In this week’s episode of Local Search Tuesdays, we explain how to use a call tracking number in your Google My Business listing. Check it out, update your listing, and track organic search calls!
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Welcome back to another episode of Local Search Tuesdays. We’re continuing down the Google My Business rabbit hole this week – this time, we’re talking about using a call tracking number.
In the past, using a tracking number in your GMB listing was a bad idea. “NAP consistency” was an important tenet of Local SEO – basically, you wanted to be sure that the same name, address, and phone number appeared everywhere online for your business. If a different number appeared online, it was a bad signal to Google’s algorithm.
That didn’t really make sense though – in many verticals, businesses track inbound phone calls with tracking numbers. Why wouldn’t you be able to do the same thing with what could potentially be your biggest source of inbound phone calls?
Lucky for all of us, Google updated the algorithm, and now there’s nothing wrong with using a tracking number in your Google My Business listing. In fact, we encourage our clients to track GMB calls – as SEO kicks in and a business shows up more often in local searches, you can see the call volume going up as well.
If you don’t have call tracking set up in your GMB listing, here’s how to do it.
First, get signed up with a call tracking provider and get your block of tracking numbers.
Then, log in at google.com/business and find your location. Click into your dashboard, and then click the “info” link on the left side to see the information for your business.
Click the pencil next to your phone number and enter your tracking number in the field labeled “primary phone”
Then, you’ll want to enter your actual local phone number in the next field labeled “additional phone”. The algorithm will see that this local number matches your other citations and your website, so there won’t be any problems with NAP consistency.
Now, when your listing shows up in brand searches, in the map pack, or on Google Maps, the phone number that’s displayed will be your tracking number.
So that’s it for this week’s Google My Business tip, which means it’s that time… Put your hand on the screen right here: We totally just high fived ‘cause you learned something awesome. Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you again next week for another episode of Local Search Tuesdays.
