Easy Local SEO NAP Question

[BobGW]

Hello,

Does differently listed phone numbers matter?

For example,

208-998-9988

vs

(208) 998-9988

vs

208.998.9988

[MoosaHemani]

Have played around a bit with this feature and in my experience Google and Yahoo and most reputable local websites consider this as same... infect if you try adding different format they will convert it in to the one format that they accept.

There are (may be) some websites that do not care of it and find different numbers as separate but most local websites that contain value in terms of conversions and rankings in the local world can sense this and find this as 1 telephone number.

[NakulGoyal]

I agree with Moosa. I have not seen a difference at all. It gets generalized to (XXX) XXX-XXXX in my experience. That's how I prefer to provide it. But if you have to do it either of the other formats, for example when you have a Toll Free number or something else, I prefer to use the hyphenated version. The one with periods is the least preferred. Also keep in mind how browsers, VOIP applications like SKYPE, Google Talk etc interpret these numbers on webpages when you are browsing for you to click to call.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Bob,

Good question. No, this does not matter. Consider the fact that when you conduct a citation campaign, the different indexes require different formatting in their submission forms. Differences like (111) 111-1111 and 111-111-1111 and 111.111.1111 are build into the system and, in my experience, Google has no problem in understanding these formats.