Understanding Google My Business & Local Search
Phone Numbers Back in the Pack – Google’s Goofing on Us
Robert Ramirez, SEO Manager at Bruce Clay, points out that phone number are back in the 3-Pack once again as of the evening.
And, once again they are showing in Safari, Chrome and Firefox in the US and on the foreign IPs that I checked. So when you wake up tomorrow morning in Europe and the East Coast let me know. Are you too seeing them?
If you are seeing them to what do think Google is thinking? Or are they just goofing on us?
© Copyright 2024 - MIKE BLUMENTHAL, ALL RIGHT RESERVED.
Comments
19 Comments
Yes Mike, they’re back in the NL, too.
Fingers crossed that they now stick 😉
Hi Mike,
I see the numbers back in the 3-pack again this morning (29th) in France. Don’t you think this is a question of call to action? By displaying readable numbers customers may call directly with no digital trace through Google where Google may not get the credit and small business may not realise the lead came from Google. By placing them a level deeper or via a call to action like on mobile Google will be created with the lead.
cheers,
chris
Yep, seeing phone numbers again here in the UK.
Backing up Nick’s comment, I too seeing telephone display results from the UK and displayed in exactly the same manner.
its now noon in Germany and I just can offer you a new surprise:
searching for “Jewelry Williamsburg” indded now get the phone numbers.
However searching for “Hotel Williamsburg” Google seems trying to tell me neither of the listed hotels in Williamsburg have a phone.
But they are lying obeviously.
Searching instead with the well know hack adding phone to the search string they show me all hotels in Williamsburg have phones
They are goofing us indeed
LOL
Yes, back in the pack in Asheville, NC.
Back in Austria as well …
Servus Petra
do you get phones for “Hotel Linz”?
I don’t get it – neither for google.com nor google.at
But I get phone numbers for “Notar Linz” or “Schule Linz”
Can you please check it on your end.
Helmut
@ehg Hi Helmut, no phone nr. on accommodation and restaurants. On the rest of the “Brick & Mortar” businesses they seem to appear.
that’s exactly what I mentioned today her couple of hours ago as the new surprise!
They are goofing us – at least for Hotels, restaurants and museums (maybe few other cats too)
Seems Google believes tourists as the users searching for hotels, accomodation or museums don’t need their phone secretes?
LOL
no phones for “tourist Linz” either
LOL
As was the case late last week I’m seeing the following:
desktop: Phone numbers and addresses on smb’s that got hit by the crap pack this past August.
desktop: No phone numbers for hotels, restaurants and those smb’s that got hit by the crap pack last year. I am seeing full addresses.
Mobil. No phone numbers. NO MAPS. No maps when the crap 3 pack shows, no maps when you click on more of the verticals.
Google is jacking everything around on the local scene very quickly. They are a black box in terms of communication.
To the extent that local searches comprise possibly 25% of all searches….and there are reportedly 3-3.5 billion searches/day…google is changing things on hundreds of millions of searches every day. They don’t explain themselves. That alone is unprecedented.
Nobody calls them out on this in the big press.
Wake up press!!!!!
And NOW I’m seeing maps on mobile. Still no phone numbers. That loss of maps was quick.
I did check it on several searches.
Oh well. I’m sure Google will tell us what is up!!! 😉 😉
Showing up also in Italy
The Google must be crazy.
Chris Baldwin’s point seems very logical to me. My guess, Google wants credit for those local calls. Push to call or going a level deeper forces the referral data.
It will be interesting to see which is more important to Google, attribution for the call or small business screaming about incomplete data presented in the serps.
I see ’em. Weird, looks almost crowded as the bottom of the third listing is scrunched behind the ‘more’ link. But no way am I complaining!
…but not for restaurants or hotels
It’s taken over 4 years, but I think we’re finally seeing G’s revenge for closing Mt View. 😉
Comments for this post are closed.