• majorAlexa

        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. Using same business number on different websites

        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.

        Using same business number on different websites

        Local Listings
        6
        8
        2818
        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.
        • BrianBotts.
          BrianBotts. last edited by

          Hello,

          I have number of websites in different locations with different business name and address with verified listings. However, I am thinking to use the same phone number on all the websites as it is difficult for me to keep track of all the numbers.

          So, is it okay to use the same phone number on different websites with different business name and address?

          Waiting for your thoughts.

          Brian

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • Eric_Rohrback
            Eric_Rohrback @BrianBotts. last edited by

            If the call is ringing 10-12 times before the call forwarding provider connects with your phone, I would drop that provider. A good company will have a seamless transition so no one would ever know the difference when they call you. Who are you currently running tracking numbers through? Sounds like either you've set up too many redirects in the call system or the provider has some serious support issues.

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

              Hi Brian,

              As others in the community have rightly indicated, sharing a phone number across multiple websites is definitely a no-no. It may help to think of it this way. You have a Google My Business listing for your company, HappyTrees.com, and it points to your website. Google's bots travel from your GMB data to your website to cross-check for accuracy. They find your name, address and phone number on the website page your GMB listing points to and say, "A-okay, this checks out."

              Then they crawl further and they begin to encounter the phone number you've got on your GMB listing and HappyTrees.com on BigTrees.com, TallTrees.com and GreenTrees.com. The bot stops and says, "Wait a minute, I thought this phone number belonged to Happy Trees. What's up with this? Hmm ... my data isn't trustworthy about this business. Likely, this shouldn't be ranking as well as this competitor here who clearly has this very consistent NAP."

              Maybe a somewhat cartoon-ish explanation, but I find it can be helpful to visualize how Google may react to decisions you are making in your online marketing. One of your best bets for achieving high rankings is to have utterly consistent NAP across the ecosystem, and so, the following things can dilute this:

              1. Any mismatches in name, address, phone, website anywhere on the web

              2. Taking a multi-site approach instead of a single site approach

              3. Duplicating your content across multi sites

              4. Sharing details or interlinking between multi sites

              5. The use of call tracking numbers in any local search campaign except in a very few instances which are described very well in these 2 posts:

              http://blumenthals.com/blog/2014/11/25/guide-to-using-call-tracking-for-local-search/

              http://localu.org/blog/truth-about-seo-call-tracking/

              Any mistakes in these areas have been described as severely damaging to a business' ability to rank well for its desired terms, so a thorough study of the history of each of these types of issues would be your best bet for protecting your company against unwanted outcomes.

              Hope this helps, and glad you've asked!

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
              • BrianBotts.
                BrianBotts. last edited by

                Hello All,

                Thanks for replying.

                I am already using a tracking number but the problem is if you call the business on our tracking number, it rings over 10-12 times before it’s picked up. This results in a large number of callers not leaving a message or just hanging up.

                About how to answer, the nature of business is independent of where the call came from. The only thing matters is the call but as I said I am using tracking number and I cannot replace that service provider.

                Further, as per the responses, I think it would be bad to put the same number. Is there any other solution?

                Thanks in advance!

                Eric_Rohrback 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • BlueprintMarketing
                  BlueprintMarketing last edited by

                  Under no circumstances if you want to rank for local results should you use the same telephone number for multiple locations or  different companies that will destroy your  ranking as you will compete against yourself and confuse Google. There are many excellent methods of getting additional phone numbers that are legitimate

                  do not mess with your NAP

                  Name

                  Address

                  Phone number

                  Level 3, jive communications, grasshopper, trilo, 8x8, Vonage, & Ringcentral are just a few that come to mind.

                  I believe you can save money on  grasshopper in Moz.com/perks  I can personally vouch for jive, grasshopper, trilo & 8x8 for inexpensive phone numbers trilo is tough to beat but may not be the exactly what you're looking for.  I encourage you to look at all the phone systems I can tell you I think

                  http://grasshopper.com/blog/should-you-have-a-local-number-for-business/

                  http://grasshopper.com/blog/local-numbers-have-benefits-too-ya-know/

                  2geoFJR.png

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                  • DmitriiK
                    DmitriiK @BeanstalkIM last edited by

                    I assume that doesn't matter, otherwise the question asked wouldn't make sense.

                    But good point! I'd like to know the answer as well 🙂

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

                      SEO aside ... how would you know how to answer the phone?

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

                        Hi there.

                        It surely would look strange and maybe even suspicious in eyes of google. What about simple call forwarding? Just forward all calls from all of those numbers to your main one. Win-win situation.

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                        • 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

                        • Ben-R

                          Verifying Google My Business After An Address Change

                          google my business local listings

                          Hello,
                          We are trying to verify our Google My Business listing, however, the current unverified listing is using an old address we no longer have access to. The only option for verification is through the mail. We tried requesting an edit but it didn’t go through. Would the best option be to create a new one and try to have the old (unverified) listing removed? Any insight would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.
                          Best,

                          Local Listings | | Ben-R
                          0
                        • TheKatzMeow

                          Google My Business for Municipalities?

                          I'm working with the City of Lakewood, WA, on an image campaign that overlaps a bit with some SEO goals. If you Google "Lakewood, WA", in the knowledge panel to the right of the search results is an image of building on fire. I'm not sure where this image comes from or why it has been selected as the image to represent the City of Lakewood but its been there for a while. If this was a small business, I would simply claim their Google My Business page and feed some good images into it. Problem solved. But Google doesn't offer an option to "Claim this City". LOL. Can you create a GMB page for a municipality? Does anyone know the right thing to do here to make this picture go away and give the city more control over its own image?

                          Local Listings | | TheKatzMeow
                          2
                        • 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
                        • Shorefield_Holidays

                          Where does the small description on a business listing come from in google maps?

                          Hi All, Simple question, but I'm struggling to find the answer, so I hope someone is able to help. The business I run is Oakdene Forest Park; Google Maps URL: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Oakdene™+Forest+Park/@50.8114372,-1.8598721,18z/data=!4m12!1m6!3m5!1s0x4873980ce90e4ef7:0x755579d631c25b33!2sOakdene™+Forest+Park!8m2!3d50.8114796!4d-1.8582842!3m4!1s0x4873980ce90e4ef7:0x755579d631c25b33!8m2!3d50.8114796!4d-1.8582842?hl=en Under the business name, it has a small description and for the life of me I don't know where Google is getting it from because a part of it is wrong. It looks like this: Oakdene™ Forest Park Rural Resort with Entertainment & a Spa I would like to remove the term 'Rural Resort' but where do I find it?? Thanks in advance for your help.

                          Local Listings | | Shorefield_Holidays
                          0
                        • Gavo

                          Changing the business name in citations and GMB

                          In Australia, some businesses are Pty Ltd (Proprietary Limited) hence, their business name ends with xxx Pty Ltd. How accurate do we have to be when building citations or updating citations that Pty Ltd is included in the business name? We've got clients who have left out Pty Ltd in their previously built citations and we're wondering if it's worth the time to actually update them to include Pty Ltd. Also, does changing a business name affect its rankings? This is more than just "Pty Ltd", it's changing from XYZ to ABC. We've previously had to change a client's address on their GMB and this had a negative effect on the client's rankings. Will changing the business name have an adverse effect? Thank you in advance for your advices!

                          Local Listings | | Gavo
                          1
                        • JohnWeb12

                          Business Name Not Showing Up in Google's Maps

                          I have a client whose name in not currently showing up on Google maps. Their business location only shows once their name or related keywords are searched, but their business name does not show when you only look for it on the map regardless of how far zoomed in you are to the actual location.  I am wondering if anyone else has experienced this, or knows of a way to fix this. I have already contacted Google multiple times, and they told me that “business’ names are just randomly pulled”. The client is an HVAC store front business with good rankings and a fully optimized Google profile, so these reasons did not answer the issue. Client’s GMB profile: https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome-psyapi2&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8&q=rothheating oak creeek&oq=rothheating oak creeek&rlz=1C1JPGB_enUS685US685&aqs=chrome..69i57j0.5919j0j4 DBZfF

                          Local Listings | | JohnWeb12
                          0
                        • nowmedia1

                          Would two telephone numbers on a website affect NAP consistency? One is the "actual" business number with Schema, the other is a call tracking number.

                          Hello! I have two telephone numbers listed on a website - one is the "actual" business number and is utilizing proper schema, while the other is a call tracking number featured more prominently on the site (both in the header and above the "actual" business number in the footer). The code looks like this: New Patients: 999-555-5555 Current Patients: 555-555-5555 Does Google prioritize the "actual" business number because it has the proper schema on it? Or would the call tracking number still be counted and affect NAP consistency for Local SEO? Thanks!

                          Local Listings | | nowmedia1
                          1
                        • BohmKalish123

                          Google My Business- Will a large service area dilute local search results?

                          I am considering adding our actual service area to our Google My Business profile, but I don't want this to dilute our local search results.  As it is, we come up in the top 3 or so when searched in our HQ's city and several nearby cities when you search for us in Google Maps (although when I look at the top 10 organic for Google for some reason when you search for these cities + our keywords Google doesn't show any local results). Our actual service area is fairly large, comprising the states of CA & Hawaii & parts of CO, AZ, and UT.  I would be adding the service area by zip code rather than radius, as a radius wouldn't make any sense in this case (particularly considering the distance between HI and CA).  Is it better to keep our relatively high ranking in local results?  Will adding the service area not affect local results negatively? Also, do you know why Google isn't showing me local results when I look for our keywords + our nearby cities?  When I look for these keywords in larger cities like LA or San Diego, Google always shows me local results.

                          Local Listings | | BohmKalish123
                          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.