Ranking Locally and Nationally with an 800 phone number

[Allen101]

This is my first post, so I would like to thank you. I'm trying to rank locally and nationally. I have a (800) toll free phone number and also a local number. Which number should I use as the primary number for listings?

Could I still use my (800) toll free number as my primary number and still rank locally?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Allen,

Welcome and thanks for posting. That's a loaded question.

In VERY general terms, best practice would be the local # on the Place page and in NAP on footer of the location page you link the Place page to. 800# could be at top of site if that's what you want for customers but it should be in an image, with no image alt or image title, so it's unreadable.

But there are chains that use an 800# and rank. So it's not really black and white. But the 800# can cause a couple different problems - so can cause extra work or time consuming issues. Plus Google specifies right in the guidelines to use a local number if possible.

But again that's just broad general advice without knowing anything at all about your business. If you want to get more specific and post links to a couple locations we can maybe give you more detailed feedback.

 

[Allen101]

Hello Linda, I'm glad to be here. We provide online sales nationally and we provide mobile installation for the products we sale to our local customers and online sales for our local customers too. If you need more just let me know. Thank you again

Electronic-Connection.com

 

[Linda Buquet]

Allen, to Google I'm afraid your site would look like an online only store and I'm afraid online only stores can't have a Place page.

Normally a local chain would have location pages but I don't see anything like that on your site.
Can you give me addresses of 3 of your local offices/stores and tell me a little more about how your local offices work?

 

[Allen101]

Linda, no I don't have a place page setup yet.

I have a local Ups box address and my personal address. I don't have a brick and mortar store.

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Hey Linda, look at this page from my website.

http://www.electronic-connection.com/installation-services-c-1422.html

 

[Linda Buquet]

UPS addresses aren't allowed. Only brick and mortar stores are allowed a Place page.

That installation page does not have any local offices listed that I can see. Am I missing something?

 

[Allen101]

Hey Linda, so your telling me, since I don't have a brick and mortar store. I can't have a local presence. What about plumbers or electricians that work from there home. I provide installation for the products I see for my local customers only. I also provide installation for products bought from other companies on the web.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Allen,

Yes you are right plumbers and installers too that meet customers face to face can have a place page.

What I was trying to tell you, but it was late, I was tired and didn't explain it, (sorry) is that to a Google moderator, it would look like an online only store based on home page which is likely all they would look at and they could delete your place page.

Local businesses like plumbers usually have local signals on the site. Like areas served and then a page for each city with the address and local # for each location. And they have address and local phone on every page of the site if they are using best practices. Plus with plumbers Google understands they go to customers.

In your situation, since on 1st glance it just looks like an ecomm site, I think you need to spell it out better that you do local on-site installation in Richmond and Indianapolis. A mod isn't going to take time to read the fine print in the image and spiders can't read it either. I missed it the 1st time too. In fact a mod may not make it past the home page which looks like an online store and there is no address or city in footer of home either. I realize it's tricky because you want to sell nationally, so may not want city on home, just letting you know.

Maybe on home in the installation section you should specify service area. Because from a user viewpoint, just looking at home page I'd think I could get installation here in Cali.

Also to even rank in local you need those local signals to rank in the city you are in. You would need to link your Place page to that delivery page and then optimize that page for local. The title tag should be about installation in Richmond and Richmond and Indianapolis should be in the title of page in larger font AND the copy you have should be readable text that also includes city. Google can't read the text in an image.

And also you will typically only rank in the city you are based in. So if you only have your home office in Richmond, then you can only have the one Place page and will only rank in local for that one city. You need to set a service area and hide the address of the page if you work from a home office.

But you can still totally work on ranking nationally. It's just the Place page and local presence I'm talking about.

So anyway you just asked about phone and I ended up going into a few other things, but hope that helps.

 

[Allen101]

Hey Linda, thank you so much for all your help. I'm so sorry I kept you up so late. When you told me " Only brick and mortar stores are allowed a Place page" I didn't think I was going to sleep. HAHA The only reason I don't want to show my personal address is an upset customer showing up at my house and taking my wife and kids hostage or something! I do carry equipment and every store that I have worked at has been robbed one time or the other.

-I know I have been using it but should I say something a little more attractive than Richmond, Indiana to Indianapolis and surrounding areas?

-Below or above my homepage slider banners I can type something about installation services areas, if that will help?

-Should I make a page " Cities We Serve " I can put this in the footer and information box? Or should I type out all the counties and cities we serve in the footer like this website? Home Theater & TV Installation in New Jersey | HT Install NJ Also on this page or in the footer I can put my local phone number. I can say something like " For local installation service please call ***-***-**** "

-On this page Electronic-Connection - SCHEDULE SERVICE NOW! 765-821-2123 I can post my personal phone number. When I talk to local customers in person I hand them my business card and it has my personal number on it.

- Now what should my Meta Tags (title,description,keywords) look like for each of the pages above and my installation service pages I have now and the pages I will make in the future pertaining to Installation services have in them ( Richmond, Indiana, Indianapolis ) ?

-I have a Photo Gallery page for Installations I have performed and completed. Should I change the Meta Tags there and title text for each image?

-When I setup my google place page should I link it to my homepage or my Installation Services page?

-Now I have to tell you, I live in a very small city right outside of Richmond but my ups mail box is in Richmond. I know I can hide my address on the Google place page but is it going to matter that my website says Richmond, Indiana to Indianapolis and surrounding areas?

Thank you again for all your help Linda

 

[Linda Buquet]

Please realize I can't go deep on your site and all the SEO recommendations. There is only so much help I can give each person for free as I'm trying to help the industry and need to spread myself around. PLUS giving the right answers would require asking you questions and doing more research, so that's about as deep as I can go short of a paid consultation.

I can partially answer this one though:

-Now I have to tell you, I live in a very small city right outside of Richmond but my ups mail box is in Richmond. I know I can hide my address on the Google place page but is it going to matter that my website says Richmond, Indiana to Indianapolis and surrounding areas?

Your place page will need to use whatever small city that is. You can't use the UPS box. So realize you may not rank in the bigger cities as far as in the local pack with the A,B,C listings - will likely only rank in that small town, whatever it is. You can say for customer benefit you serve those other areas, but Google will largely rank you in local based on the city that's in your dash. Additionally part of the algo is based around how many local directories, yellow pages and your own site mention the exact NAP that's inside dash. So if you don't post your home address on any citation sites or your own site, that will impact ranking too. Again all this is in local. In organic does not matter as much.

 

[Allen101]

Hey Linda, I understand. My grandfather always told me "if your good at something you should get paid for it" You have been awesome, thank you so much for your help!! I will talk to you in the future about that paid consultation.