I am a fan of WP Google Analytic Events. I use both the (1) free and the (2) Pro version depending on the client site requirements.  With the right class or id tags set, it’s possible to track Phone call links.

Caveat – Some themes create special locations to place a phone number and make it clickable. They sometimes strip out the other code however, which can make it difficult to track things. So beware of theme items custom coded in and be prepared to make child theme edits to get past this problem. It will create a similar challenge if you are using (3)Google Tag Manager to track phone calls, and it will prevent the use of (4)Pretty Links Plugin (free or pro too) to put an actual ‘link’ in there that redirects to a phone number.

 

First time I used WP Google Analytic Events. I had created two restaurant sites for two different Hilton properties. Restaurants sort of got the hand me downs from the hotel they were apart of and so the inhouse Hilton IT didn’t support things. The staff was determined to use an OpenTable widget for their reservations. (I do not recommend this, but they felt it was key to their business at the time.)  So I found a way to make it work…

We needed to track button clicks of the events, and channel that over to a Google Analytics Goal Conversion (average reservation value).

Phone Tracking is Difficult to Track Perfectly without making business trade offs

Phone numbers are tricky, as people often ‘tap’ them, but they can type them in as well. So if it’s a phone number you need to track, you might need to look at a phone service that itself integrates with Google Analytics.

Just finished a year long project with a client that opted for (5)Phone Wagon. (new to me at the time) Seems to work well enough, and the integration couldn’t have been easier.

Are you looking to block telemarketers or Phone spam?

(updated 1-21)
I learned some options that might be able to help in terms of screening spam calls from your phone. I’m sharing my notes on this in case any of this resonates. Might be something for the future.
None of these are a silver bullet that will solve all problems.
  • Install the Hiya app to identify and block calls https://hiya.com/
    • Free version lets you block spam and nuisance numbers in their database, plus specifically block anyone number that slips through – I use this myself, thinking of upgrading
    • paid version identifies the names of numbers calling you ($2.99 / month or $14.99 / year) this can enable you to know if its a real person calling or not.
  • PhoneWagon is a service that allows you to track calls that your website generates – costs $25 per month
    • Has options to setup a simple phone menu.
      • Requiring a caller to push the number 1 can before the call is then connected to your phone can block a lot of robo dialers
  • PhoneWagon Text only service – covered in their monthly plan (see above) – I think they are considering a different service plan at a different rate.
    • Instead of having people call you. It is possible to setup a 2 way texting service
      • This would track new potential clients sourced from a website
      • More importantly, using a different number it would direct people to send you a text and let you reply via text
      • This could help to eliminate calls almost entirely, turning your business into one that is driven by text message
  • Hybrid of Phone/Text
    • It could be possible to setup a system that directs people visiting the site to only see a text option during business hours  and
    • gives them a phone call option during other times that you could set.
    • Setting this up would be more of a WordPress powered solution to display the appropriate link to click (call or text) during the right time frame.

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