Tracking Phone Numbers

[deanPlumberseo]

So I understand the whole concept behind having your real number on your website to match the one in your NAP. For tracking purposes we create the phone number in a graphic at the top of the site so we can track the maketing. We of course have the NAP number on the contact page and the footer.

My question now is one of my clients is using a PPC company that wants to put a javascript code on the site that switches out and changes the phone number to their own tracking number when someone clicks a PPC ad. We will still have the NAP number in the footer. Could this hurt our efforts for staying on the map?

Any ideas?

Dean

 

[Andrew Sawyer]

So I understand the whole concept behind having your real number on your website to match the one in your NAP. For tracking purposes we create the phone number in a graphic at the top of the site so we can track the maketing. We of course have the NAP number on the contact page and the footer.

My question now is one of my clients is using a PPC company that wants to put a javascript code on the site that switches out and changes the phone number to their own tracking number when someone clicks a PPC ad. We will still have the NAP number in the footer. Could this hurt our efforts for staying on the map?

Any ideas?

Dean

When you say NAP number you're just referring to a phone number, right? As the "p" stands for phone number. It would hurt efforts when that number gets reused elsewhere and/or someone manually adds the number or a bot adds it to the Places page because it is on the official website. Then someone thinks the number is for the business and when it doesn't work as intended the customer will get annoyed. Use the number for the long-haul or don't use one as the potential for bad customer service is a real possibility.

 

[Brian]

if you ignore the issue of potential poor customer service. What is the risk in imbedding the the call tracking number as an image, prominently displayed in the top banner on the site. Are there reallya lot of companies manually collecting numbers off sites or is it more BOT activity

 

[deanPlumberseo]

I think maybe this went in another direction. My concern is in terms of Google seeing the correct phone number on the site. We use the number in the graphic for tracking purposes. It rings to the clients office and forwards to the customers office. They connect with the customer, no chance for a bad customers service experience.

In a text area a javascript is added showing a phone number, the phone number is the customers main number to settle the issue of Google seeing the correct phone number that is in there listing. It swaps out to a different number only when someone clicks a PPC ad.

Will this cause an issue for Google?

Thanks in advance

 

[Eric Rohrback]

I don't think so. I use a number swapping javascript with my clients, and it seems to work fine. Since the numbers are coded in a javascript I don't think Google bots scraping NAP information can see it. Technically the numbers are hidden and only appear once a user comes from a certain location (in this case from a PPC ad). As long as the main business phone number is hard coded in text on the site, you'll be fine.

Since using this i've never had issues with dupes or anything like that coming from something coded in the JS. You're fine with the swapping javascript. Just don't do something dumb and put a tracking number directly on a local listing (like some YP companies do).

 

[deanPlumberseo]

I don't think so. I use a number swapping javascript with my clients, and it seems to work fine. Since the numbers are coded in a javascript I don't think Google bots scraping NAP information can see it. Technically the numbers are hidden and only appear once a user comes from a certain location (in this case from a PPC ad). As long as the main business phone number is hard coded in text on the site, you'll be fine.

Since using this i've never had issues with dupes or anything like that coming from something coded in the JS. You're fine with the swapping javascript. Just don't do something dumb and put a tracking number directly on a local listing (like some YP companies do).

Thanks for the info. Much appreciated.

Dean