Local SEO Call Tracking - Huge BS Alert

[Phil Rozek]

Welp, it would probably be best not to lay this out in full detail to someone who sells info products ya know.

Nothing revolutionary... call tracking numbers on pumper sites, profile pages, lead gen sites, etc... anything creative that is acceptable to qualified prospects.

Then you're not building citations OR links to client sites. Tough to do for places though: no way around gaming the system on that front, which always ends badly and is a waste of time nowadays.

---------- Post Merged at 04:41 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 04:39 PM ----------



My apologies Phil. I just clicked on your sig... I think I confused your brand name with a Clickbank or Wafo info product.

Nice site, very informative.

Matt

Gotcha. No worries. I was just about to say ?Hey, I don?t sell infoproducts!?

 

[Tyson Downs]

Phil, are you still against call tracking with the java script on a clients site? I've talked to a few marketers that are doing that with good luck. Just wondering your thoughts.

Call Tracking & Local SEO: Have Your Cake and Eat It Too

 

[Phil Rozek]

Phil, are you still against call tracking with the java script on a clients site? I've talked to a few marketers that are doing that with good luck. Just wondering your thoughts.

Call Tracking & Local SEO: Have Your Cake and Eat It Too

Nope, having a tracking number as Javascript is fine. As long as it doesn't creep into the local search "ecosystem," it's all good.

 

[katandmouse]

Hey guys,
Here's some info: Phone Call Tracking Basics for Maintaining Local Search Data Integrity - MnSearch The Truth about SEO and Call Tracking | Search Engine Journal

I think all you have to do is add this where you want the tracking phone number to hide it from the bots:

[code stripped it corrupted the thread]

The question is what do you want to track? You can extend that script and show different numbers based on different conditions, like keyword or domain referrers but this method will not have the number follow someone around the site, so it's very limited.

If you just want to know who's calling from your desktop site, as opposed to a mobile site, citation, or a print ad, and to get out of using expensive subscription-based call tracking services, just get yourself a cheap Skype number at $2.50 a month (or something like that). Set it to forward to your regular number. Then monthly just log into Skype and see how many calls you got.

Your problem, of course, is that your NAP number is also there and there is nothing to prevent someone from calling that number. But why couldn't you also do this:

[code stripped it corrupted the thread]

Google would see that, and most people have javascript enabled, so they'd see the tracking number and not the NAP number. Yes? No?

This simple tracking method is an effective approach for tracking interior landing page conversions where you might have keywords or ads pointing to it.

Going to set this up for a client this week and would love to know how others avoid the call tracking expense that small business owners hate to incur on top of everything else.

Warmly, Kat

 

[Linda Buquet]

Sorry Kat the code broke the forum. The sidebar was at bottom of page and your post was unreadable. Even the edit button was gone so I had a heck of a time figuring out how to get into post to edit it.

I tried a couple different things, then finally just had to strip it out for your post to show and be readable. Sorry about that.

 

[rossicone]

Nope, having a tracking number as Javascript is fine. As long as it doesn't creep into the local search "ecosystem," it's all good.

Hi Phil (and everyone )!

I've been reading a lot on call tracking these past few days and the effects it can have on local. I've personally always been against it because the possibility of it creating more harm than good is pretty high. However I figured there is no harm in digging a little deeper and getting more familiar with it!

I came across another thread in Linda's forum started by freerunr that links out to a YouTube video of Matt Cutts posted by Google WebMasters in April 2014. In this video, Matt Cutts makes it seem like the Google bots are able to crawl Javascript and therefore are able to see both the local number and tracking number. I also read Google's Webmaster Central Blog post from May 2014 that talks about the evolution of Google being able to read Javascript on website.

I see that your original post was in August 2013 and was wondering if you still agreed with it? (I wanted to bold my question because geez, I accidentally started writing an essay! ) A lot of articles have been posted about call tracking in April and May of 2014, which makes me question if changes have taken place.


Kind of along the same lines, I was curious to pick your brain about call tracking on mobile. Say we decide not to use call tracking on desktop because it is too harmful. Would it be just as bad if we used it on mobile? I know we could set up event tracking in GA to get metrics on the number of calls from mobile, but some of our clients like to be able to record the calls as well. Do you think the potential negative effects of using call tracking on mobile are the same as on desktop?

Sorry my post is so long! I really value your and Linda's advice, thanks in advance for your help!

 

[Linda Buquet]

(I wanted to bold my question because geez, I accidentally started writing an essay! )

Sorry my post is so long!

Hi Rachel, sorry I don't have anything to add about call tracking but just wanted to comment that you are starting to sound like me, in both cases above. Careful I may be rubbing off on you!

 

[rossicone]

Haha well you are a wealth of information! I'd love if you rubbed off a little more

 

[Margaret Ornsby]

I remember hearing Mike say CT can be used if it's "done right". I even found a post recently from him which I thought was excellent.
A Guide to Call Tracking And Local Search | Understanding Google Places & Local Search
And Joy's comments at the bottom are helpful as well.

And Mary's post Call Tracking & SEO: Here's the Truth also good. Funny how her post ties back to the same blog as what started this thread in the first place!

Not being able to use CT on Google Local stinks (big time) but I think it's a constraint forced on us for now. I live in hope Google will continue to try to evolve Local to provide better analytics / tracking ability. Given it's a free product, not 100% confident in my hope.

 

[rossicone]

Not being able to use CT on Google Local stinks (big time) but I think it's a constraint forced on us for now. I live in hope Google will continue to try to evolve Local to provide better analytics / tracking ability. Given it's a free product, not 100% confident in my hope.

Thank you Margaret for these links! Gosh, I couldn't agree more...I would HOPE that Google would see the importance of call tracking for local businesses and realize we are not trying to be "sneaky" in displaying a number other than the local. If only there was schema markup for CT numbers ...and of course that Google was okay with us using it. A girl can dream!

So it seems like the least risky way to use CT is to display it in an image. My only question here is what would we do with this image on mobile? It is so important to be able to click to call on mobile these days. Would we need to convert the image to display the local number instead of the call tracking number in order to do this? And therefore lose all effects of CT on mobile? I'm assuming it would be too risky to convert the image number to the CT number on mobile because Google bots would then be able to then crawl it?

I am going to leave a comment with this on the link you posted to Mike's blog as well

Thank you again for your help Margaret!!