tl;dr: Yes!
If you spend any significant amount of time or money marketing your business, chances are you should probably use call tracking numbers on your website. Read on to learn why call tracking works, and how you can best use it to your advantage.
Is call tracking right for my business?
From social media to Google Adwords to traditional email blasts and more, today’s business owners have countless opportunities to digitally market their products and services. Usually there are more options than a small company can afford. So, how do you pick and choose the right avenues to advertise your business?
Using call tracking numbers is one easy way to gain valuable insight into which of the various marketing channels you employ are the most successful, and ultimately worth your investment. But, just like those marketing channels, not every strategy applies equally to every type of business.
If you’re curious whether or not tracking numbers can help align your efforts, check out our guide below.
What is a tracking number?
A tracking number is a special phone number that’s used to track how customers are getting to your website. If a person clicks on a link in one of your marketing emails, they’ll see a different, unique number listed on your site than someone who finds their way there through a Facebook ad. When used correctly — we’ll cover what that means in the next section — you can easily determine which campaigns are generating the most interest in your business, and the ones that might need to be revamped or dropped altogether.
How do call tracking numbers work?
You can have as many call tracking numbers as you have campaigns, and they’ll all redirect to your main business line. There is no interruption to your normal call process, not on the customer’s end or yours.
The phone number on your website automatically changes based on the way a user enters your site thanks to a coding technique called Dynamic Number Insertion (DNI). One snippet of JavaScript will ensure every number on your site — whether it’s in your header, on your contact page, in your footer, or elsewhere — is changed to the correct tracking number, which you or your marketing expert will set up in advance to correspond with the different campaigns you’re running.
Some advertising methods offer built-in call tracking services, like Google Adwords, but often dedicated services offer easier to use features and more detailed reporting. What’s included on each report and available upgrades like call recording will vary by provider, but at its most basic form, call tracking allows you to see how many phone calls you’re getting as a result of any given marketing effort. They may also provide helpful data like caller information, conversation length and quality assessment.
Does call tracking hurt SEO?
You may have heard that having inconsistent contact information spread across the internet will hurt SEO. While that’s true, using call tracking numbers by way of DNI as described above is perfectly safe, and will never put your search ranking in jeopardy.
When used correctly, call tracking does not hurt SEO. It’s only going to help you in the long run.
But manually inserting tracking numbers on your site and including them in directories or on your social profiles sure will. This all too common bad practice is what has given call tracking a bad name, but you can rest assured Strunk Media does call tracking the right way.
Why should I use call tracking numbers?
If you’ve made it this far in our call tracking guide, you probably know by now, the best reason to include call tracking numbers on your website is the power of proof. When you see how many valuable calls are coming in, or not coming in, because of a current promotion, you can measure that aspect of the promotion’s success in a very tangible way.
For companies that do a lot of business by phone, or who receive a lot of phone inquiries, call tracking is a marketing essential, especially if you also advertise through many different channels. Using the information call tracking provides, you can optimize your marketing efforts and put more money into strategies that work, without wasting time on one that doesn’t.
Why shouldn’t I use call tracking numbers?
Despite its benefits, call tracking isn’t for everyone. If your business falls into either of the categories below, you likely don’t need to purchase this service.
1. My business doesn’t receive many phone calls.
If you don’t depend on phone calls for your business, it should be self explanatory that using tracking numbers on your website is a waste of money. If most of your sales and communications are done online, in person or somehow still through snail mail and there aren’t too many reasons why a potential customer would try and reach you by phone, there is virtually no benefit to call tracking.
2. I don’t really use digital marketing.
If your online presence is pretty weak, you’re in trouble and we can help! OK, so while the “we can help” part is true, even in the digital age some businesses prefer to focus on traditional marketing efforts – It makes sense for certain brick and mortar shops and industries. You still may be interested in using tracking numbers in any print advertising efforts, but if all you have online is a bare bones website and a Facebook page, you don’t need an online tracking number.