Changing phone number for local SEO

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

• 
  Fernando Vela: Hi,
  
  My business address is in Florida but the phone number I have on my site and all my listings/citations has a Puerto Rico area code. I was wondering if it was worth it to change my phone to a Florida one for the purposes of local SEO. (I currently don't appear on the local stack and I'm worried it's due to my Tel's area code.
  
  I would need to use a google voice number and forward calls to my PR number. I would then update my listings and website data to suit. Does this sound like a worthwhile effort?
• 
  Ryan Cramer: I'd like to hear the insights of the panel on this question.  ;I'd theorize that there might be a very small percentage of the algorithm that might assess the PR phone number into placement, but as long as you have a physical address in Florida you should be able to reap the benefits (although it seems there has been a major change in Local Search this past December, so I am not sure).
  
  From a business/customer relationship side, it might be valuable to get a local Florida number or 800 number for your customers.  ;Personally, I'd question a non-Florida number when dealing with a Florida business.  ;I think you got the right idea about using the Google Voice number for that issue.
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  Fernando Vela: Hi Ryan,
  
  Yea from the biz/customer side I agree too. I'm super interested in knowing what folks think about the weight applied to local phone numbers in local SEO ranking.
  
  Thanks Ryan.
• 
  Suraj Gadage: +Fernando Vela ;Google recommends to use a local phone number instead of central, call center helpline number whenever possible. Having said that there could be many reasons why currently don't appear local one box and this could be one of them. ;
  
  Have you done local one box listings comparison with your listing?  ;In this comparison analysis, you can look at the # of reviews your competitor received, the categories used,the business information given in the listing, and the quality of the content of local webpages. This might give you some additional insights.
  
  Also, if you use Google voice number, wouldn't it be tied to you and not to a device or a location (correct me if im wrong).
• 
  Edwin Jonk: From the expert panel in this week's SEO Questions hangout on air on 01:14:57 into the YouTube video: https://dumbseoquestions.com/q/changing_phone_number_for_local_seo +Fernando Vela
  
  If our assistance with this issue was useful to you, please consider sharing your success story so that others might benefit.
   ; ;
• 
  Fernando Vela: Hi
  
  Unfortunately, Google Voice doesn't support having a Puerto Rico Tel. numb. be the forwarded destination so Im not able to use this particular service. Does anyone know of any similar, free services?
  
  +Suraj Gadage Thanks for the feedback! I'm very interested in the box listings comparison technique you mentioned. How can I do this? Are there services or online tools for this?
  
  +Edwin Jonk Thanks guys! The assistance was very helpful. It was nice to se a unanimous vote. I'm going to check out whether Skype is an option.
  
  Thanks again!!!
  
• 
  Edwin Jonk: +Fernando Vela ;I was thinking of US based offers and Skype for business is one of them. Another I heard of is ;http://www.ringcentral.com/
  
  P.S. I am based in the Netherlands. ;-)