Google Switching Phone Numbers in GMB Listing

[FriarTuck00]

A while back, I read here that the standard call tracking practice was to put your tracking number as the main number and your regular number as an additional phone number.

Today, I got emails from Google saying that they had flip-flopped the numbers on those listings. It said, "Recent updates have been made to your listing. Help us keep the information on Google Search and Maps as accurate as possible for everyone."

Has anyone else noticed this? Should we change them back? Or is Google no longer allowing tracking numbers to be entered into GMB like this? Thanks!

 

[Cherie Dickey]

Hi!

I've not heard anything saying that this isn't ok anymore. It's most likely a general update.

I've seen many of the emails you're describing, and they come for all kinds of changes that Google makes to your listing, including office hours, business name, domain, wheelchair access, etc. The email is a call to action asking you to go in and accept or correct the updates (there is currently no "reject" option).

From what I can tell, sometimes it is Google making the updates, and sometimes it's a user suggesting edits to a listing. Either way, you should be able to go in and change things back to the way they were.

-Cherie

 

[Rik Delta]

FWIW, I think it's Google making the changes (or one nefarious and organized competitor). I am responsible for multiple sites and received notifications for at least 3 this am that numbers have been changed. Still undecided about whether to flip them 'back' or leave Google edits....

 

[JoyHawkins]

It's definitely Google making the change IMO. I had it happen to 1 client but the number they changed it to was not a secondary number in GMB. I had someone else just email me and say it happened to 10 of their clients.

I just changed mine back and put the new number in as a secondary since it was another local number that was legit for the business.

 

[Carleton Wilkins]

Happened to a few of our clients as well. So what's the consensus? Tracking number as main, and "regular" number as secondary?

 

[JoyHawkins]

Carleton - yep!

 

[FriarTuck00]

@JoyHawkins , what about when using a service like Moz Local? Moz is pushing out that tracking number to other sites/services. What's the best way to handle that? I've tried asking them to only verify those listings against Facebook but, so far, no luck.

 

[JoyHawkins]

@FriarTuck00 - Moz just actually came and commented on this other thread yesterday. I'd suggest going with Tony Wang's advice:

"Turns out you can request they sync with fb instead of gmb, which allows everything to stay tidy. We'll see how that turns out."

 

[FriarTuck00]

@FriarTuck00 - Moz just actually came and commented on this other thread yesterday. I'd suggest going with Tony Wang's advice:

"Turns out you can request they sync with fb instead of gmb, which allows everything to stay tidy. We'll see how that turns out."

Good to know. Thanks so much! I actually just asked Moz to do that for a listing yesterday and haven't gotten a response back from them. Wonder if I can include all listings I want included in a message.

Stay tuned!

 

[Tim Colling]

This (Google switching out my call tracking number) just happened to one of my sites. I wonder what is really behind this? Anyway, I'll just enter the CTM number as the primary and the "real" number as the secondary.

What a time-waster.

 

[Tim Colling]

Ugh.

This also just happened for another one of my GMB listings. This time, when I tried to just re-enter the CTM number etc., GMB would not accept the input and instead responded "not a valid number". But it IS a valid number. I just called it an it works fine.

Those hammerheads. This will now become a big time-waster for me.

 

[JoyHawkins]

@Tim Colling

We had this happen to 2 listings over the weekend as well. Interestingly in both cases it was because the secondary phone number was not listed correctly.

In one case, it was simply missing (whoops) so what we had in GMB was:

[primary] = tracking number
[secondary] = blank (Should have been the real #)


In another case it was a local phone number that was on the site on their contact page and our set up had been

[primary] = tracking number
[secondary] = toll free number on the site that's on every page.


We updated the second case so that now there are 2 secondary numbers and I think that should stop the switching in the future.

 

[Tim Colling]

Joy,

In this case that I ran into, we had three numbers:

1st - 844 number
2nd - 866 number
3rd - 760 number

Google simply removed the 844 number and replaced it with the 760 number, and then they left the 3rd number place empty.

I tried entering the 844 number in the first place and then the 760 number in the third place but when I tried to save those changes, it declined to accept the change and it displayed "Invalid phone number" in red font below the 844 number in the 1st position.

Fortunately, I subscribe to you ebook so it was a simple matter to look up the URL for the support chat and that took care of it.

 

[JoyHawkins]

It will be interesting to see if it happens again since you pointed out that Google doesn't like 844 numbers.

 

[d2minc]

Had this happen to a client of mine today.

[primary] = tracking number
[secondary] = main phone number (that's listed on the site)

Getting "Invalid phone number" error below primary number? Anyone else having this issue?

 

[Tim Colling]

Had this happen to a client of mine today.

[primary] = tracking number
[secondary] = main phone number (that's listed on the site)

Getting "Invalid phone number" error below primary number? Anyone else having this issue?

Was the tracking number one with an 844 area code?

 

[d2minc]

No 502 area code (for both numbers).

 

[JoyHawkins]

I'd try a different browser. Sounds like a glitch. If it's still happening, post on the GMB forum and I can escalate it for you.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

So, how do we make this stop?

Just had this happen to a client for the 2nd time. It's really messing up our reporting numbers. It's extremely annoying.

 

[d2minc]

Thanks Joy. Using firefox worked vs chrome.

Had 2 other clients today where the call tracking number was removed and replaced with their main phone number.

This time chrome worked fine for the updates.

Wondering the same thing - is this something that is just going to continue to happen?

It's great for tracking and showing ROI, but probably not worth it if it's something that has to be constantly monitored and updated (because the numbers keep getting changed).