Using same business number on different websites

[BrianBotts.]

Hello,

I have number of websites in different locations with different business name and address with verified listings. However, I am thinking to use the same phone number on all the websites as it is difficult for me to keep track of all the numbers.

So, is it okay to use the same phone number on different websites with different business name and address?

Waiting for your thoughts.

Brian

[Eric_Rohrback]

If the call is ringing 10-12 times before the call forwarding provider connects with your phone, I would drop that provider. A good company will have a seamless transition so no one would ever know the difference when they call you. Who are you currently running tracking numbers through? Sounds like either you've set up too many redirects in the call system or the provider has some serious support issues.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Brian,

As others in the community have rightly indicated, sharing a phone number across multiple websites is definitely a no-no. It may help to think of it this way. You have a Google My Business listing for your company, HappyTrees.com, and it points to your website. Google's bots travel from your GMB data to your website to cross-check for accuracy. They find your name, address and phone number on the website page your GMB listing points to and say, "A-okay, this checks out."

Then they crawl further and they begin to encounter the phone number you've got on your GMB listing and HappyTrees.com on BigTrees.com, TallTrees.com and GreenTrees.com. The bot stops and says, "Wait a minute, I thought this phone number belonged to Happy Trees. What's up with this? Hmm ... my data isn't trustworthy about this business. Likely, this shouldn't be ranking as well as this competitor here who clearly has this very consistent NAP."

Maybe a somewhat cartoon-ish explanation, but I find it can be helpful to visualize how Google may react to decisions you are making in your online marketing. One of your best bets for achieving high rankings is to have utterly consistent NAP across the ecosystem, and so, the following things can dilute this:

1. Any mismatches in name, address, phone, website anywhere on the web

2. Taking a multi-site approach instead of a single site approach

3. Duplicating your content across multi sites

4. Sharing details or interlinking between multi sites

5. The use of call tracking numbers in any local search campaign except in a very few instances which are described very well in these 2 posts:

http://blumenthals.com/blog/2014/11/25/guide-to-using-call-tracking-for-local-search/

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

Any mistakes in these areas have been described as severely damaging to a business' ability to rank well for its desired terms, so a thorough study of the history of each of these types of issues would be your best bet for protecting your company against unwanted outcomes.

Hope this helps, and glad you've asked!

[BrianBotts.]

Hello All,

Thanks for replying.

I am already using a tracking number but the problem is if you call the business on our tracking number, it rings over 10-12 times before it’s picked up. This results in a large number of callers not leaving a message or just hanging up.

About how to answer, the nature of business is independent of where the call came from. The only thing matters is the call but as I said I am using tracking number and I cannot replace that service provider.

Further, as per the responses, I think it would be bad to put the same number. Is there any other solution?

Thanks in advance!

[BlueprintMarketing]

Under no circumstances if you want to rank for local results should you use the same telephone number for multiple locations or  different companies that will destroy your  ranking as you will compete against yourself and confuse Google. There are many excellent methods of getting additional phone numbers that are legitimate

do not mess with your NAP

Name

Address

Phone number

Level 3, jive communications, grasshopper, trilo, 8x8, Vonage, & Ringcentral are just a few that come to mind.

I believe you can save money on  grasshopper in Moz.com/perks  I can personally vouch for jive, grasshopper, trilo & 8x8 for inexpensive phone numbers trilo is tough to beat but may not be the exactly what you're looking for.  I encourage you to look at all the phone systems I can tell you I think

http://grasshopper.com/blog/should-you-have-a-local-number-for-business/

http://grasshopper.com/blog/local-numbers-have-benefits-too-ya-know/

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[DmitriiK]

I assume that doesn't matter, otherwise the question asked wouldn't make sense.

But good point! I'd like to know the answer as well

[BeanstalkIM]

SEO aside ... how would you know how to answer the phone?

[DmitriiK]

Hi there.

It surely would look strange and maybe even suspicious in eyes of google. What about simple call forwarding? Just forward all calls from all of those numbers to your main one. Win-win situation.