The use of call tracking numbers in your Franchise Online Marketing ads is very useful because it is a great way to track incoming ad generated leads for your franchisees. Search Engines like Google aim to provide the most useful and accurate information for users, so a local phone number is always preferred. That being said, if you are using a call tracking phone numbers in your advertising you may be run up against a few challenges.
There are three fundamental reasons why call tracking numbers can cause issues with Google Places, and other directories, and and even organic search rankings.
- Google may not recognize the call tracking number as your local number and think you’re spamming.
- You may confuse Google because many local business directories use the phone number as a key identifier for individual businesses. A phone number is often an easy ID to use for indexing businesses because they are generally prone to less variation in how they’re presented in databases or on webpages. A second phone number associated with a location may ‘devalue’ that location or produce a duplicate location.
- If the business ever changes call tracking solution providers or stops using the tracking numbers, the phone numbers they’ve been using will stop working, yet will be published throughout the Internet
We suggest using a locally recognized phone number and when you are able to, purchase the use of that phone number for your exclusivity for use in the call tracking. That way that phone number will remain consistant when changing providers or stop using the tracking numbers. There are also new ways to place call tracking technology on your existing phone numbers.
We also suggest that as part of your inside sales procedures for franchisees, asking callers directly where they found you You may or may not be able to collect that data from your franchisees, but at the very least encourage the collection of the data. Have the employees who answer the phone write down responses for you to see later. This remains an excellent and free way of polling to see how effective different channels are performing. Optimize leads by asking for referrals as well.
The data and feedback for our advertising campaigns is imperative, but you also need to follow good SEO practice to drive business locally.
ElementsLocal has worked with many Franchises on call tracking and has integrated the service directly into our platform.. Take an online tour today: elementslocal.com.
