned that if I add a dynamic call tracking software that it will negatively affect SEO.
-
Hi DJReason,
If you can manage to not have a pool of numbers for SEO traffic, my solution above will work. By using a script that only fires when certain parameters hit, it allows you to only use one number for non-parametered URLs, so search engine bots will only see the one number. Then you use that number during citation building, and you're golden... at least from that perspective.
-
At my company, we currently employ call tracking software to help dissect incoming calls to our call center phone numbers. We have 5 national brands with desktop and mobile versions of each brand's website, as well as 900+ location specific websites, again for mobile and desktop for our individual brick and mortar stores. This means we have over 80 dynamically swapped phone numbers showing on our sites depending on the origin of the visitor and if our software solution understands them correctly. We use Mongoose Metrics, but may be shopping for another solution, or building our own.
We divide traffic by PPC, Organic, Referral, Direct and Other. PPC and controlled referral traffic is relatively easy. By adding parameters to those destination URLs, it helps the software detect where those visitors are coming from and swaps the number appropriately. For organic, there are also ways to detect by process of elimination. For example, if a visitor comes from Google, but is not PPC (lacks PPC parameter), then we assume it is Organic. We do the same for Bing and Yahoo, since those are the three search engines where we advertise using PPC. Where it becomes challenging is the small percentage of organic traffic that does not use the top 3 search engines (ie. AOL, ASK, Baidu, etc). Because we simply cannot create code for any and all search engines out there, that traffic gets dumped into our referral bucket. The good news is that it is generally so small, that any information gleaned from those tier 2 and 3 search engines would be directional at best and would not influence our optimization efforts.
Our software also heavily relies on 1st party cookie information to help determine if a visitor is a bot, from a referral source, direct, etc and swaps the number based on our logic. There are also those visitors that have disabled javascript, or where our software does not fire correctly, or is not defined minutely enough so the wrong number or default number shows instead of the intended swapped number. These typically get lumped into our Other category, when all else fails.
As far as your question is concerned, there may be a downshift in your local SEO when various data aggregators come to your site, and potentially grab the wrong phone number based on a conditional swap. We rely heavily on schema markup and rich snippets to help direct the bots to ignore the software controlled number and to only read the hard coded number, but it is not perfect.
If you come across any software solutions that help minimize data loss and discrepancies, I would love to know.
-
This is perfect. I really appreciate you answering so fully.
-
It can. Ideally, the same phone number will always be displayed, but in your case (and a few of my clients), dynamic call tracking really needs to be on the site.
There are solutions to this. I don't know which software you're using, and it could differ depending on the software. The solution we found that worked was to put the call tracking script in, and have it change the phone number on the website only when traffic is coming in with certain parameters.
This works well with PPC call tracking, because the traffic coming in has predictable parameters, and those can used as a trigger to fire the script. Search engines aren't going to use these parameters, so they won't effect local SEO. Depending on how much direct and referral traffic you have, you might be able to use this solution with your PPC pool of numbers, and then you can focus on separating the referral and direct traffic from the SEO traffic to get the data you need. We usually only split the PPC traffic this way, trying to do it with organic could get you into trouble.
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
-
Disconnect MOZ Local and Google My Business
I've had problems with one of our eight branch locations when I connected GMB to Moz Local about a year ago. The location was suspended for being a duplicate. I would like to sever the connection so I could keep Moz Local live but at least temporarily delete the suspended Google My Business. Also, if you might have any guides or tutorials on performing this task it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Local Listings | | gallowaywebteam0 -
Local Search filter or penalty
Hi to everyone!
Local Listings | | SpanishDancer
Our business is ranking very well on Google in our niche (diving zanzibar).
We constantly work on SEO and use MozPro to follow our ranking. Our problem is on LOCAL SEARCH and GOOGLE MAPS.
Our GMB is optimized, updated, has many photos and the most review in our niche.
We use to rank in the first 3 results for most search terms (for example: diving zanzibar, zanzibar diving).
Since October 2017 our ranking dropped to the bottom of the GMB results and never recovered. We suspect that our business is being filtered or panelised for 3 reasons:
1. When registering on GMB years ago, we entered our site title as our business name (Diving Zanzibar - Spanish Dancer Divers - PADI 5 Star). In September 2017 after reading the guidelines, we changed the business name to the real name (Spanish Dancer Divers)
2. We are located in Zanzibar (Africa) where physical addresses do not exist. Not Knowing which address is best to enter on GMB we kept trying different options ("Nungwi Beach, Nungwi, Zanzibar", "Nungwi, Zanzibar", Nungwi Beach, Zanzibar, Tanzania, etc..) A week ago, in order to check why we are being filtered, we have changed the address again. The result was an immediate drop of 3 more places.
3. A year ago, we have been receiving many ratings and photos that belong to a restaurant next to us. Google support was useless so we decided to move our map locating a mile into the ocean to prevent getting those ratings and photos. Since then, we have move our location on map back to our real location. Is there a way to know what we are being filtered for? how long will that last? is there a way to fix that?
Business name: Spanish Dancer Divers
Search term: diving zanzibar, zanzibar diving, tauchen sansibar, plongee zanzibar and many others
Website: https://www.divinginzanzibar.com/ Thanks ahead for your help.
David0 -
Changing Recognized Address Impact Local SEO
One of my clients is moving offices. They want to change the recognized address from: REAL ADDRESS: 4a Normal Road, Normal Area, City, POSTCODE To: MODIFIED ADDRESS: Fancy Name, Normal Road, Normal Area, City, POSTCODE I imagine this may cause issues when one tries to build some citations, with the address not being recognized by the site. Perhaps there are other issues, can anyone foresee any problems with the change? Local results are very important to this company, would it be better to stick with the real street address?
Local Listings | | GrouchyKids0 -
Business Name Change and Local Listings
Hi, I'm working with a local bakery. We're going to change the name, rebuilt the site and branding, change to a new domain. My question is: Is it better to do all the local listings now, then go and update the name and website when we launch, or is it better to wait until the new site launches? Also, we're merging the catering brand into the new brand, what should I do with the old profiles from the catering business? There are 7 good reviews on various platforms (Facebook, Yelp, Google) Thanks!
Local Listings | | MichaelGregory0 -
Should I change my local listing Service type from Brick and Mortar to Service Area in Google? And will it affect my ranking in a negative manner?
Currently my company Big Boy Bail Bonds, Inc is ranking very well for the city it is located and, currently service type is brick and mortar. But my Company does not only service people at our location but we service the entire county of Los Angeles. And I wanted to know if you would advise me on weather I should change the service type from brick and morter to service area. and if doing that would effect me in a negative manner when it came to my ranking? Plz advice Thank you in advance.
Local Listings | | LittleDog1 -
Hotel Local Listings Greatly Varying With Date
Searching for accommodation in a local region brings up a local listing block (e.g. http://puu.sh/irEoJ/635140594d.png). When clicking through to the block and changing dates, the order of the listings vary greatly. See attachments for 4 samples. How is Google deciding to order these listing blocks? I initially speculated they are pulling availability rates from Online Travel Agents like Expedia or Booking.com, but doubt this to be the case given a lot of those listings do not have Google Hotel Ads and smaller operators do not have their distribution system hooked up to Google Hotel. tVX816P,8U6RbcP,N6xGEdx,YC4K344#0 tVX816P,8U6RbcP,N6xGEdx,YC4K344#1 tVX816P,8U6RbcP,N6xGEdx,YC4K344#2 tVX816P,8U6RbcP,N6xGEdx,YC4K344#3
Local Listings | | fastrack0 -
Local Link Building Question: High DA Chambers vs Low PA Trade Groups
Hi all, We've been researching relevant, real organizations in our area that allow members to link their websites from the directory. I've basically got two buckets of prospects: Chambers of commerce type sites with more authority (DA ~40+) but less relevance to our niche (injury law) Bar associations with less authority (DA ~20) but super relevant. Assuming that they cost the same and covered the same geographic area, which links would you go after if you had to choose one or the other? Thanks in advance.
Local Listings | | LeeAbrahamson0 -
How to get a verification tick next to the URL in a Google Plus Local page?
Google Plus Local: https://plus.google.com/+PrestedHallFeering Website: www.prested.co.uk So how do I get the verification tick next to the URL on this businesses Google page? Also, even though the website is much strong then those in the map listings for Wedding Venues In Essex, whats preventing this website from appearing in there? My local optimisation knowledge is poor!
Local Listings | | jasondexter0