Does your website’s call button ring the right phone?

On a phone, most people don’t read your number. They tap it. What they reach is whatever is written inside the link, which is invisible on the page and can be completely different from the number printed next to it.

A wrong call button is one of the most expensive mistakes a local website can make, because it fails silently. The customer hears a disconnected tone or a stranger, shrugs, and calls the next business. You never see the call you missed.

What we found this month

• A local business whose home page shows its real number, while the call link underneath it dials 123-434-2424, a placeholder from the website platform.
• A business whose footer phone dials a number from the template the site was built on, a number that isn’t theirs and doesn’t even have a real area code.
• A company with two locations whose second location’s number, when tapped, rings the other office.

The two-minute check

1. Tap every number on your phoneOpen your website on your phone and tap each phone number: in the header, the footer, the contact page and any Call button. Let each one ring. It takes two minutes and it’s the only test that really counts.
2. Compare with GoogleOpen your listing on Google Maps and tap Call there too. Our free Google listing check compares the number on Google with the numbers on your site and the numbers its call buttons dial.
3. Check every location and every pageBusinesses with more than one location, or a separate page per service, often have one page that was copied and never updated.

Why it happens

Templates and website platforms come with sample content, including sample phone links. Someone replaces the text you can see and never opens the link behind it. Or the business moves offices, updates the number on the page, and leaves the old one in the button. Either way, it looks perfect to everyone who reads the page and fails for everyone who taps it.