Is Call Tracking Bad for SEO?

Introduction: The effect call tracking has on SEO

Are you interested in using a call tracking number for your business, but are worried about the possible negative impact on your SEO? It’s a valid hesitation, but as you will find out, it’s not a big issue. 

Call tracking provides various advantages for SEO and only one disadvantage (which you can overcome). Therefore, it’s not a deal-breaker – especially if your overall SEO is solid.

What is Call Tracking?

Call tracking is a method of identifying the route by which callers found your company. Businesses spend a lot of money on marketing, and they need to know what’s working. Tracking calls enables you to find out what advertisement was effective in getting the potential customer to pick up the phone.

Imagine receiving a surge in phone calls and having no idea why. You may get a sharp increase in sales, but that won’t last long if you can’t replicate the process. Call tracking enables you to pinpoint when a marketing strategy works correctly. Therefore, investing in call tracking is a positive return on investment.

This method is comparable to tracking the popular search terms used to land on your website, known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO). However, there is currently a debate about how call tracking could hurt SEO. We are here to help you figure out if there is any truth to this claim.

How Call Tracking Might Hurt Your SEO

Local SEO is more valuable for some businesses than others. Service companies that operate in a local area rely on local SEO to drive a significant portion of their customer base. Companies must create a visible online presence, and NAP (Name, Address, Phone number) is a critical component. Search engines pay attention to the NAP for ranking your business.

The problem with call tracking is that the NAP can be inconsistent if the phone numbers differ. Search engines are confused when a business has more than one phone number, which can create several competing instances of a business profile. This is not ideal when trying to outrank established companies.

Number tracking is not a problem for local SEO but can be harmful when used on business listing websites. The solution is to request Google to not crawl your landing pages where your call tracking numbers may be different from main line.

Why Call Tracking is Positive for SEO

Now let’s focus on how call tracking can positively impact your SEO. Here are the commonly accepted ways that SEO is improved:

      Location SEO: are you using a marketing strategy where local SEO is your focus? Call tracking can help optimize the local SEO of each location. You can increase the marketing budget of a site that is experiencing a surge in calls. You can also identify locations that are underperforming so you can focus on making improvements.

      Landing page optimization: call tracking helps you figure out what keywords a client used to arrive on the landing page and then make the call. Therefore, you can increase the optimization of that keyword to increase traffic for the future. You can also use the same keyword variations for other local SEO pages to see if they achieve the same success.

      Content map: you can use data gathered from calls to create a content map. For example, use the call recording feature if it’s available. You can listen back and note down the most commonly asked questions. Use these to create an FAQ section on your landing pages. That’s going to increase your SEO because users are likely to search for that information.

Conclusion

Are you interested in call tracking for your business? As long as you take the right approach, call tracking will not negatively impact your SEO. Overall, call tracking can improve local SEO and help you outrank competing businesses.

You can even use call tracking for Facebook ads or in conjunction with Google ads!

By using landing pages and specific numbers on landing pages, you avoid getting hit by a duplicate listing penalty. Plus, you’ll have the advantage over competitors that are not handling their call tracking strategy correctly. Choose CallScaler call tracking service and ensure your ROI remains positive.