Questions
Straight answers to the questions people ask about ads, search and websites, each on its own page.
Because of a default setting. Every new Google Ads campaign starts on Presence or interest, which shows your ads to people anywhere who search for your area. Switch each campaign to Presence under Settings, Locations, Location options.
Read the full answerBecause Google Ads counts what your conversion actions track, not the leads you got. The usual causes are one lead tracked by two actions, lead actions set to count every conversion instead of one, and phone number taps or page views counted as conversions. Find the action behind the extra count, then fix it under Goals, Conversions.
Read the full answerBecause someone turned on call tracking. A script swaps the number showing on your website for visitors who arrived from an ad, so calls trace back to the ad that caused them, and the different number forwards to your real line. Call it from your phone and check it rings. Nothing swaps it until it is installed.
Read the full answerMost often, a change in your own account lets Google bid more per click: a new bid strategy or target, or broader keywords. If nothing changed, more competitors are bidding on the same searches this month. Check Change history first, then Auction insights, and judge both on cost per lead.
Read the full answerBecause your ad showed on searches for things you don't sell, and those searchers tapped your number. Broad match, the default for new keywords, matches related searches, and AI Max, search partners and auto-applied recommendations widen that further. Find the searches in the Search terms report, block them as negative keywords, and narrow general keywords.
Read the full answerNothing is deleted when you pause. Google says a paused campaign stops showing ads and adding costs, and keeps all its settings and history. What a pause costs is the leads you would have had that month. If you only need to spend less, lower the budget, and if people search your name, keep a small brand campaign running.
Read the full answerA local business should set its Google Ads budget from its own numbers. What you will pay to win a job times your close rate is the most a lead can cost. If click prices put a lead under that, leads wanted times cost per lead is the budget. Under 30 leads a month, bid for clicks on one service.
Read the full answerYour business should own its Google Ads account. That means an Admin login on an email the business controls and a payments profile in its name. Whoever runs your campaigns gets Standard access, or a manager account link without ownership. Check under Admin, then Access and security, then Billing settings, and fix any gap before someone leaves.
Read the full answerUsually worth it, once a local business's Google Ads are tracked, profitable and unable to buy more leads. Microsoft's search ads show on Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo and partner sites, a smaller audience that leans toward desktop searchers. Skip it if Google is not yet working, your area has little search volume, or nobody will check it weekly.
Read the full answerOften your Google ad is running, just not for you at that moment: you searched from outside the target area or schedule, the budget was rationed, or the ad lost that auction. Check impressions for the last seven days. If there are some, it is running. If there are none, read the Status column.
Read the full answerWhen impressions drop but spend stays the same, the budget is usually buying fewer, pricier clicks, so a budget-capped campaign shows less often. Otherwise the impressions moved: Search Partners or Display was dropped, or matching narrowed. Compare clicks and average CPC first, then impression share lost to budget versus rank, and judge it on booked jobs.
Read the full answerWhen nobody touched your Google Ads campaigns, something else with access changed them, and Change history usually names it. The usual causes are auto-applied recommendations, Google's automatic upgrades and automated assets, a rule or script, or a person or manager account with access. Read the User column, then undo within 30 days.
Read the full answerGoogle Ads only shows phone calls it can tie to an ad, and only the kinds of calls you set it up to count. Calls from your Business Profile, unpaid search or a number someone already knew never reach it. If calls from your ads are missing, fix the setup. If the rest are missing, that is expected.
Read the full answerBecause they divide by different things and credit conversions differently. Google Ads divides conversions by ad clicks, dates them by the click and credits the ad. Analytics divides by sessions or users, dates them by when they happened and can credit another channel. Compare conversion counts, not rates, and bid on the Google Ads count.
Read the full answerYes, bid on your own business name in Google Ads if competitors, directories or lead sellers show ads on it, your name is shared or generic, or you need the ad's offers, hours and call button. If nobody else shows up, test it first: some of those clicks would reach you free through your listing and Business Profile.
Read the full answerGoogle Ads is not tracking all your leads because it only counts leads it can tie to your ads, so leads from anywhere else never show. Leads from ads go missing when the tag misses a finished form, the click ID is lost, or a cookie banner blocks the tag. Test one form fill, then check each.
Read the full answerNo, not natively. As of October 2026, none of Typeform's integrations hands a respondent's email or phone to the Google tag, and Typeform staff confirmed in January 2026 there is no built-in setup. Its Google Tag Manager integration, on the Business plan, counts submissions. For enhanced conversions, send each lead to Google Ads with its click ID.
Read the full answerNo. As of October 2026, Jotform documents no Google Ads integration and no setting that hands a lead's email or phone to the Google tag, on any plan. Enhanced conversions still works two ways: redirect to a thank-you page on your own site that receives the answers by HTTP POST, or import leads with their click ID.
Read the full answerNo, not on its own. Google Forms documents no way to add a Google tag, Tag Manager or a redirect to your own thank-you page, and the form runs on docs.google.com. It can still feed Google Ads: save the ad's click ID in a prefilled question, send responses to Google Sheets, and import them as conversions.
Read the full answerYes, for new Wix Forms only, and not with a switch. As of October 2026, Wix documents two routes that send the email and phone: a code snippet in Custom Code or a Google Tag Manager tag. Both need a Premium plan and a connected domain. Wix's no-code Event Manager documents a standard conversion, not enhanced data.
Read the full answerYes. As of October 2026, HubSpot's ads tool sends Google Ads enhanced conversions from HubSpot form submissions and from lifecycle stage changes, on Marketing Hub Starter or higher. HubSpot hashes the email and other contact fields itself. It fails quietly when the ad account is linked through a manager account or a form was never chosen as an event.
Read the full answerYes, but your own Google tag cannot track an embedded form by itself. A form in an iframe or on a form company's website runs on a separate site, so the tag never sees the submit. Track it through the builder's Google Ads or Tag Manager connection, a thank-you page on your site, or a click ID import.
Read the full answerSave the Google Ads click ID in a hidden form field named gclid, filled by a script on every page that stores the ID when a visitor lands. Prefill from the page address alone loses it once someone browses to another page. Upload each booked lead within the conversion window: 30 days by default, 90 at most.
Read the full answerBecause your business name is the one search where your website is plainly the most relevant answer. For every other search, like "water heater repair Mesa", Google ranks the page that best answers it, and if nothing on your site is about that job, there is nothing to rank. Build a page for each search you want.
Read the full answerA profile most often drops out of the map results because it was suspended or lost verification, Google changed a detail on it, Google treats it as a duplicate, or you searched from a place your customers don't. Check its status, then compare Views in its Performance report with last month. Steady views usually mean customers are still finding you.
Read the full answerTraffic usually falls after a relaunch because old page addresses were not redirected, pages that brought calls were cut, or the new site still blocks Google with a leftover noindex or robots.txt rule. A short dip while Google recrawls is normal. Confirm the drop in Search Console first, since a missing analytics tag can fake one.
Read the full answerLet each engine's search crawler read your site, keep your Business Profile and Bing Places listing complete, and publish pages that answer the questions customers ask. ChatGPT, Copilot, Perplexity and Google's AI answers often search the web before they answer, and then they can only cite businesses that search finds. Nothing guarantees a mention.
Read the full answerTo get more Google reviews within the rules, ask every customer the same way and offer nothing in return. Google removes reviews tied to discounts, gifts, staff or family, and bans asking only happy customers, called "review gating". Since October 2024 the FTC can seek civil penalties for knowing violations, such as fake reviews and rewards tied to praise.
Read the full answerLocal SEO usually shows first signs within weeks and brings calls in months. Google says some changes take effect in a few hours and others take several months. Indexing a new page can take days to weeks, low-competition local searches move next, and busy searches like "plumber" plus your city take longest. Nobody can promise a date.
Read the full answerYour email goes to spam because receiving servers check your domain's DNS records, and after you changed providers they still describe the old setup. Usually SPF names the old provider, DKIM was never turned on at the new one, or another sender, like your website form, fails DMARC. Read one message's header first.
Read the full answerYour business should own all of it. Register the domain in a registrar account the business controls, with the business named as registrant, and keep the top role on hosting, DNS and the site builder. Your developer gets a separate login. For code and content they write, get the copyright assigned to you in a signed document.
Read the full answerWhen a form builder hits its monthly response limit, the form usually closes: visitors see a closed message and their enquiry is never sent. As of October 2026, Typeform makes forms private and Jotform shows "Form over quota". Your ads keep paying for those clicks, so check your cap and this month's count today.
Read the full answerYes, it is safe on a business plan or the API, if staff know what to leave out. ChatGPT Business and Enterprise, Claude Team and Enterprise, and both APIs do not train on customer information by default. Personal Free, Go, Plus, Pro and Max accounts can, unless training is off. Card numbers, Social Security numbers and passwords never go in.
Read the full answerYes. An AI receptionist should tell callers it is an AI in the first sentence of its greeting. Maine requires clear notice when a chatbot, voice included, could pass for a person, and Utah requires an AI to admit it when a consumer clearly asks. Federal robocall rules cover outbound AI calls, so they apply once it calls customers back.
Read the full answer