What is Call Tracking?
Call tracking helps track the ROI of your marketing dollars by letting you know which of your marketing efforts are generating leads from phone calls. A good example is calls coming from a website. It’s easy to track form submissions from a website, but many times customers find an agency’s phone number on a website and call for a quote. By using call tracking, an agency will know if a call originated from their website or from another aspect of their marketing. According to J.D. Power, nearly 75% of online insurance shoppers purchase offline by calling.
How Is Call Tracking Done?
A series of unique phone numbers are generated and assigned to different areas of your marketing. They can be assigned to your website, print ads or other marketing efforts. The numbers all forward to your main agency phone number and are tracked through an online dashboard. You can see where calls are originated, how long the calls last and even record the calls for later review.
Can Having Different Numbers Online Hurt Your Search Rankings?
Yes, if not done correctly. Google makes it very clear that Name Address and Phone number (NAP) have to be consistent across all online directories. Having different phone numbers in different places confuses Google’s algorithms and will hurt your rankings in Google search when if it’s not done the right way.
What’s the Correct Way to Use Call Tracking?
Call tracking does not hurt your search rankings (SEO) if done correctly. The correct way to track calls is to use call tracking DNI (Dynamic Number Insertion). DNI is a call tracking feature that assigns a unique phone number to your website or other online listing and then displays that phone number to visitors who visit your website. It’s done using specific coding that makes sure search engines like Google do not get confused about your NAP.
Conclusion
Call tracking, if done correctly, is a very valuable marketing tool that lets you know if money spent on marketing efforts is delivering a ROI.
For more information and to find out how you can implement call tracking, contact Phil Price at (828) 245-1171 Ext. 101.
About Phil Price
Prior to joining Jenesis as a digital marketing and website design consultant, Phil was President/Creative Director at NY Design Firm Click 3X and held management and creative positions at ABC Television, The NY Yankee Baseball Network, The Tar Heel Sports Network and more.