Does changing your business phone number affect SEO?
Much like all other aspects of digital marketing and brand value, SEO is a constantly changing the algorithm. With so many moving pieces and evolving trends, it’s no wonder that brands aren’t quite certain which decisions will negatively impact their SEO, and which ones are safe enough to make. One day, it seems that one kind of behavior is perfectly fine, while the next Google will penalize it because the algorithm finds it as an issue. Add customer expectations into the mix, and it gets even more difficult to figure out just what’s worth the effort, and what should be left alone.
When it comes to your business details, including your name, address, and phone number (neatly packed into the notion of NAP information), change can be good. After all, entire companies have successfully rebranded without a hitch. However, changing a single piece of information such as your phone number can change the entire customer journey if not done in a proper way. Here, we’ll tackle a few important steps in the process to keep in mind, so that your phone number shift doesn’t impact your ranking or your brand perception in a negative way.
1. NAP it in the grow
Local search is a vital component of your overall SEO strategy, all the more so when you’re running a strictly local business with a physical presence, such as a car shop, a bike repair facility, or a clothing store. Your base traffic heavily depends on your customers’ ability to find correct information online when they search for your services. If they stumble upon an outdated number, they’ll call the next business in their search results with solid reviews and forget that you exist. Simply put, consistency matters. Google doesn’t want to disappoint its users, so it penalizes businesses with inconsistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone number) information across the internet. As soon as your directories, your website and other online listings don’t show your actual phone number, your ranking will suffer.
The remedy is fairly simple. If you have decided to change your phone number or your entire communications system, for that matter, you should take the time to revise all your local business listings and directories where your company pops up. NAP consistency is an important ranking factor that can either collapse your business in the eyes of search engines, or it can help you reach those topmost desirable spots in the SERPs. So, while changing your business phone number might not be a cause for worry on its own, how you distribute it will greatly matter in local rankings.
2. Take care of your call trace
Some businesses steer clear of call tracking simply because they aren’t sure how to go about it, afraid to damage their SEO in the process. Even more importantly with regards to call tracking, every business needs to adhere to those key legal requirements, such as the EU’s GDPR, or General Data Protection Regulation, to make sure their customers’ sensitive information is safe. But when the time comes to move from outdated landlines and change your numbers or merge them, you can also reap the benefits of this potentially SEO-beneficial process.
Wanting to unify and improve their communication systems, companies are switching to digital phone solutions such as voice over internet protocol (or VoIP for short). There are many perks of such a transition for call tracking, smarter customer support, and better customer engagement, all of which can support your SEO efforts in the long run. As you learn about VoIP and its many applications, you’ll be able to make the most of your phone-based interactions with your customers to serve your brand reputation, but also your ranking.
3. Building and Protecting customer trust
When done right, changing your business phone number can be a seamless process that doesn’t do any damage to your ranking. However, it’s important to remember the reason for the ranking in the first place: search engines want to give users the best, most trustworthy results first and above all other available options online. In doing so, they reward businesses that accurately portray themselves online, and contact information is a vital component of that representation.
The basic premise goes as follows: if a customer calls you and gets a notification that the number no longer exists, they lose trust in your brand. Google and other search engines recognize that lack of trust and thus push other businesses above yours, with accurate and verified contact details available. In a sense, it’s customer trust that drives search engine ranking.
4. Addressing the customer in time
Thankfully, you can make sure that your customers have the correct information in a few simple ways. If you’ve taken care of all of your business directory listings, your social media pages, messaging app presence, and your website, you can use your marketing strategy to get the word out. Your subscribers and return customers will want to know that your business has changed a vital piece of information. Just like you don’t want them to spend an hour going to an old address of your store only to discover a weird-looking shop for plumbing supplies, you want to have your new number added to their contacts list.
You can use your weekly/monthly newsletter to notify them of the switch, post a social media update letting customers know the new number they can reach you on, and post a little announcement on your website, too, especially if you gain plenty of call traffic from all of these outlets. Changing a business phone number can be a simple process in itself, but its impact on your business will not be unless you prepare properly. Taking care of all the business registers where your company is listed paired with implementing search engine-approved tracking tactics as well as customer engagement will be more than enough to help you through the process.
Courtesy & Copyright
https://creativesaints.com/https://www.papeel.com.br/
http://graphicwebdesign.in/
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/2020/11/03/does-changing-your-business-phone-number-affect-seo/
https://due.com/blog/
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/top-10-ways-improve-your-personal-brand-image-online
https://strikesocial.com/blog/12-social-media-advertising-mistakes-to-avoid/
https://smallbiztrends.com/category/social-media/page/2