Lately some local marketing folks have been claiming that call tracking harms SEO. We have to assume these folks are well-intentioned and intelligent. They’re certainly not purposefully trying to dissuade you from using a tool that will give you incredible visibility into your ROI.
We’ve written several blogs about call tracking and SEO. We’ve shared specific data points and case studies.
This blog is a bit different. This blog will lay out in brief terms the specific evidences that indicate call tracking does NOT hurt SEO.
The Evidences that Call Tracking Doesn’t Hurt SEO
Evidence 1 – When call tracking is used correctly (via DNI), there is no evidence that it hurts SEO
Have you seen the data that shows call tracking DNI hurts SEO? I haven’t.
I’ve seen data that companies using call tracking make more money than those that don’t. I’ve seen data that shows company after company saving thousands of dollars on marketing each month because they use call tracking.
I’ve seen Fortune 500 companies (BIG ones) insisting on using call tracking. It is such an integral part of their marketing budget and ROI calculation that they have an entire team devoted to managing and analyzing call tracking data.
I’ve seen SMBs that use call tracking and credit it with saving their business, shining light into their marketing blindspots, and solving their marketing problems.
But data about call tracking DNI hurting SEO? Nope, haven’t seen that.
Evidence 2 – Call tracking DNI is the same technology used by A/B testing sites – Do they harm SEO?
Did you know that the Javascript technology call tracking companies use to dynamically generate phone numbers is the same technology that tools like Convert.com and other A/B testing sites use to dynamically generate entirely different versions of sites and landing pages for testing purposes?
Hmmm…
So, if someone argues that call tracking hurts SEO, they must also argue that A/B testing tools hurt SEO. I don’t hear, however, many local marketers making that argument.
Evidence 3 – Call tracking DNI uses the same technology used to dynamically generate content and ads. Do they hurt SEO?
So, when a site dynamically generates content or ads based on location or preferences, how do you think that content is uniquely and dynamically generated? Yep, generally via Javascript.
Does that dynamic content hurt SEO?
Of course not.
Evidence 4 – MILLIONS of businesses use call tracking
If call tracking hurt SEO, one would assume that these millions of businesses would have figured that out by now. They would have seen precipitous drops in their page rank, they would have been slammed by Google. They would have stopped using call tracking immediately.
They surely would have figured out that call tracking hurt their SEO right? They’re not dumb, are they?
There must be a lot of dumb people out there that haven’t figured out how terrible call tracking is.
(Sarcasm dripping from my keyboard).
Evidence 5 – Hundreds of thousands of local search firms, SEO companies, and agencies use call tracking
These agencies provide call tracking to their clients. You’re telling me that all of these people are dumb? You’re either saying that, or you’re saying they are willfully hurting their clients’ SEO.
OR….there’s the possibility they understand that call tracking via DNI doesn’t hurt SEO at all, but instead provides incredibly valuable, nay critical, data.
Evidence 6 – We have thousands of clients, it hasn’t hurt their SEO.
We have had NO clients come to us and cancel our service because call tracking hurt their SEO.
NOT. ONE.
We’ve even had some clients use call tracking incorrectly–by putting call tracking numbers in their directory listings–and they still claim it hasn’t hurt their SEO.
Evidence 7 – The number doesn’t change, it is hard-coded into the site.
The argument that call tracking hurts SEO because it changes the number on your site is by its very nature invalid. Why? Because the number doesn’t change. It remains hard-coded on the website. A unique number is merely displayed for a very finite period of time.
Evidence 8 – Publishers that depend on SEO use call tracking with EVERYTHING they do.
Companies like ReachLocal and other directory/publisher/agencies type companies integrate call tracking into every listing they have. And at the same time, these companies depend on SEO. High search results are the lifeblood of their business.
Why would they endanger their entire business model by using call tracking?
You’re right. They wouldn’t.
These companies depend on search results to make their money use call tracking because they know how valuable it is AND they know that it doesn’t hurt SEO.
So Why Do Some Say it Hurts SEO?
We’ve written an entire blog post about this.
But it is liklye because they don’t understand modern methods of call tracking. They’re still under the impression that call tracking means you change numbers on all your directories and your website.
These people are wrong. This is, perhaps, how call tracking worked in 1991.
Call tracking is now a sophisticated tool marketers use to gather in-depth analytics about their campaigns. It uses sophisticated methods to gather data like DNI
