Call Tracking, DNI Script & Local SEO
-
Hi Moz!
I've been reading about this a lot more lately - and it doesn't seem like there's exactly a method that Google (or other search engines) would consider to be "best practices". The closest I've come to getting some clarity are these Blumenthals articles - http://blumenthals.com/blog/2013/05/14/a-guide-to-call-tracking-and-local/ & the follow-up piece from CallRail - http://blumenthals.com/blog/2014/11/25/guide-to-using-call-tracking-for-local-search/.
Assuming a similar goal of using an existing phone number with a solid foundation in the local search ecosystem, and to create the ability to track how many calls are coming organically (not PPC or other paid platform) to the business directly from the website for an average SMB. For now, let's also assume we're also not interested in screening the calls, or evaluating customer interaction with the staff - I would love to hear from anyone who has implemented the DNI call tracking info for a website. Were there negative effects on Local SEO? Did the value of the information (# of calls/month) outweigh any local search conflicts?
If I was deploying this today, it seems like the blueprint for including DNI script, while mitigating risk for losing local search visibility might go something like this:
- Hire reputable call-tracking service, ensure DNI will match geographic area-code & be "clean" numbers
- Insert DNI script on key pages on site
- Maintain original phone number (non-DNI) on footer, within Schema & on Contact page of the site
- ??
- Profit
Ok, those last 2 bullet points aren't as important, but I would be curious where other marketers land on this issue, as I think there's not a general consensus at this point. Thanks everyone!
-
Hey Charlie - I realize this is a slightly old question post, but I am just now starting to dig into the details on this for my clients. One thing many of these articles that offer a 'solution' is failing to address is what number to actually put on your local search listing.
I understand DNI and as long as your website has your 'regular' static local number on the homepage, and you use the static number in all of your local SEO efforts - You should not see any penalties. I have many clients that use DNI and do not have an issue, plus I have read that Google can even read the javascript and see the number the DNI is replacing. The DNI is only useful if someone actually clicks past the initial search result to call - So basically, you may still only be getting partial data if someone does not click to your site but just rather calls the number in search results.
What my clients are now asking for, and I am pushing back on , is whether we can use separate call tracking numbers on separate Local SEO mediums. Here is an example -
Google: 800-555-1234
Facebook: 800-555-1235
Bing Places: 800-555-1236
This would still keep the static/owned number on the site - but show us who is calling from where. This would give good data in call tracking reports but from what I know and have researched, kills local SEO success due to NAP inconsistency.
-
Hi Charlie,
Mediahawk has written quite a good guide on local SEO and call tracking https://www.mediahawk.co.uk/blog/call-tracking-improves-local-seo/
The article says "You can use DNI numbers to control what number is displayed to a website visitor based on a countless range of conditions. This means the numbers for your social networks can display to those referred from social media rather than applying social media dedicated call tracking numbers to your updates".
I would suggest applying DNI to key web pages on a website for improved tracking.
Hope this helps. Let me know if you have anymore questions.
Zoe-Lee (user of call tracking)
-
Hi Charlie,
I'm sorry you haven't yet received any feedback yet on this question. Mike Blumenthal's writing on this topic (which you've already read) is as much as I personally know about on this, having never personally implemented a call tracking strategy for a local business. I'm hoping someone in our community will still reach out to you on this, but it may be that having read what you've read, you know as much as most folks on this topic. It may be you'll need to experiment to learn more.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Theory: Local Keywords are Hurting National Rankings?
I've read a good amount here and in other blog posts about strategies for national brands to rank locally as well with local landing pages, citations, etc. I have noticed something strange that I'd like to hear if anyone else is running into, or if anyone has a definitive answer for. I'm looking at a custom business printing company where the products can and are often shipped out of state, so it's a national brand. On each product page, the client is throwing in a few local keywords near where the office is to help rank for local variations. When looking at competitors that have a lower domain authority, lower volume of linking root domains, less content on the page, and other standard signals, they are ranking nationally better than the client. The only thing they're doing that could be better is bolding and throwing in the page keyword 5-10 times (which looks unnatural). But when you search for keyword + home city, the client ranks better. My hypothesis is that since the client is optimizing product pages for local keywords as well as national, it is actually hurting on national searches because it's seen as local-leaning business. Has anyone run into this before, or have a definitive answer?
Local Website Optimization | | Joe.Robison2 -
Best practices or tools for an SEO audit?
I would like to have an SEO audit of my site, and I'm looking for something beyond the basics. Prices for an audit seem to vary between free (for DIY tools) to over $3,000. That seems like an awfully big spread. What are the best practices I should be looking for or best tools to be looking at for a comprehensive SEO audit?
Local Website Optimization | | micromano0 -
Local Ranking Power of a Multi-Keyword URL?
Here is a site that is sitting at number 1 on Google UK (local results) for a number of its keywords: http://www.scottishdentistry.com/ If you look at the links in the navigation many of them have urls such as this: http://www.scottishdentistry.com/glasgow-scotland-dentistry/glasgow-scotland-hygienists.html These have clearly been created to be keyword rich. For example, there is no publicly-available page at: http://www.scottishdentistry.com/glasgow-scotland-dentistry Do you think this tactic has helped with the site's rankings? Is it worth imitating? Or will it ultimately attract a penalty of some kind? Remember this is in the UK where Google seems to be slower at penalising dodgy tactics than in the US. Thanks everyone.
Local Website Optimization | | neilmac0 -
Map Files for Branches and SEO
Dear All, We have an xml and image site map but we currently don't have a separate GEO Site Map / map files for our branches. I am wondering if such a thing exists and if so , if this something that we should be doing to help our branches rank locally on google maps etc. We have google local listings for our branches and we already do schema.org for our branches. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. thanks Peter
Local Website Optimization | | PeteC120 -
General SEO Help
Hi Everyone, **Website: **www.helppestcontrol.com I've been working on a wordpress based website for the past few months now. This is a new website that we designed for an existing company that decided to rebrand. The previous website had little to no traffic.. so we've basically started for scratch. I've followed SEO guides and have completed many of the basics. We started using MOZ just under a month ago and have made a ton of changes based upon those suggestions. With all of this being said, we have seen some slight improvements in traffic, but nothing truly noticeable. In fact, 90% of our traffic is coming from a Facebook PPC campaign. I think the main struggle is that the company has such a wide operating based (a ton of very small towns and cities). We created an optimize page for each one (same content, just switched out the keywords).. in hopes of driving traffic. Is this the correct approach? Or should be optimize for general terms such as "Bed Bug Removal" versus "Bed Bug Removal Barrie"? I was hoping that the community could take a look at the website (maybe run it through a few tests) and give me some more suggestions. I would really appreciate any feedback. Thank you!
Local Website Optimization | | Timrhendry0 -
Has anyone had any success buying a local domain website, getting it on first page and then selling it to a local business? I have found some good domains that this might work for but I am wondering if anybody has tried this before.
I would like to buy a local domain like scottsdalepaintingcontractor.com and then seo it to first page before I sell it. Has anybody tried such strategy?
Local Website Optimization | | BWoods3 -
Merging two pages into one - bad seo done previously
Hi, I have two pages Page 1
Local Website Optimization | | Syed_Ozair
/stop-smoking-hypnotherapy.php
Page authority: 24 and Page 2
/stop-smoking-in-highgate-north-london-radlett-hertfordshire-and-city-of-london.php
Page authority: 13 with 2 internal links only This was probably done to get more local searches to the page but i think it is a bit spamy. Would it be better to 301 page 2 to page 1 or make it as a blog post and keep it alive?0 -
Short EMD or Longer Partial MD: Which is better for SEO
Hey Guys, I appreciate all of the amazing responses you have been posting over the last two days.
Local Website Optimization | | Web3Marketing87
I have been a little tied up with Joomla 1.5 transfers, but I will make some comments soon! In the meantime, here is an interesting one: I have an existing domain with a little bit of DA - www.edmontonweb.ca as well as a parked domain with no DA - launchwebdesign.ca I have been advised to redirect (301) to the launch domain, but I still wonder if the current domain is better - after all it is very short & was registered over 5 years ago. Since launching the new site it has been about a month. We are currently #1 for almost every term on Bing & Yahoo (web design, edmonton web design etc.) but 14th on Google for "edmonton web design." Do you think switching the domain is a good call, or keep trying with edmontonweb.ca for a bit longer? Thanks guys, Anton0