When a customer in Farmington or Unionville finds your shop on Google, the box with your hours and address has a call button. Make sure the number behind it is one your business owns and answers. One of Google’s rules for that number is that it “must be under the direct control of the business.”
Some companies sell call-tracking numbers. That’s a separate number they give you so they can count your calls. Google’s guidelines don’t say whether a tracking number meets that rule.
What Google’s rules say
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. Its phone rules ask for a number that connects to your own location, or else a website for that location. They ask for a local number instead of a central call center line whenever possible, and a number your business directly controls. They also say: “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 mentions tracking numbers. They don’t say whether a tracking number counts as one that sends callers somewhere other than the business.
There’s a second reason to care whose number it is. In some places, languages and kinds of business, Google may now and then send an automated call, text or WhatsApp message (WhatsApp is a messaging app) to the verified phone number on your listing to confirm your details. Your answers may be used to update the listing. If that number is a tracking line that doesn’t pass texts along, you may never see the message. Where this is offered, what Google collected is under Edit profile > Collected info.
Keeping it yours
Make a number you own and answer your main number. If a tracking line holds that spot now, put your own line back. If you keep paying for tracking, ask the company two questions and get the answers in writing. Does it pass texts and WhatsApp messages on to you? Does the number go with you if you cancel?
Before you pay anyone to count calls, see what Google already shows you under Performance. If your listing is verified, meaning Google has confirmed you run the business, that report can include a Calls number: how many times customers clicked the call button on your listing. That counts clicks, not conversations. Google says not every figure is available to every business, and this one needs a phone number on the listing.
To change the number, sign in to the Google account tied to your listing and search my business on Google. Then:
- Select Edit profile, then Contact.
- Next to “Phone number,” select Edit and enter your number.
- To list more than one number, select Add phone number. Google allows up to two more, mobile or landline but not fax.
- Select Save.
The Standard: Keep a number your business owns and answers as the main number on your Google listing, whichever phone vendor you hire or drop.
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.
This coverage is supported by Farmington Storage, 155 Scott Swamp Road, the only storage facility in Connecticut with Museum air. Your phone number should stay yours, and so can the boxes of old phone bills you’re not ready to toss. 860.777.4001 📦
Jack Beckett has covered Farmington long enough to keep its phone numbers on a sticky note older than most of its websites. He is on his second coffee, and the Mercury is, as ever, right on schedule to be last. ☕
The Farmington Mercury covers the town: Town Council and the land use boards, the police log, the schools, elections, and the businesses in Farmington and Unionville. Our motto is “Always last to breaking news,” and nobody has ever accused us of breaking it. Find us at farmingtonmercury.com and tell a neighbor. 📰