OK, so today we’re gonna pick up where we left off yesterday, and talk a little more smack about Yodle.com.

Even if you don’t use Yodle, once you understand how this sneaky trick works, you’ll  understand better what you should be doing instead.

As I understand it, the trick is that Yodle essentially “takes credit” for the call-generating power of your existing “Google My Business” listing.

Here’s how it goes down…
Let’s say you already have a Google My Business listing that lists your phone number of 111-1111. And let’s say that this listing currently generates ten phone calls for you a week…

However, you have no idea that your Google My Business listing is generating ten calls a week, because you have no way of distinguishing between “calls generated from my Google My Business listing” and “calls from everybody else.” All calls just make your main office phone ring, and you’re not counting the number of phone calls…

Now once Yodle signs you up, they’ll create a 222-2222 phone number that forwards calls to your 111-1111 number. Yodle can then “count” the number of times somebody calls that 222-2222 number, and Yodle will faithfully report to you that “your Google My Business listing is now generating ten calls a week.”

You’ll probably be excited about these “ten new calls a week”! But that’s an illusion, because your old listing already generated ten phone calls a week before you signed up with Yodle. You just didn’t know that because you weren’t using a “call forwarding number” to count the number of phone calls you got!

So, it seems to me that Yodle is “taking credit” for the popularity of your existing business listing. Yodle will list these ten calls on your Yodle dashboard, as if to say: “we, the awesome people at Yodle, helped you generate these ten phone calls last week.”

And that seems wrong to me, because all Yodle helped you do is count the number of calls you were already getting.

BTW, if you really want to be able to see how many calls your “Google My Business” listing generates, there’s a way you can do that sensibly.

You can sign up with a speciality call forwarding service (obviously, don’t use the Yodle all-in-one package). Then, have that service create a phone number that forwards to your office line, and then use that phone number on your “Google My Business” listing. That way, you *own* your own phone number.

If you want help setting up your Google My Business listing properly for your practice, schedule some time with me here:

• http://lawleading.com/schedule-a-strategy-session/

Best,
Bob Hiler