Sponsored Listings Hurting Local SEO?

[BCB1121]

We use a service which sponsors listings on various popular directories. In turn, it changes our phone number so that I can qualify if the call is a lead or not and then charge us. Unfortunately, while this service helps exposure on those directories, the phone number as well as the website are different.

How much of a problem is this for our local SEO?

Other directories include Suerpages and Citysearch.

-Brant

[MiriamEllis]

Hi BCB1121,

Google probably doesn't care if a listing is sponsored or not (paid for or not) but the issue you have pointed out regarding call tracking numbers does matter very much. Unfortunately, what this service is doing is creating 'NAP inconsistency'. You want your business name, address and phone number to be identical across the web, and call tracking numbers are taboo because of the fact that they harm consistency.

I recommend that you read these articles to become fully acquainted with this longstanding issue, and to see what you should and should not do with call tracking:

http://blumenthals.com/blog/2013/05/14/a-guide-to-call-tracking-and-local/

http://blog.acorn-is.com/2013/09/the-truth-about-call-tracking-numbers-and-local-search-placement.html

After reading these, I believe you'll want to reconsider this area of marketing. Hope this helps!

[MoosaHemani]

No problem if the listing is free or paid but when it comes to local SEO your NAP (Name, Address and Phone Number) should be consistent across the website and if any service is changing the phone number that means you will face the issues with regards to local SEO.

My idea is to use the service that submit your business to these yellow pages and data aggregator website once, and then manually shift the listing to featured (I you like) usually not all local citation websites produce leads but websites like Yelp, YP.com, super pages are good names when it comes to conversions through citation websites.

Hope this helps!