Will two numbers on a local listing affect me?

[PeterRota]

The reason I'm asking this question is. I was on the phone with a Google Rep yesterday for one of my google places. It was in reference to map maker and the fact that I only wanted one number on the listing. About a month ago I had it, so I deleted the listing's local number and than had an 877 number. The problem is when I checked on Friday the Local number was then added back by a Google moderator in Map Maker. So, now there's two numbers on the listing. He told me that would not affect my NAP info, which I don't believe. 
He also went on to say that Google goes through listings and if they have an 800 number they may delete it and replace place it with a local number.

Has anyone delt with this and can Verify what he says to be true? Additionally, will my NAP be affected if this is the case? Thanks.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Peter,

All local listings hang on NAP (name, address and phone number) and the phone number aspect must be a local area code phone number. You should not be listing a toll free number as your main number - not on your local business listings, website or anyplace else. I have not personally run across a report before of Google manually changing a toll free number to a local one, but number changes can definitely take place because Google is scraping data from a variety of sources. If they find instances of the web of your NAP with the local phone number, then they would certainly prefer to use that, as toll free numbers aren't viewed as local.

The Google Places dashboard provides you with an option to list an alternate, secondary number, so if you want to put your toll free number there, that's acceptable, but don't list it as your core number. That's not what Google wants.

[PeterRota]

Okay, so my question is, if I list my Google Listing with a toll free and local phone. Then, I list other listings(Yellow pages, Yelp, Insider pages etc) with just purely a toll free number. Would that affect the rest of my citations? Thanks for your help Miriam.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Peter,

Yes, it would affect your citation consistency. You should always list your primary local number first on all local listings, and be sure it is in crawl-able text on the website. I do not recommend creating any local listing with only your toll free number.

[PeterRota]

So then the question is, If I do have two numbers on each NAP for local listing citations and Directories. How does Google know which is the preferred number and which number will come up when someone searches for my website?

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Peter,

You should not be using a toll free number as part of your NAP. Your Local number is the  'P' in NAP. Anything else is a supplementary number. Different Local SEOs may have a different approach than mine, but when I am doing local SEO, I do not include toll free numbers in crawl-able text on the website - I put them in image text in the masthead, if required. I put the complete NAP (name-address-phone) in the footer and on the contact page, encoded in Schema markup. I list the local phone number on all local citations. If it is necessary to list a supplementary number like a toll free number, I do that in the additional phone number field offered by some of the indexes/directories. Google understands which number is local if you've put in in the primary number field and it matches what they find on your website and elsewhere. But, should you decide to put toll free numbers as though they were the primary number in some of your citations, then, yes, there is a concern that Google will not trust their data about the business.

Does this make sense, Peter? I want to be sure I'm explaining this well to you.

[PeterRota]

Yes Miriam, this is crystal clear. I really appreciate your help.

[MiriamEllis]

Great! So glad to be of help.