(Entry was posted by MQ Khilji on this post in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 03/15/2018).

Will change business phone numbers hurt local SEO?

Hey Everyone, I have a client here in the Phoenix. They have about 100 location all over the US. Basically, they want to have two phone numbers: 1 for current Customers (OLD) and 2 for future prospects (NEW). They want to keep the new number on local listings (FB, GMB, Bing, etc.) and the website provides both numbers with the description why they have two numbers. My question is how much could these changes hurt their local SEO because numbers are a) changing, and b) for some period of time likely be inconsistent between web pages and local listings (FB, GMB, Bing, etc.). And what is the best way to rank the new # and old number in places like GMB who allow a primary and secondary number?

This question begins at 01:22:21 into the clip. Did this video clip play correctly? Watch this question on YouTube commencing at 01:22:21

Share on Twitter

Share on Facebook

YOUR ANSWERS

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

Nitin Rawat: if you changing details in contact details and specially number then it will not affect at all in SEO.
Suraj Gadage: MQ Khilji well the simple solution to your problem is instead of having two numbers for old and new customers, you can simply have one number and when call received present them the option like (press1 for existing customer and 2 for new.) Looking at the SEO impact, local citations are important, having consistent NAP positively impact local search engine rankings.Well you could list the second number as an alternative number but you may have difficulties communicating that to the users and some platforms allow listing only one number. The practical solution is to go with the first approach :)