Are Local Phone Numbers Important For Pest Control Businesses?

Before Twitter handles and Facebook names, the most unique thing that a pest control business had besides its name was the phone number connected to it.

Although phone numbers are just numbers, they allow for each business to indirectly show where they are located thanks to local area codes.

Now, through advancing technologies, the area code seems to be diminishing in importance overall, but still plays a vital role in small businesses.

Below are both the arguments for and against local area codes in terms of local search, SEO, and other factors:

Arguments For Local Area Codes:

Local area codes make customers feel like they are staying local with their business

Having a local area code can give customers the ability to know they are doing business with someone in their own region. In a world where everything seems to be outsourced, it is comforting to know that the person you are speaking to is not only familiar with your area, but knowing they are close by can offer ease in case of problems with the product or service.

Local area codes help with local search efforts

From a search engine optimization (SEO) standpoint, local area codes are helpful. When you type in “local pest control in my area” or “local pest control near me,” having an area code is a way to help search engines place you near a customer who just placed that search query into the search engine, helping place you in front of local customers online.

Local numbers are often put into directories over their toll-free counterparts

Many times when customers look for business, they opt to use local directories. Although some toll-free numbers will fall within the directory if they are local to an area, most times directories are filled with small businesses instead of local corporations.

Having a local area code can get you placed in these directories much easier and allow yourself to be placed within a directory covering your specific work area.

Arguments Against Local Area Codes:

Local area codes are being replaced rapidly

Area codes across the United States and beyond have changed over the years, so it is harder for an area to become comfortable with an area code as it changes so rapidly. With that being said, no one area can truly claim an area code as a determination of the service area anymore which may not help small businesses trying to use an area code as a way of showing they are local.

Technology has changed the way local phone numbers are shown

With computers and phones now, sometimes the local number does not even come up until you decide to call. Buttons with a phone show up in place of the number so there is no longer a visual look at the number until the point in which you decide to call a business?whether the business is local or not.

Cellular Phones have made area codes mobile

Some pest control owners opt to use their cell phone as their work phone. Cell phones area codes have a set base area based on where the cell phone was bought, but because cell phones are mobile, so are the people who use them. You do not need to change your number if you move to another state away from the area codes home base, so you may have a New Jersey number, but now live in San Francisco so area codes no longer stay in one area.

Although technology has changed the way we look at local phone numbers, they still are statistically cheaper to buy and maintain and do give a sense of locality, even in a world of technological advances.