800 number on website
-
Hi,
My client just sent me an 800 number that he would like to use to replace his number on the website. I know that it is best to keep a local phone number on the website and across all citations for NAP/Local SEO reasons.
Is there anywhere that I could still incorporate the 800 number and not have it affect SEO?
Thanks,
Erin
-
Hi Erin, Thanks for clarifying. Technically, this should not cause a problem for Google, but because of their history of issues with phone number confusion, when I'm optimizing a Local site, I put the 800 number in image text only. I don't include it in real text. I guess you could say I take a better-safe-than-sorry approach, just to avoid possible hassles down the road.
-
Miriam,
I am aware that it should be on the google listing. In this case, I am referring to the website. In other words, if the local number is at the top-right of the page, I would list the toll free number below with 'toll free' labeled as an option for the user. The toll free number would also be placed below the NAP in the footer of the page.
Thanks,
Erin
-
Hi Erin,
Do you mean add your toll free number to your website, or to your Google listing? If the first, what do you mean by adding it 'below' the local number? Where on the site? If the latter, yes, you are allowed to list a toll free number.
-
Miriam,
Thanks for the comment.
What about if I add the 888 number below the local number. Will this cause confusion with the search engines?
Thanks,
Erin
-
Hi Erin,
Chris' advice is exactly what I would have given. Go ahead and add the 800 number to the masthead of the website or elsewhere in image text. Just be sure that the indexable text on the website features the local number, and be sure that this local number is the one being used on all of the client's citations. Consistency is king in Local SEO. -
yes. That would work, just to keep with NAP consistency. You don't even necessarily need to put in numbers in the alt-text. If the alt attribute is just text like it says "call in line for Joe's pawn shop" google wouldn't get confused. Then any screen reader would pick up the phone number you left in the footer for the person using it.
-
Interesting suggestion... so the image would display the 800 number, but the alt-text would have the other (NAP) number?
Thanks!
-
I would consider putting it an image with an alt attribute of"phone number for X" , then putting that in the header or somewhere very noticeable. Then still maintain the regular phone number in the footer or somewhere unnoticeable.People will most likely never notice the second phone number
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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
-
Reducing number of site pages?
Hi, I am looking through my site structure and I have a lot of pages left over from the days of article keywords. Probably 7 or 8 years ago, someone sold my husband on article key word pages. I have slowly gotten rid of a lot of them as they have fallen out out of the ranks. I would like to get rid of the rest, probably 5 or 6 pages. Will it hurt my rankings to delete pages and redirect them? My customers really like the simplicity of our site and I want to keep it that way, plus clean up flags that Moz is telling me is a problem. I think its easier to keep less pages top notch than have to worry with a lot of them. Especially since my customers aren't viewing them. Thanks in advance!
On-Page Optimization | | CalicoKitty20000 -
Are Hotel Vanity Websites considered a Doorway Page to brand.com?
I work for a large 3rd party management company and we use vanity websites to help us market our hotels. They provide us the ability to better manage our content as well as provide value to our customers versus the brand site. An example would be Vanity: http://www.hiltonmonterey.com/Brand.com: http://hiltongardeninn3.hilton.com/en/hotels/california/hilton-garden-inn-monterey-MRYMHGI/index.htmlBased on my reading of Google's guidelines I am concerned that our vanity site may be interpreted as such. Please advise if this is the case.
On-Page Optimization | | JohnJimenez0 -
Over-Optimized Website
I'm looking for advice for what you would start with if you were working on a website that was extremely over-optimized for 1 keyword. So, for example, I'm going to pretend this client is a dog trainer in Toronto (I can't publicly post the URL). I've read places that having exact-match anchor text links to inner pages in the footer of the site can cause problems and removing it has resulted in big ranking jumps. I'm looking to see if there are other big items that you would tackle first if this was your client. Some examples of things the site has: There is a page for dog training under their Services menu. However, internal links on their site link "dog training" to both the homepage and to this service page. Is that going to cause issues? The anchor text for internal linking is almost always the exact same word - "Dog Training". There is a banner that goes across the top of the site that appears on every page that says "Dog Training Toronto". I'm guessing I should remove that. Would the same keyword being overly used on every page cause confusion? Almost every image on his site is saved in the format "Dog Training Toronto". I'm looking to see if anyone has general tips on where to start with a site that has been over-optimized for 1 keyword. He actually has a ton of good content on his blog that gets a ton of traffic (because it's actually useful) so it's not that his content sucks - it's just been overly structured and SEO'd to death. I found a few articles on this but other than the footer advice I didn't find too many case studies of others that have run into this issue and done a few steps that actually worked.
On-Page Optimization | | ImprezzioMarketing0 -
What is the best way to target two keywords with one website?
I have a client that needs to target two different citys for her service. I have her front page ranking first page for one of the cities, but I have tried all sorts of things and can't get her front page to rank first page in the second (and less competitive) city. I know the drill about making a second page and trying to rank that page but is there a better way?
On-Page Optimization | | jonnyholt0 -
Is it a problem to have the same phone number on two websites in same niche?
is it a problem to have the same phone number on two websites in same niche? For instance if I had two completely different websites for one painting contractor client. All the content is completely different other than the logo and phone. It is in the same niche for "spokane painters and spokane painting contractor" .. will google see the same phone and penalize?
On-Page Optimization | | Superflys0 -
How do I avoid duplicate content and page title errors when using a single CMS for a website
I am currently hosting a client site on a CMS with both a Canadian and USA version of the website. We have the .com as the primary domain and the .ca is re-directed from the registrar to the Canadian home page. The problem I am having is that my campaign produces errors for duplicate page content and duplicate page titles. Is there a way to setup the two versions on the CMS so that these errors do not get produced? My concern is getting penalized from search engines. Appreciate any help. Mark Palmer
On-Page Optimization | | kpreneur0 -
Using new domain in existing website
We have already a site and we want to make business in another country. We don't want to make a copy of our site because it requires more resources, but we want to use a different domain because the business will be run by a partner in that country. The idea is to make a folder in our site, www.mysite.com/countryname/ and associate a new domain www.newdomain.com, so when users go to the new domain they see the content under www.mysite.com/country/. Since de www.newdomain.com will use DNS redirection, the current domain won't be seen. Is this correct from a SEO perspective? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | Xopie1 -
SEO for One Page Websites
Hi Are there any SEO guidelines for "one page websites". I'm looking into the 'benefit' it might have in combination with exact match URLs. Many thanks in advance.
On-Page Optimization | | Partouter2