Either Yelp or Google – or some combination thereof – has decided your phone number should show up in the search results, rather than just on your Yelp listing.
Here’s how a typical listing might have appeared until recently:
And here it is now:
As you can see, the phone number appears in the description tag. In this case, the description is dynamically generated by Google (Yelp didn’t add the phone number to the description tag). What’s not clear to me yet is whether Yelp recently made any markup changes to its listings that might have encouraged Google to stick the phone number into the description tag.
I can’t chalk it up to, “Well, now Google just likes to show phone numbers from local directories.” I’m not seeing phone numbers in BBB or YellowPages or other directory results.
My guess is that Yelp wanted this. Wouldn’t a call-tracking number in Yelp’s super-visible search results be a nice way for Yelp to “prove” its value as an advertising medium to business owners?
They’re not encouraging higher click-through by giving searchers more info in the search results. So the phone number would have to pull some weight right there in the SERPs – if this change is intentional and part of a plan to boost ad revenue.
That’s my best guess, anyway.
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When did you first notice phone numbers in Yelp search results?
Does the source code tell you anything about how Yelp might have encouraged Google to insert the phone number dynamically into the description tags?
How do you think this might help Yelp – and help or hurt business owners?
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