A Tracking Number on Your Google Listing

Two numbers for one business

A call tracking number goes onto a Google listing for a sensible reason: someone wants to know how many calls the listing produces.

Months later the business has two phone numbers online. Some directories show the tracking number, others show the real one, and a few show both on different pages.

Customers have saved whichever one they found. Google, which uses the phone number to recognise a business across the web, now sees conflicting details for one shop.

None of that is a reason to avoid tracking numbers. It is a reason to place them carefully.

What a tracking number is

A tracking number is a separate phone number, rented from a call tracking service, that rings through to your real line.

The service records each call: when it came, how long it lasted and whether anyone answered. Give each source its own number and you can tell which one made the phone ring.

The catch is that a number only measures one source while it appears only there. Once it spreads, its counts mean less and the confusion grows.

Where a listing's number travels

A number on a Google listing does not stay on the listing.

• Directories copy listing details, often automatically and repeatedly.
• Map apps and navigation systems pull from the same sources.
• Review sites add the number to a page about you.
• Customers' phones keep whichever number they called last.
• Data suppliers resell business details to many smaller sites.

The fourth is the one that outlives every fix. A customer who saved the tracking number keeps calling it for years, so it has to keep working as long as people have it.

Why mismatched numbers matter

Google works out which details belong to which business by comparing what it finds. The listing, the website and other sites each show a business name, an address and a number to call.

When they agree, it can be confident. When half the web shows one number and half another, it has less to go on, and a second listing can appear for the same address with the other number.

A duplicate splits reviews and visibility between two listings, and removing one takes far longer than preventing it.

The arrangement that works

A Google listing has room for more than one phone number. Put the tracking number in the main position, where it shows and gets counted, and your real number in as an additional number.

That keeps the real number attached to the listing, so the listing still matches the website, the directories, the signs and the invoices.

Everywhere else, use the real number only. And choose a local tracking number with your own area code rather than a toll-free one, so it looks like the business it rings.

A worked example

A muffler and exhaust shop with two hoists on a busy road signed up for a monthly advertising package that included call tracking.

The provider put a tracking number on the shop's Google listing as its only number, so the listing's calls would appear in the monthly report.

Within a year, two directories and a review site showed the tracking number, the rest showed the real one, and a second Google listing appeared at the same address with the real number.

The mechanism was the one above. Each source saw a different number, and nothing told Google which belonged to the shop.

The fix took an afternoon and some patience. The tracking number stayed in the main position, the real number went back on as an additional number, the duplicate was reported to Google and the directories were corrected.

The shop also agreed an exit: if the package ends, the tracking number comes off the listing that day and stays connected for as long as customers still dial it.

Calls from ads are already counted

Some of what a tracking number measures may be measured already.

AdWords counts calls from its own ads through call extensions and call reporting. The listing's Insights show how many people tapped its call button, and on which days.

What a tracking number adds is every call to that number, including people who dialled it from a computer screen or a note, plus the length of each call.

Decide what you need to know before adding a number. The answer may be that the listing does not need one.

The website keeps the real number

The website is the source Google compares the listing with most closely, so it should show the real number, as text.

To count calls from the site's ad visitors, a script can show a tracking number only to people who arrived from an ad, while the page's own code keeps the real one.

Search engines and visitors from everywhere else see the real number, and the counts stay clean.

Who holds the tracking number

A tracking number belongs to the service that rents it, not to you. When the account closes, it can stop working or be given to someone else.

Before one goes on your listing, ask whether you can keep it if you leave, and get the answer in writing.

Finding where it has spread

Search for the tracking number in quotes, written the way directories usually format it. The results show which sites have copied it.

Correct the important ones to the real number first: the largest directories and the sites that appear when people search your business name. Smaller copies tend to follow their sources over time.

The counter-case

A business that does not advertise, or has no need to separate the listing's calls from the rest, can keep its real number everywhere and read the listing's Insights instead.

One with several locations or campaigns has more reason to track, and more numbers to keep in order.

Either way the rule is the same: the tracking number goes in one place, as the main listing number, with the real number beside it and on everything else.

Before you add one

1. Decide what you need to count.
2. Check what Insights already counts.
3. Choose a local number with your area code.
4. Add the real number as an additional listing number.
5. Keep the real number on the website and directories.
6. Ask who keeps the number if you leave.
7. Search for it every few months.

Step four is the one most often skipped. With the real number still on the listing, the tracking number can do its job without cutting the listing off from everything else that describes the business.

Getting the listing's other details right is covered in the shopping centre unit number nobody can find.

Frequently asked questions

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