Before You Buy Call Tracking, Keep Your Own Number on Google

Press the call button on your Google listing, the box with your hours and address, and the phone that rings should be yours. For a shop in East Hampton, Middle Haddam or Cobalt, that means a number the business owns and answers. One of Google’s rules is that the number “must be under the direct control of the business.”

That matters if someone offers you call tracking. A call-tracking number is a separate number a company gives you so it can count your calls. Before one takes that spot, find out who controls it.

Whose number is it

Google calls your listing a Business Profile. Google says any profile that breaks its guidelines becomes disabled or suspended and won’t show to other people on Google until the problem is fixed. Among the phone rules in those guidelines:

• A number that connects to your own location, or a website for that location.
• A local number rather than a central call center line, whenever possible.
• A number under your business’s direct control.

And one more, in Google’s words: “Do not provide phone numbers or URLs that redirect or ‘refer’ users to landing pages or phone numbers other than those of the actual business ...”

None of those rules names call tracking. They don’t say whether a tracking number counts as one that sends callers somewhere other than the business.

Google may also reach you through that number. Where the feature is offered, which depends on region, language and kind of business, Google may now and then call, text or send a WhatsApp message to the verified phone number on your listing to confirm your details. (WhatsApp is a messaging app.) What you answer may be used to update the listing. If that number is a tracking line that doesn’t forward texts, the message could go unread. In those places, you can see what Google gathered under Edit profile > Collected info.

Putting your own line back

Your main number should be one your business owns and answers. If a tracking line is the main number now, switch back to your own. If you use a tracking service anyway, ask the company two things and get the answers in writing. Will texts and WhatsApp messages reach you? Will the number stay yours if you cancel?

Check what Google already shows before you pay for a count. If your listing is verified, meaning Google has confirmed you run the business, its report under Performance may include a Calls number: how many times a customer clicked the call button. A click isn’t a conversation. The figure needs a phone number on the listing, and Google says not every figure is available to every business.

Sign in to the Google account tied to your listing and search my business on Google. From there:

1. Select Edit profile and then Contact.
2. Select Edit next to “Phone number” and enter your own number.
3. To list up to two more numbers, mobile or landline but not fax, select Add phone number.
4. Select Save.

The Standard: If you couldn’t keep a phone number after dropping the company that supplied it, don’t make it the main number on your Google listing.

Source: Google Business Profile Help: “Guidelines for representing your business on Google,” “1. Add your phone number,” “Edit your Business Profile,” “Understand your Business Profile performance & insights,” “Find your business on Google” and “Changes to Google Business Profile chat and call history,” all read Oct. 12, 2026.