• seohunters9

        See all notifications

        Skip to content
        Moz logo Menu open Menu close
        • Products
          • Moz Pro
          • Moz Pro Home
          • Moz Local
          • Moz Local Home
          • STAT
          • Moz API
          • Moz API Home
          • Compare SEO Products
          • Moz Data
        • Free SEO Tools
          • Domain Analysis
          • Keyword Explorer
          • Link Explorer
          • Competitive Research
          • MozBar
          • More Free SEO Tools
        • Learn SEO
          • Beginner's Guide to SEO
          • SEO Learning Center
          • Moz Academy
          • MozCon
          • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
        • Blog
        • Why Moz
          • Digital Marketers
          • Agency Solutions
          • Enterprise Solutions
          • Small Business Solutions
          • The Moz Story
          • New Releases
        • Log in
        • Log out
        • Products
          • Moz Pro

            Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

          • Moz Local

            Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

          • STAT

            SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

          • Moz API

            Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

          • Compare SEO Products

            See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

          • Moz Data

            Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

          Let your business shine with Listings AI
          Moz Local

          Let your business shine with Listings AI

          Learn more
        • Free SEO Tools
          • Domain Analysis

            Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

          • Keyword Explorer

            Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

          • Link Explorer

            Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

          • Competitive Research

            Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

          • MozBar

            See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

          • More Free SEO Tools

            Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

          NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
          Moz Pro

          NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

          Learn more
        • Learn SEO
          • Beginner's Guide to SEO

            The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

          • SEO Learning Center

            Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

          • On-Demand Webinars

            Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

          • How-To Guides

            Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

          • Moz Academy

            Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

          • MozCon

            Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

          Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
          Moz API

          Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

          Find your plan
        • Blog
        • Why Moz
          • Digital Marketers

            Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

          • Small Business Solutions

            Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

          • Agency Solutions

            Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

          • Enterprise Solutions

            Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

          • The Moz Story

            Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

          • New Releases

            Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

          Surface actionable competitive intel
          New Feature

          Surface actionable competitive intel

          Learn More
        • Log in
          • Moz Pro
          • Moz Local
          • Moz Local Dashboard
          • Moz API
          • Moz API Dashboard
          • Moz Academy
        • Avatar
          • Moz Home
          • Notifications
          • Account & Billing
          • Manage Users
          • Community Profile
          • My Q&A
          • My Videos
          • Log Out

        The Moz Q&A Forum

        • Forum
        • Questions
        • My Q&A
        • Users
        • Ask the Community

        Welcome to the Q&A Forum

        Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

        1. Home
        2. SEO Tactics
        3. Local SEO
        4. Local Listings
        5. How will changing the phone number on my website affect SEO?

        Moz Q&A is closed.

        After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

        How will changing the phone number on my website affect SEO?

        Local Listings
        4
        9
        3011
        Loading More Posts
        • Watching

          Notify me of new replies.
          Show question in unread.

        • Not Watching

          Do not notify me of new replies.
          Show question in unread if category is not ignored.

        • Ignoring

          Do not notify me of new replies.
          Do not show question in unread.

        • Oldest to Newest
        • Newest to Oldest
        • Most Votes
        Reply
        • Reply as question
        Locked
        This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
        • RoxBrock
          RoxBrock last edited by

          We are considering changing the phone number to our website to one of those 1-800-eat-cows. How will changing a phone number we've had 10 years affect our SEO. Do we need to change all citations, Google maps, etc etc? What if we don't? Thanks!

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • MiriamEllis
            MiriamEllis Subject Expert @RoxBrock last edited by

            You're welcome! Have a nice afternoon.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • RoxBrock
              RoxBrock last edited by

              It looks like this issue has been resolved within my company. The phone number did not change for citations, header, footer. It did however change within the content, which I know is inconsistent and not the best, but I have no control over. Thanks for the input.

              MiriamEllis 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • MiriamEllis
                MiriamEllis Subject Expert @RoxBrock last edited by

                Hey RoxBox,

                Thanks for the reply. I want to start by saying that I am only a fan of vanity phone numbers for a really limited number of scenarios: radio ads, TV ads and billboards. Beyond that, I am just not a fan. Here are some reasons:

                1. You don't want to use a vanity number on your local business listings because some won't accept letters instead of numbers, and there's a serious question as to whether clicks-to-call might get hammered, too.

                2. Unless your consumer base is all really young folks with perfect eyesight, vanity numbers make things unnecessarily difficult for consumers trying to see the tiny letters on a mobile phone's number pad, and even on a landline pad. I've had my phone disconnect while I've hunted around for the letter Q, for example. So, vanity numbers really aren't consumer-friendly.

                So, if the business is determined to have a vanity number, I would advise them to use it only for specific advertising scenarios (like a radio ad). And if they want to connect that radio ad to UX on the website, go ahead and put it in an image in the website masthead. But keep it separate from the pure text-based NAP of the business, whether that features a toll free or local phone number. Never make a vanity number the only option for a local business. They just aren't well-liked, according to an informal poll I took of some Local SEO colleagues.

                Hope this helps!

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • RoxBrock
                  RoxBrock @MiriamEllis last edited by

                  The phone number on the header of the website would change to the vanity # without the vanity (just use #'s). Throughout the site content it would change to vanity. But it would go from 888 to 855, which is not good for toll free according to one of the articles you posted.

                  MiriamEllis 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • MiriamEllis
                    MiriamEllis Subject Expert last edited by

                    Hey RoxBox,

                    Just want to be sure you've seen my follow-up question 🙂

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote -1
                    • MiriamEllis
                      MiriamEllis Subject Expert last edited by

                      Hey There!

                      Are you saying you are considering changing a number phone number for a vanity number (letters instead of numbers?). I just want to be sure I'm understanding correctly. Thanks!

                      RoxBrock 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                      • brettmandoes
                        brettmandoes last edited by

                        I've seen it advised that you should not use letters - so 1-800-eat-cows would be less optimal than 1-800-328-2697. I don't know if it's true from an SEO standpoint, but it's certainly true from a usability perspective. Customers do not enjoy having to translate letters into numbers, especially anyone who is even slightly visually impaired. Takes forever.

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                        • BlueCorona
                          BlueCorona last edited by

                          There’s no problem with changing your phone number as long as you change it EVERYWHERE. NAP (name, address, phone number) is a very important part of SEO. Why? Well, search engines like Google take this data into account when determining which cities to show for geo-targeted searches. Some local SEO experts believe that Google and other top search engines cross-reference your NAP info across a variety of websites to ensure your business is legitimate. Long story short: make sure your phone number is consistent across the board. Hope that was helpful!

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
                          • 1 / 1
                          • First post
                            Last post

                          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.

                          • See all categories

                          Related Questions

                          • mikleing

                            Should apartment management companies have a separate website for each of their properties?

                            I work for a company that owns and manages apartments.  I would like to know which of the two website design decisions are better from an SEO perspective: One single website that contains pages for all of our apartments.  (Example: http://www.equityapartments.com) Separate websites for each apartment and one main corporate website allows users to search through our apartments.  (Example: https://www.greystar.com) I have spoken to three marketing companies have all recommended option 2.  The best reason I have heard is because then the separate apartments are all more likely to rank.  They say Google doesn't want to rank multiple pages of the same website.But Google would still know that I have an administrative relationship between the sites.  (Source: https://a-moz.groupbuyseo.org/blog/how-google-knows-what-sites-you-control-and-why-it-matters-whiteboard-friday)  So I don't know why they would treat multiple sites differently than one site?For what it's worth, it seems the majority of apartment management companies use a different website for each property.So should have a separate website for each of their properties?

                            Local Listings | | mikleing
                            1
                          • coolhandluc

                            How to change your location for local search results?

                            Hi Everybody Back in december 2015 I came across this article https://gofishdigital.com/google-results-change-location/  explaining how to change location for local search results using the google emulation tool by setting up new coordinates. This was also picked up by mikeblumenthals' blog as being one of the best way of doing this. I tried it at the time and it worked very well. I tried using it last week and again this week but my location no longer seems to update. I have tried it on fifferent computers located in different locations and still it doesn't work. Does anyone know if this feature is no longer available and if not what else they'd recommend to verify local search results. Thanks

                            Local Listings | | coolhandluc
                            0
                          • TomBinga1125

                            Local SEO business name issue due to aggregator

                            So I work for a college and we have multiple locations. My tactic has been always to keep the name the same for all of them (no city name), and then change the address and phone number for each. But there is 1000s of college listings websites out there that aggregate college and school data from the same source: the US government. Now the way that they have most, if not all, multi-location colleges listed is: "college name-city name". I can see the value in that, but I guess I'm just wondering what to do since it obviously can't be changed. Should I revert all of our listings as "college name-city name" to match the 1000s of listings that have it that way? I've been under the impression that I should leave the city/town name out of the name, but I'm just wondering what you think best practices would be? Thanks
                            Tom

                            Local Listings | | TomBinga1125
                            0
                          • KempRugeLawGroup

                            Is eLocal a scam or legitimate directory for local SEO?

                            I just got an email from eLocal with information that is way farther off than any other email I have received from directories I know. I ran a search on them, and it definitely seems fishy. Plus, it's not showing up as a problem in my Moz Local account. However, I don't want an inconsistent listing if this is a legitimate site I should correct. Anyone have experience with them? What should I do? Thanks for the assistance, Ruben

                            Local Listings | | KempRugeLawGroup
                            0
                          • brfieger

                            2 businesses same phone number

                            I was wondering how I should approach a scenario where I am optimizing two different companies websites that have the same phone number but different addresses. This sounds like a weird scenario, however it is out of my control. Is treating them as two separate companies fine, or do I have to take special precautions when submitting business directories and what not? Thanks for everyone's help! As a side note, is their a way to use Moz Local with both companies, right now it is getting confused as to what business belongs to what listing.

                            Local Listings | | brfieger
                            0
                          • fionadoggett

                            Will changing my business location affect my ranking for localised searches in my original area?

                            I run a mobile outdoor personal training service in London, UK (i.e. no bricks and mortar gym). Or, rather, my business is in London (all my clients and the freelance trainers that work for me) but I'm personally due to move out to the county of Suffolk. As I work from a home office and my company's registered address is my home, that means I have to inform Companies House and various government agencies that the company has moved. Does this mean: a) I also must tell Google the company has moved, and; b) if I do will Google start to see my website as being for a Suffolk-based company? I really don't want this to happen: my clientele are mostly in London., I still want to market to Londoners. And if I want to expand the areas covered by my company, Suffolk is not high on my list. You'll excuse me if this is a simple question! Thanks for any help you could give

                            Local Listings | | fionadoggett
                            0
                          • ColeLusby

                            Transferring SEO services from one agency to another - troubles, concerns, etc.?

                            Hey Moz Community, I have a friend I'm asking for who has an agency and will be taking over SEO from another agency. One thing that worries me is that the agency has confirmed dozens of locations in Google Places (about 60-100) for this business. How would you transfer Google Places ownership (assuming they cooperate)? Could the previous agency delete these listings? If so, how would that affect Local SEO? For example, the location and phone number is already on the website. Isn't that good enough for all of these locations (about 100)? I hope this is clear; please let me know if not. I would be interested in hearing any other feedback about moving agencies. Thanks, Cole

                            Local Listings | | ColeLusby
                            0
                          • FOTF_DigitalMarketing

                            2 phone numbers in our SERP snippet are incorrect. How do I fix it?

                            At the special rich snippet at the top of the SERP, we have 5 phone numbers, but 2 of them are for something specific and need to be removed. Do you know how to do this? I've looked up the 2 phone numbers and they appear to only be on PDF documents. Any ideas?

                            Local Listings | | FOTF_DigitalMarketing
                            0

                          Get started with Moz Pro!

                          Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                          Start my free trial
                          Products
                          • Moz Pro
                          • Moz Local
                          • Moz API
                          • Moz Data
                          • STAT
                          • Product Updates
                          Moz Solutions
                          • SMB Solutions
                          • Agency Solutions
                          • Enterprise Solutions
                          • Digital Marketers
                          Free SEO Tools
                          • Domain Authority Checker
                          • Link Explorer
                          • Keyword Explorer
                          • Competitive Research
                          • Brand Authority Checker
                          • Local Citation Checker
                          • MozBar Extension
                          • MozCast
                          Resources
                          • Blog
                          • SEO Learning Center
                          • Help Hub
                          • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                          • How-to Guides
                          • Moz Academy
                          • API Docs
                          About Moz
                          • About
                          • Team
                          • Careers
                          • Contact
                          Why Moz
                          • Case Studies
                          • Testimonials
                          Get Involved
                          • Become an Affiliate
                          • MozCon
                          • Webinars
                          • Practical Marketer Series
                          • MozPod
                          Connect with us

                          Contact the Help team

                          Join our newsletter
                          Moz logo
                          © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                          • Accessibility
                          • Terms of Use
                          • Privacy

                          Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.