What to do if the main business number is 888, which is toll free?

[Gsmithmike]

So i am trying to find a solution about this: A business that i am working with has a 888 number which is everywhere, as their main number. For Local SEO how important is this? Shall i try to clean up and submit a local number? Or just leave it

Is there any correlation between having a local number and local ranking? Or Not?

Please let me know

 

[Phil Rozek]

@Gsmithmike, I have not found that using a toll-free number is a problem.

Using that non-local number for multiple locations / GMB pages may cause problems, though.

I'd leave it.

 

[Gsmithmike]

@Phil Rozek thanks for the respond. The business faces NAP inconsistency, specially the phone number around web. Now i am thinking if i do change the main number to a local phone number for their location, just like competitors this would help their local presence.
For Hotels i know toll free is alright, while in this field most of competitors do have a local number on their GMB listing. So how do you feel about it?- much appreciate it. PS. Someone mentioned something about 888 number being authoritative.

 

[Phil Rozek]

@Gsmithmike, if the current phone number isn't used consistently, and if you and your client want to standardize, and if you and the client are leaning toward a local phone number, then yeah, I'd go with the local number. That's a lot of "ifs," though.

The only drawback (I know of) to a toll-free number is how it looks. Some people might not think your client really is local. But that's an "optics" issue, and likely not a Google issue. I haven't seen any signs that using or not using a toll-free number directly helps or directly hurts your rankings.

 

[Rich Owings]

I recently ran into an issue where Apple Maps wouldn't accept a toll-free number. Otherwise, I agree with Phil.

 

[Annika Neudecker]

We use toll-free numbers on our coming soon locations and haven't run into any issues with them yet. There's maybe 25 locations using the same toll free number in our account versus over a thousand with individual local numbers, so it could be a matter of proportions. Either way, I wouldn't worry about it causing issues based on a single location.